The greater the degree of bullshit, the greater the threat required
Offline I have come to realize that there is a relationship between the degree of bullshit of a religion, and the severity of the threat required to induce acceptance of said religion. For instance, Christianity's level of bullshit is off of the scale:
- the concept of omnipotence is a paradox
- the concept of the trinity makes absolutely no sense
- the notion that this vast universe was created just for humans is ludicrous
- the Bible is full of many other absurdities, such as the talking snake, Jonah being devoured by a whale, and so forth
Notice that Christianity uses the greatest threat imaginable: eternal suffering for non-belief (whether said non-belief is disbelief, skepticism, or simple ignorance, as in the case of peoples fortunate enough not to have been exposed to Christinsanity).
On the other hand, the degree of bullshit with Hinduism is moderate. This religion teaches the existence of the supernatural, in particular, a pantheon of deities, though it is largely devoid of the dogma of the Abrahamic religions. In Hinduism, the threat is also relatively mild in comparison to that of Christianity: reincarnation as a lower life form.
I maintain that if Christianity threatened mere non-existence for non-belief, rather than eternal suffering (in other words, a heaven versus nothingness paradigm, rather than the heaven versus hell paradigm), that it would have become extinct centuries ago.
Many Christians admit that they cling to that religion due to a fear of hell, so we should definitely focus on this in our activism. For one thing, we should point out to these individuals that it is blatantly obvious that the threat of hell is emotional blackmail necessary to force the masses to believe in a massive degree of bullshit.
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This is probably one of my biggest reasons for disbelieving. What kind of "loving, forgiving" God would punish people who have never had the chance to even hear about Him with not just a slap on the wrist but ETERNAL DAMNATION AND TORTURE. Talk about mixed messages...
In my head, too. That the bigger the porky, the more ferocious the threat must be to make it stick. Maybe there's a proportionate scale to which this thinking applies.
Why does a religion with a good reason for belief depend on a threat?
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
I've noticed a lot of ex-believers that quit believing in hell before they quit believing in god, myself included.
Which would make sense I suppose. Remove the fear of punishment and you remove the last reason to believe. Logically its rather easy to dismiss the god of the bible. The emotional reaction of fear of hell could keep you clinging to illogical beliefs for a while longer.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
OK, I had my change happen in a different order than not accepting hell first. When I was a theist, I never really had a thought that I was going to end up there. After all, I was doing all the right things, so why worry about that?
For me, it was more about rejecting the things that simply did not make sense. For example, I was raised in a proper public school. Science works and if being a theist means that I have to swallow the anti-science crap then I just can't be there.
Skipping ahead a bunch of steps, the last version of theism that I had was a variation on calvinism. I was going to heaven and nothing could change that. I was told that there were even people who were going to heaven regardless of the life they lived. They were called the “carnal christians”. Basically, they had secured entry into heaven and then gone back to a sinful life.
Um, so I can do as I please and still go to heaven?
The pastor in that group had an issue with the fact that I had a girlfriend and stuff might be going on behind closed doors that was not what god wanted me to do. Pardon me but if god has already given me the ultimate get out of jail for free card, then why not get laid? It is not like I can have my membership card revoked.
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What is it with the godly and this business of "thou shalt not hold the person you love naked in your arms".
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
How would you really know what the right things were though?
I was Baptist. According to members of Catholicism and other sects like Church of Christ I was not doing the right things and was going to go to hell.
So I had to logically think out christianity to make sure I didn't go to hell. Ended up realizing it was all bunk.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
" The emotional reaction of fear of hell could keep you clinging to illogical beliefs for a while longer."
Me: This is exactly what happened in my case. It's probably why I remained a believer for years after my excuses (...oops...I mean "apologetics"...) were destroyed. The trouble with that is: now I have to re-learn how to think. It's tougher, and taking longer, than I expected.
Conor
"There is no God higher than truth." -Mahatma Ghandi
islam is the only right religion its jus media spreading hate look up miracles of allah learn islam love it allah akbar i hate freaking haters