Truth About Religion

A friend from NYCAtheists gave me the links to these vids that explore in great detail the earlier myths that lie behind the myth of Jesus (thanx Rad):

I knew some of it earlier but never with the details given here. A fascinating look at what morphed into Christianity (it really should be called the Truth About Christianity).

The Prophecy of the Popes

According to legend, St Malachy O Morgair, a 12th‑century bishop of Armagh in Ireland, had the gift of sight and created a list of 112 popes to come. Since it was never mentioned before it appeared in 1590, there are those who say it's a 16th-century forgery; whatever the provenance, it appears that the prophecies could be valid. The list of popes covers over four centuries and we are now down to the penultimate pope described as Gloria Olivae, "the glory of the olive", and, as the olive is a symbol of the Benedictines, it fits Pope Benedict. If the prophecies hold true, the last pope will be Petrus Romanus (Peter of Rome). Whether or not the list was written in the 12th or 16th century, it does eerily fit in with what has happened in the history of the church. 


Since I first read about it many years ago I couldn't see how there could only be a few more popes as the Catholic Church seemed to be such a power in the world. However, things have changed; with all the scandals concerning the abuse of children and women by priests still going on, and the cover up by their superiors, who often disregard civil law under orders from the Vatican, which is coming to light in Ireland and elsewhere, I think that, along with the decreasing number of priests, all these factors may bring about an end to the Catholic church as we now know it. It may transform itself and do away with the papacy all together to be ruled by a council of cardinals or something...or the Prophecy of the Popes is wrong and there will be many more popes after the next one but wouldn't it be impressive if St Malachy, or whoever actually wrote it so long ago, was right?

Santa Claus - the Gateway Drug

It's 5 months until Christmas but I wanted to get this out now: I think one of the reasons that Bill O'Reilly and the other fundies have taken this so-called "war on Christmas" so much to heart is that teaching kids to believe in Santa Claus makes it easier for them to then believe in their god. I mean here we have two white, bearded guys who supposedly know when we are good or bad and reward us for being good and punish us (at least by not leaving presents or leaving coal in the stockings) for being bad. With Santa the reward is immediate with lots of presents at Christmastime while children have to take it more on faith that if they're good they'll go to heaven but the idea has been planted for further cultivation. Another reason for their insistence that Christmas not be interfered with is that our capitalist economy is geared to big spending at this time of year. The news goes on and on about whether we are spending more or less than previous years as it allegedly demonstrates how robust our economy is but it really is less important than we are led to believe. Yes stores want to sell lots of stuff to us during the season but, in order to do that, they have to hire more people and spend more for wages, security, insurance etc. and then the day after Christmas the returns start coming in. We seem to be worshiping Mammon at this time of year with all the buy, buy, buy, spend, spend, spend rather then observing the birth of a man who cared about the poor and the outcasts. Maybe the fundamentalists should try to get people to actually adhere to what was in the NT...see how far they'd get with that! Do we really need all this craziness? In fact this so-called war is bogus for reasons O'Reilly and company don't want us to think about as: 1. Nowhere in the New Testament is the date of the birth of Jesus mentioned; in fact in Luke it says the shepherds were watching their flocks by night which happens in the lambing season which is in the springtime. 2. In the early years of Christianity there was a rival religion - that of Mithras, son of the Persian sun god who was born on December 25th of a virgin, in a cave (which was often used as a stable in those days) and visited by magi...sound familiar? 3. December 25th was also the date of the Saturnalia, a major holiday way back then when good times were had by the Romans and others. 4. In 1582 there was a switchover from the Julian calendar to the current Gregorian which threw things off by 10 days which is why some churches celebrate Xmas in January 5. Those most pious of Christians, the Puritans, knowing how spurious it all was, actually made it against the law to celebrate Christmas. 6. Things like St. Nick/Santa Claus, mistletoe and Christmas trees have no basis in the New Testament. The latter two are remnants of pagan worship. We look in askance at any adults who still believe in Santa Claus, an imaginary being who rewards us for good behavior yet we don't do the same with adults who still believe in another imaginary being.

Carl Sagan, Sage

I'm loving the late Carl Sagan more and more; take a look at this:

Forget patriotism; become a matriot, a protector of our Mother Earth...after all it's the only planet we have.

We're in the Universe and the Universe is in Us.

Since the passing of Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson has become the spokesman for that view of the cosmos and our place within it: We are all connected to each other biologically, to the Earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically...We are part of the universe; we're in the universe and the universe is in us. Lovely.

