God & Religion: Evolutionary Opiates

Religion may be a evolutionary opiate.There is a theory (hypothesis) that the tendency to have magical beliefs may be an evolutionary niche that played a role in our evolutionary survival. Magical thinking gives people hope in an otherwise apathetic cruel world. It may have helped early human endure and cope with harsh survival hardships and statistically cruel adversities. What believers really seek to find through religion is a sense security, order, purpose. It is the hope that there is an answer to the “why” of their existence (sometimes a miserable one). They want to feel special enough for a deity to concern him/herself with their obviously insignificant lives; Insignificant from the overwhelmingly large perspective of the universe. A person’s life may affect other people, his immediate environment, in very rare occasions mankind and our planet. But outside this picoscopic blue oasis the significance of their lives is nonexistent. The universe carries on unaware of our existence.

The believer’s desire is understandable, even skeptics wonder about these things. Shit! On some level we all seek some kind of validation to our existence. Subconsciously, I delude myself with the idea that I am special. However, I’m just another very curious self-aware human; One of many of our species; not exactly the same as the rest, but not very different. These false ideas help me emotionally tussle with failure, adverse circumstances. I delude myself with the prospect of an incredibly bright successful future to motivate myself, knowing full well many of my fantasies will not come true. I could fall ill and die. I could fall victim to some life altering event. A jagged frozen blue turd can fall off and airplane and land on my throat or I could just fail miserably. There is no destiny, no guarantees. The universe has no bias towards or against me. The only guarantee is that someday I will die.

It is normal for individuals to feel like they are destined to someday enjoy glory, wealth, happiness, success, peace, pleasure, a sense of fulfillment etc. These are delusions in contrast to statistical reality. Most people don’t become wealthy, glorious, and successful. Many die young, poor, under miserable conditions; work their entire lives earning meager livings with little satisfaction. Most don’t become what they dreamed they would grow up to be. Many achieve their goals, but the satisfaction is short lived or not as pleasurable as envisioned. Many, who were on the road to glory and success, living dream lives, die before their prime. But if we were to be so blatantly honest, realistic and pessimistic with ourselves I suppose we would all be overdosing on Percocet and Valium. There is plenty to be depressed about. A little Intentional self deception helps us deal with what would otherwise be overwhelming.

A very common example of this conjuration we play with ourselves occurs when a loved one passes away. To try and cope people sometimes say things like “He gone to a better place now”, “we will see her again when Jesus comes”, “I know I’ll see him in heaven” or “She is in heaven smiling down on us”. Yet our emotions defraud us and contradict our statements. We cry and grieve like we will never see them again. Deep down we are well aware death is an end and the likelihood of ever enjoying that person’s company again is nil. This is the reason why many religions, if not all, concern themselves with an afterlife. They help believers cope with the prospect of their own mortality.

So I wonder if religion is an expression of a somewhat necessary “brain generated delusion” that evolution has provided the human species. None the less, this particular expression of an otherwise useful evolutionary niche, is past its prime in many ways, and is retarding humanities progress.

Indoctrinated into Ignorance. How Good People are swindled into belief.

Last week I posted a series of bible verses that would make any person without religious bias come to the conclusion that Christian god is evil, apathetic to human suffering, cruel, and far from moral and just. These verses should have made the moderate believers at least ponder the possibility that there is a problem with the accuracy of their belief. The passages were blatant and as obvious as I could find, with very little, if any, room for any other logical conclusion than “God is not good”. In these passages God very clearly endorsed slavery, the selling of daughters as sex slaves, and the murder of women, infants, and rape victims.

Not to my surprise, but not what you would expect from people who pride themselves in being just and moral, I received responses attempting excusing this gods behavior and forcefully circumventing the little thought needed to come to a rational conclusion. What is amazing is that, if I were to have told them that Sadaam Hussein made these statements they would have had him unearthed, revived and hung him again. But since their god made these statements, Killing babies and making your daughters into sex slaves was perfectly acceptable.

My point here is that I believe, based on my own religious experience as a reverends son, most believers are first taught what to think of the bible and God before they even read it. They have already been convinced of a conclusion or told what to think of the bible as they read the bible. They are told that God is always good and just, and that God is always right. When something in the bible is incongruent with this or reality, they will be told to refer to the previous assumption, pray to God for revelation, it is a mystery that only god knows, not to attempt rationalize Gods infinite wisdom just have faith and other similar bullshit. They are told how to interpret the bible as if it is not written in plain English. You are told what to think versus reading the bible without bias and arriving at your own conclusion. They totally subvert opportunity for rational thought and indoctrinate members into a delusional mindset. Questioning of God’s judgment is a sin and the virtue of impervious faith is most pleasing to God. No matter how much you are suffering or how shitty your existence is, you are told God cares about you, and if you continue serve him, he will compensate you after you die. You are told if you don’t serve him, when you die, God will make you suffer for eternity and make them wish you were really dead. When the believer dies after a life of intellectual slavery, it is too late, he has been swindled out of money, time and a sane rational lifestyle.

