This page:[1]
Three reasons to reject God: 1. As God has historically served as a force for evil and it seems that any Demon could very easily trick us into thinking it is God we must reject all feelings and thoughts from God for fear of us being deluded. 2. The major monotheistic religions hold that idolatry is a serious sin so it is safer to accept no god rather than risk accepting the incorrect one. 3. The goal of reaching heaven is dubious as we know very little about what heaven is really like. In conclusion: Atheism is safer than theism and for everyone's safety it is urgent we all reject theism.
Since then, most notably during the Dark Ages, the Churches of Christ has committed a massive stream of atrocities out of proportion to its size; but I need not go into too many details on this page. How can it be that those in the Church have caused such pain and misery, over such a long time?
Islam and Christianity both idolize a "just" and "forgiving" God, but simultaneously have been the two biggest oppressors of the Human spirit... something about the influence of this 'God' is not entirely wholesome. Whilst I believe that all large institutions breed corruption, there is something distinctly wrong with large scale organized religion.
Power Of Belief
I think the belief in an "perfectly good" or "perfectly just" God leads people to believe that they can, personally, become in touch with this. It seems that people can justify anything if they believe in a God, by saying that they personally know that God (the all-mighty) has declared it is right.
When people with similar aims and beliefs become organized and consolidate power it can all go wrong, a self-fuelled delusion of increasingly headstrong followers can go astray all to easily, causing evil in the name of their God.
Loss of doubt
As you lose doubt in your own beliefs, as you become sure that you know what God is about, you become susceptible to a slippery slope of decline, where God becomes more important than logic or morality. "If God says it's right, then it must be!".
A Demon pretending to be God
The most powerful "spirit" is going to have most power, and convince most people that it is "good" and to be worshipped. The most-powerful spirit can inspire the writing of the Bible, claim the highest qualities of itself, present itself as an angel of light[2].
It can make us feel that it is right. But unless you resist this, and keep your standards very high, you may be committing a grave mistake to trust this feeling, spirit and concept. Reason and logic have to be stronger, our morals standards need to be high, and not to rely on any such influence or spirit, because we do know not if such beings are good natured or not[2].
Faith may be our weakest point, leading us (as it has in history) to commit evil, and leading us from truth. God could merely be a demon, a jinn, one of Scientologists aliens, a powerful spirit or who knows what, simply deceiving us. It can make it feel right -- as many people before have felt it is right to kill and do evil in the name of God.
Rejection on the grounds of safety
Reason has to be the foremost understanding of reality and gods, without it faith is stupidity. We should fear any "holy" or "good" spirit in case they are deceiving us with imagery of "goodness" for their own end.
I simply cannot tell which of all the world's religions, gods, spirits and demons are true. I cannot tell the difference between a very powerful evil spirit, and a good one, as both would present themselves to me as "pleasing" options. For our own safety we must urgently reject all of them.
Pascal's Wager
“The great French mathematician Blaise Pascal reckoned that [...] you'd better believe in God, because if you are right you stand to gain eternal bliss and if you are wrong it won't make any difference anyway. On the other hand, if you don't believe in God and you turn out to be wrong you get eternal damnation, whereas if you are right it makes no difference. On the face of it the decision is a no-brainer. Believe in God.There is something distinctly odd about the argument, however. Believing is not something you can decide to do as a matter of policy. [...] I can decide to go to church and I can decide to recite the Nicene Creed, and I can decide to swear on a stack of bibles that I believe every word inside them. But none of that can make me actually believe it if I don't. Pascal's wager could only ever be an argument for feigning belief in God. And the God that you claim to believe in had better not be of the omniscient kind or he'd see through the deception.”
"The God Delusion" by Prof. Richard Dawkins, p103-105
I argue here that the best response to Pascal's Wager is to consider the dangers of accepting the wrong religoin. Read on!
Which religion is right?
I have heard many compelling arguments from Muslims and Christians that unless I accept Muhammed as God's final and most true prophet, or Jesus as the Son of God, then I will not be allowed to enter heaven. I simply don't want to commit to something when there are so many options from so many religions, whilst I am unsure! If it is not true that religion is pointless then it is essential we choose the correct set of beliefs about God. In monotheistic religions worshipping a false God is held to be worse than worshipping none at all3: So agnosticism is best.