One More

So True

The Big Religion Chart

Came across this fascinating chart of the Earth's major religions. There are apparently over 40* of them!!! I never realized there were that many that are considered major; there are even a few I've never heard of. I now wonder how many minor ones there currently are. Going back to an earlier post, let's teach the creation myths of all of them in school and we will see the truth of Robert Heinlein's saying that One man's theology is another man's belly laugh. Perhaps it will open the eyes of those brainwashed by their parents, church and communities that there are many so-called truths out there, all unverifiable, and because of this, not one is more valid than another.


*It does include atheism which atheists will deny is a religion. 

Are We Predisposed to Believe in Gods and the Afterlife?

The result of a three year international study finds that humans appear to have natural tendencies to believe in gods and an afterlife. One of the researchers said that the project did not set out to prove god or gods exist. Just because we find it easier to think in a particular way does not mean that it is true in fact. Finally part of the conclusion of the study is that both theology and atheism are reasoned responses to what is a basic impulse of the human mind.


The study could also be read as demonstrating that as countries develop economically and more people live in urban environments feeling more secure, atheism increases. As I currently feel very insecure is that why I still have remnants of belief? Is my belief that there might be something beyond us all in my head, a result of my insecurity and/or a survival trait from long ago so that we would be bound by religious ties and therefore be more likely to cooperate? Is there something beyond us or are the true atheists correct that there is nothing beyond us and when we die there is only oblivion? We probably will never know this side of the grave. I've come to the conclusion that, since we can never know for certain who is correct, all we can do is to try to live moral lives, caring for each other (as many religions posit) and not kill and torture each other for beliefs that are, by their very nature, unverifiable.

Symphony of Science

This is my day to find all sorts of vids out there that compliment my quest including this one:

This and many others can be found at the Symphony of Science website. Go explore.

Science Saved My Soul

Came across this vid which sort of echoes what I'm going for and does it with a lovely British accent (why do things sound so much better that way?):

A Moral God??

As I wrote earlier, I am now a member of the NYCAtheists and in their current newsletter there is this quote by MarieAlena Castle: I have great success by telling people I'd be happy to believe in god if I could find one that is up to my moral standards. As jaws drop, I explain that if I were god, I would never allow all this suffering--"and neither would you!" I go on to tell them how decent they are and wonder why they worship a god that's not as nice as they are. Works every time. One of the myriad reasons I lost faith (though I might not have had any to begin with) was the unjustness of the Biblical god. He forces Abraham to kill his son though he lets the poor guy off the hook just in time, he wreaks havoc in the life of Job and his family for what is little more than a bet, punishes billions of innocent women with pain in childbirth because of one woman's disobedience and he lets countless injustices go unpunished eg the Levite in Judges who hands over his concubine to be gang-raped to death. When all the controversies about the Ten Commandments arose I looked them over. The one that bothered me the most was: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's. Now if you stole his house or ox you'd be breaking the "thou shalt not steal" commandment or if you killed him for his belongings you'd be breaking the "thou shalt not kill" commandment. In fact coveting is sort of the basis of life in America, that is keeping up with the Joneses; all ads are geared to making you covet stuff that your neighbor might own. Since it forbids thought, not action, it is basically a useless commandment. The commandments were supposedly given to Moses by god after he and his fellow Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt. Now wouldn't a "thou shalt not enslave others" commandment be a far more just commandment? It would have placed Israelites on the moral high ground as the people who, remembering the misery of their own enslavement, didn't enslave others and would've spared untold millions the misery and death caused by slavery? But nooo we get "thou shalt not covet" :( Another injustice stemming from the way fundamentalists see things, is that everyone who doesn't know Jesus is condemned to hell no matter how decent they were. This includes everyone who lived and died before his birth. Now who is to blame for their ignorance? Why god is, as he didn't have Jesus come to Earth in the beginning. To make things fair, Adam and Eve should've given birth to Cain, Abel, Seth and Jesus. So god is responsible for sending all those innocent people to hell for something that is his fault as is his failure to connect the Old World with the New thereby condemning all those innocent Native Americans born before 1492 to hell for not knowing Jesus but then how could they? How just a god is this? Ms Castle has it right - not one of our gods* lives up to the moral standards we now strive for especially the Biblical one. *I'm not about to go into all of the religions of the world but from the amount I've read it holds true for them too.