Why God is a Delusion. The basics.

This is not an end all to the question of Gods existence. This is more like a conversation starter. I will not provide any evidence that God doesn’t exist, this is as impossible as providing evidence of his existence. You can only prove existence, not the lack of.

The right question to ask when analyzing any claim is “why should I or anyone believe?”. It is not your job to refute every claim made. The burden of proof lies with the person making the claim. A claim is not “true until proven false”. This is backwards. A claim is only deemed true when proven true. How could we otherwise determine truth?

The premise of my argument is that truth can only be verified by evidence. If there is no evidence to support a claim then there is no reason to believe it is true. Then the argument digresses into what constitutes evidence. What quality and quantity of evidence is sufficient to reasonably justify belief? That depends on the claim made. Is it ordinary or extraordinary in nature.
If you claim to own a dog, it would it is reasonable for me to take your word as true because it is a fairly ordinary claim and of little importance or ramifications. Dogs exist and plenty of people own them. Dogs are very easy to obtain.

However, if you claim that you own a dog that poops 24k gold pretzels on command, I may try to reserve judgment on your character or your mental health, but I would surely require a significant amount of evidence of great quality prior to believing you. I would want to see it with my two eyes, repeated over many times. I would want scientist to investigate and determine if the dog itself is producing the gold or are you abusing your dog by placing gold pretzels in its rectum. I would want scientist to explain how exactly the dog is able to defecate gold. As well as determining how in the world does he make it into the shape of a pretzel? A gold limacon evacuating canine would have great scientific ramifications and is very extraordinary in nature. This is practically unbelievable from the perspective of the human experience.

If we were to objectively judge the claim that “God exists and is the cause of all existence” by the same standards that we judged the claim of a gold pretzel defecating dog, we will likely come to the conclusion that there is more evidence for a the gold defecating dog than for God’s existence; Evidence for the existence of dogs, feces, pretzels, pretzel shaped poop and gold all exist. Evidence for god however… Nil. Nol. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nashingu.

If there is no evidence of god’s existence then the universe being his creation is equally unsubstantiated. This is why faith is the corner stone of many religions. For example, Christian dogma emphasizes faith that can move mountains. As if saying’” if you believe strong enough it will come true”. It innately disregards the importance of evidence as a means of justifying belief because its claim is not substantiated by evidence.
Because most of earth’s human population believe in deities, the claim that god exists seems ordinary. It gives the illusion that this belief is substantiated because it is perceived to be common knowledge. Therefore, the claim is treated as ordinary despite being an extraordinary one. Not much evidence, if any, is requested by people before the claim is accepted as truth. Religious belief circumvents the standard by which people normally evaluate claims.

Now as far as my general statement, “God is a delusion” refers to beliefs correlated with religion, that are unsubstantiated and or contradicted by well establish knowledge. The most common example is the bibles 7 day creation myth. It claims that all life on earth, as well as earth in its current form, was created by a god. Despite the plethora of evidence supporting scientific explanations for the evolution of earth and life (physical, geological, paleontological and biological), Christian creationist insist the creation myth is truth. If you notice most arguments against evolution merely attempt to discredit it but never provide scientific evidence for the creation myth other than quoting the bible. The closest thing to a scientific argument is intelligent design which is a merely a sophisticated version of creationism and is actually antiscientific in nature. This is merely one example of many that abound.

If someone believes a claim despite contradicting evidence it can be said he/she has a delusional belief because it is not only unsubstantiated but contrary to proven truths. People who believe in deities usually do not make habit of challenging claims by evaluating the evidence that supposedly substantiates it, and therefore they are prone to believe falsehoods or delusions.

I encourage you to ask me questions, analyze my statement, and do your own research. Question everything.

God, Morality and Atheism!!

A few days ago I had a discussion with my father. While conversing we came upon the subject of morality. He mentioned that he believed that the majority of people, who are atheist, are so because they don’t want to live morally. I was offended and shocked that my father could make such a thoughtless statement. The statement assumes many fallacies. One, morals are exclusive to Christians and created by God; Two, atheist lack morality; Three, atheism and morals are correlated. I am not attempting to express scorn towards my father; I love and owe him too much to do so. My conversation with my father is only what motivated me to write this blog. The statement my father made is all too common and while I don’t consider my father a bigot, his statement expresses the sentimental prelude to it.