We do not know which religion is correct:4
"Some have said that choosing to reject Jesus Christ is a moral decision, therefore non-Christians have made a moral choice that is judgeable by God. However I disagree that it is a moral choice. I choose to reject Jesus because I am an atheist, and cannot believe that Jesus is the son of God or that he can forgive sins. The following text is from a usenet post to uk.religion.christian made on 2002 Sep 16 during a debate:I think rejecting "2+2=5" is not a moral choice. Even though it may be illogical, there is no argument that being illogical is immoral. But that doesn't seem like an argument that will get either of us anywhere... what I wanted to say is: I am talking of people (such as myself) where there is not evidence to accept the right religion. I honestly do not know which religion holds most merit or truth. There are many contradictory beliefs in religions. There are (this must be obvious) people who are presented with wrong evidence. For example a person who is cleverer than me in a particular field (say: Physics) could convince me that something is true in physics. I would only have the information I'd gathered to judge what is true or not. There are many people who do not have enough knowledge to know which religion is true. I am one of those people. My argument is that God would not discriminate against us according to our choices made on such limited knowledge.
I haven't found a logical or experience-based evidence that God exists. If I found that I felt God exists, then I would still be a very long way from assuming that Christianity, Islam or Judaism is a "correct" religion! All of these religions present very compelling evidence all based on a large amount of both historical research and empirical evidence: but they also present contradictory accounts of the truth. To "choose" one is impossible until even any of them can be discounted, let alone 2 of 3 of them!
Even once a particular type of monotheism is chosen (I've limited the choices to monotheistic religions for now) there are frequently so many divisions and contradictory factions within these blanket terms that the path to the "right" set of beliefs is a long way from being settled even when a particular religion is chosen). It seems like it's a very long and twisted path, and without being brought up with any religion, I'm starting right at the very beginning!
This is what I mean by "lack of knowledge to choose the right religion". In the wake of an immense amount of "unknowns" about life I try to make moral, good decisions that benefit the people around me, my community, the world community and myself. Because although I don't have enough theological knowledge to choose which set of dogmas I should worship, it still feels good to try to do what is right. And I wish, that if God exists, he is judging me by my moral choices and not by my knowledge of religion."
"Religion is pointless" by Vexen Crabtree 2002 Sep 16
Conclusion: Caution
I think the best way to be sure is to remain impartial during your life, to commit to no religion, to worship no gods, demons or idols. Clarity of thought and developing our own intellect and studying god rationally is the only safe approach.
I suspect that it is logically impossible for heaven to exist and for God to be moral. Without being entirely sure, how can you accept to move into a being's personal dimension? You do not know in advance what is going to happen to you.
You do not know if you will have free will, a conscience, a personality. There is no suffering in heaven (it is assumed), no unhappiness... so the loved ones you lost in your life and those who you care about, you will continue to care but you wont be able to feel unhappy about what happens to them! It seems inhumane to have our negative emotions taken away, it seems fascist.
I do not know that I want an eternity in a blissful state. I prefer life, as it is now, with moral choices, dilemmas, struggles and self development. I never want to reach my eschatological self.
Abstain
The only safe option is to abstain from heaven. To not choose to go there but also, not to choose anything else either. Don't choose heaven or Hell, as we do not know what is in store for us. Hopefully the result of abstinence is to remain in Limbo, to keep your feelings, doubts and flawed character exactly as they are.
"Life is the one great indulgence; death the one great abstinence. To a person who is satisfied with his earthly existence, life is like a party; and no one likes to leave a good party. By the same token, if a person is enjoying himself here on Earth he will not so readily give up this life for the promise of an afterlife about which he knows nothing."Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible, Book of Lucifer 10: "Life after Death through fulfilment of the ego"
Without a doubt we must reject any thoughts or feelings that we feel come from an external cosmic god whether they "feel" good or not.
If God is just, moral or understanding it will forgive us our cautiousness! If God is not just, moral or understanding then we hardly want to share heaven with it for all eternity. Either way: Atheism is safest by far.
"...a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice, and invented hell--mouths mercy, and invented hell--mouths Golden Rules and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people, and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honourably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites his poor abused slave to worship him!"Mark Twain
Dawkins, Prof. Richard
"The God Delusion" (2006 hardback). Published by Bantam Press, Transworld Publishers, Uxbridge Road, London, UK.
LaVey, Anton
"The Satanic Bible" (1969). Avon Books Inc, New York, USA. [More about Anton LaVey].
Islam:
"Unbelievers are those that say: 'God is the Messiah, the son of Mary.' For the Messiah himself said: 'Children of Israel, serve God, my Lord and your Lord.' He that worships other deities besides God, God will deny him Paradise, and the Fire shall be his home. None shall help the evil-doers.^Unbelievers are those that say: 'God is one of three.' There is but one God. If they do not desist from so saying, those of them that disbelieve shall be sternly punished."
Qu'ran (Penguin translation) Surah 5 (The Table):72-74
By Vexen Crabtree 2002 Jan 26