First and foremost, morals do not exist because God dictates them. In fact, it can be concluded by the bible that the Christian God does not abide by the moral codes he is given credit for creating. Thus, it can be inferred that God is not even an example of a moral being. Many of Gods laws and commands are immoral. Now take in mind that this god is supposedly perfect and incapable of committing errors. For example, Slavery, God condones slavery and abuse of slaves:

· When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.  But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.  And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter.  If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.  If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

· When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished.  If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

· Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear.  Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)

· Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed.  If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful.  You should work all the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts.  Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. (1 Timothy 6:1-2 NLT)

· The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it.  “But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly.  Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.” (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)

You can bring the lame duck ancient Asian culture argument, but if God is perfect and is who dictates what is moral, then morality is absolute, transcends culture and is universal. Slavery is immoral but God condones it. God also condones and has ordered the killing innocent children and babies in the Old Testament:

· Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword.  Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes.  Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes.  For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off.  The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows.  They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT)

· “Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, “Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked.  Show no mercy; have no pity!  Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children.  But do not touch anyone with the mark.  Begin your task right here at the Temple.”  So they began by killing the seventy leaders.  “Defile the Temple!” the LORD commanded.  ”Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill!  Go!”  So they went throughout the city and did as they were told.” (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)

· When the people heard the sound of the horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the city from every side and captured it.  They completely destroyed everything in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, donkeys – everything. (Joshua 6:20-21 NLT)

What moral ground would God stand on to argue against abortion? The answer is none what so ever. This is a devastating blow to the argument that morals are godly. It is obvious that if God is capable of immoral actions he is as morally flawed as a human. Taking your moral queue from a person who apathetically kills innocent children and is an advocate of slavery is at the very least disdainful. So how could being a Christian make you a good person? It doesn’t and quite the opposite can be said.

If Christians follow God’s example and his commands then they are not by default moral people. Morality is not only, not exclusive to Christianity, it is not derived from God. Being a Christian can only make you as virtuously as the god you adore. The Christian god not only lacks ethical virtue but can be said to be wicked.

That being said, Atheists are as capable of being as moral as any righteous person. Statistically Atheist can be said to be more moral that the religious. In general, people are usually arrested and convicted of violating moral codes (rape, abuse, murder, stealing, fraud, .etc). A 1997 study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons showed that 0.21% of the prison population was atheist. This in is in contrast to 35% Protestant, 39% Catholic, and 7% Muslim. Now, take in mind that according to the 2001 ARIS study by The City University of New York, the non- religious make up 14.1% of the U.S. population, while Protestants make up 52%, Catholics 24.5%, and Muslims 0.5%.

If morality was in any way correlated with religious beliefs the statistics above would at least hint to a relationship. However, the numbers spit in the face of the religious mans moral ego. Godlessness does not produce wicked people and, statistically speaking, the non-religious are virtuous. However, if righteousness is not correlated with religious views, then atheists cannot claim ownership either. This brings me to argue against the next fallacy.

Atheism is in no way correlated with any particular preconceived moral perspective. Atheism is the lack of belief in gods. An Atheist has found no reason or evidence that compels him/her to believe in the existence of deities. That is all there is to say about atheism. Any other attribute forcefully adhered into the definition of what an Atheist is, is mere bigotry or flattery. Atheist can be just as ignorant as some Christians (though studies have correlated mediocre levels of education and lower I.Q.’s to the likelihood of religious belief) and just as moral or immoral.

So what are morals and where are they derived from? Morals are rules of conduct that groups of people agree to live by for the general well being of the individuals that coexist in the group. It has been though deep thought (philosophy) and experience that humans have developed ethical codes of conduct. However, since religion and culture have been inseparable throughout human history and since deities were ignorantly attributed with controlling and creating everything in the universe, morality and piety were confused as one. This has created the illusion that religious belief and morality are related.

The truth is the origin of morality in social creatures is based on the ability to empathize with other individuals. This is the ability to put oneself in another’s place and imagine how an action or event affects him/her. The result of this thought process is ethical reciprocity, better known as the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”. You treat others as you wish to be treated in hopes that others in your group reciprocate your behavior. If everyone in the group reciprocates each other’s ethical behavior then the group increases its chances of living pleasantly. Ethical reciprocity also strengthens the group’s cohesiveness and cooperation with one another allowing it to function efficiently as a unit. Morals are a convenience, and from an evolutionary perspective a survival niche.

However, morals are observed when they benefit our survival or at the very least do not jeopardize it. The following metaphoric dilemma was given by ecologist Garrett Hardin. Suppose there is a life boat, in the middle of the ocean, with 50 people on board, with room for 10 more souls but only enough food and water for 50. There are hundreds of swimmers surrounding the boat pleading to be rescued. If you take on ten more souls everyone will die, and no one stand a chance of surviving. What is the ethical thing to do?

In this circumstance, empathetic behavior will put everyone’s survival at risk. The normal moral standard shares the same fate as the struggling swimmers in this scenario, because no one benefits from attempting to save swimmers. My point here is that morals are circumstantial. Morality has to be judged in context with the situation, keeping in mind all that are affected, and the severity and scope of the suffering or evil done.

In conclusion, morals are arbitrary ethical codes of conduct determined by human discretion, and observed by people in societies for its beneficial qualities. There is no correlation to gods or piety, especially when the god worshiped has a poor sense of what is ethical. Statistically, religion and morality are not in any way related. Atheism by definition indicates no moral perspective. Therefore saying that “an atheist chooses not to believe in gods in order to live immorally” is akin to saying “baseball players choose not to be football players in order to kill kittens”. It is absurdly illogical and false.