Religion is Ridiculous

There must have been a point in history already at which there was no religious belief. And those beliefs developed anyway.

Religion is the development of the opportunistic taking advantage of the confusions of the feeble minded.

In Moses’s case, it may have been a “noble lie”. In Saul of Tarsus’ case, it was pure and simple opportunism: he saw the wind was blowing away from the Romans and towards this Jesus guy (whom he’d never met, Road to Damascus vision my ass. And Peter resented and distrusted Paul. Not that it matters, I guess, but 99% of fundamentalist Christianity is based on the writings of Paul and Elijah rather than on, you know the gospels, which aren’t nearly as bad.)

Tynan, religion exists for a reason. If you wish to live a “godless” and vegetarian life, good for you. Let me know how that works out for you, doing things you were not designed to do.

I agree, religion is ridiculous.

But being agnostic requires as much of a leap of faith as being religious.

Not believing in a god requires as much faith as believing in one.

How do we know one way or the other? We don’t.

Both view points require faith.

You don’t understand basic logic if you think being an Athiest requires so much more faith than being an Agnostic.

Tynan,

Been reading since day 1. Simple piece of advice: Stick to what you’re good at. This is not it. Why go on an ironically, “ridiculous,” diatribe about something you DON’T believe. No one cares what you don’t believe. People do care about what you do believe, (and the reasons why, and how you go about applying that to your life). Those posts bring value to the readers. This post brings NEGATIVE value. Not only are you not bringing anything of value, or utility to the readers, but you are more than likely alienating a sub-section of your reader base. I am not religious, but as I am sure you have encountered (and probably why you are writing this) is that religious people are stubborn. You attack their beliefs, you are attacking them. Not only is it a practice in futility, but even if it was a reasonable topic of debate on a forum such as yours (which it is not, historically speaking), you’ve gone about it in precisely the wrong way, the exact mindset which has alienated you from religion (ie. the whole “100% confident, ‘I am right, you are wrong’” persona).

More interesting experiences and stories, less antagonizing rants. I am not personally offended, but I read through that and it was one of the few times I read one of your posts and thought, “that was a waste of my time.” Tynan, You have the unique power to inspire, and this is a place people come to to feel good, and start living their life awesome, as in doing things within their rules. So why would you post something so undermining to your core values, as in the theme of your whole blog? A subject such as religion, where you have so much to lose and so little to gain. Are you beginning to run out of interesting things to write about?

have to agree with what vincent said…

Your claims are nothing more than a broken record spouted by atheists through the years. They are about as helpful to an atheistic belief as they are hurtful. I will give you some credit, at least you weren’t naive enough to go and claim that atheism is the belief in no religion. Since the bare bones definition of a religion is a set of beliefs that can influence decisions, and under that definition, atheism is a religion. Nonayobiz is on the right track when they mentioned that it takes faith to believe in atheism, when you are discussing philosophical topics such as the existence of Gods, the meaning of life, etc all require some form of faith because they are all unable to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

(My name is Tynan as well, however I don’t go and say controversial things just for attention. I would rather not drag the name of Tynan through the mud and tarnish the reputation others have built for themselves. Ever heard of the concept that the few ruin it for the many? Think about it man.)

Just because Christianity is bizarre doesn’t mean all religions are. Nor does it mean there is no spiritual realm. In my opinion, Creationism has thrown spiritual philosophy into a tailspin. Darwinism is blatantly lucid to to me, yet I personally still believe there is more to life than the one we’re each living now. :)

Bah politics is a bit of mental/news junk food although. That’s why a lot of successful people like to avoid the stuff.

I totally agree with Scott.
On another account, I’ve been an atheist since I came out of my childhood. From then on I could still believe there was an actual living jesus or maria at one point in time (without the miracles). Until I saw zeitgeist the movie (which you can see online). The first 20 minutes of the movie explain exactly where the corner stones of our religion come from. Very eye opening.

Last but not least I’m really glad I’m living in more religious-free europe. I used to live in the US and I know the difference. Over here religion is way less radical. That might actually be the main reason for me not to move back.

religion should NOT (NEVER EVER) influence politics
it makes me mad

Ty,

This isn’t even logical, it’s just anger.

Religion exists because people who were in positions of authority throughout history have had “mystical” experiences and people believed them.

People today still have those experiences. I have. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out if it was real or I had a temporary psychotic break. Because some aspects of the experiences were psychic and because of what I’ve learned about psychology I now believe those experiences are true.

Apparently mental illness is marked by a remarked self-centeredness. Schizophrenics tend to be paranoid and think that their experience makes them special in a way that isn’t rational- the devil has demanded they curse anyone wearing the color blue that day or the world will end, and no one else can help or understand for example. Mystics come out of their experience with a profound sense of compassion for others, their experience makes them less self-centered and they tend to devote their lives to serving God through serving others, for example.

But I get it. I’m Christian, but if I hadn’t had the experiences I’d had, I’d probably be an agnostic-leaning Jew.

Katy

agree with vincent. Calling someones beliefs ridiculous is never going to end positively. Engage a debate or find common ground but don’t just blindly critcise. There’s enough rant blogs out there

Hey dude, maybe you posted this controversial article in an effort to get responses for seo purposes. I dunno, but you come across ignorant and… dumb. Like an angst filled 16 year old.

Religion is an attempt to find answers to questions that science and rational thought cant explain. If “religion� was taken out of our culture and history books completely, people would always look outside of themselves to answer the bigger questions.

People have “faith� in different things – someone may have faith in the bible in the same way that you have faith in science. Reality is subjective; this is what works for them.

Food for thought – your blog would have a wider appeal if you didn’t draw up such strong boundaries between yourself and other people. Your eccentric personality is what makes your blog fun/interesting. However, you have to realize that not everyone who comes across your blog is going to be an eccentric vegan who doesn’t believe in god, lives in an RV, wears a sparkly cap and is friends with squirrels.

You could get more interest by expressing yourself in a way that doesn’t alienate 80% of your audience. I think this would make your arguments more compelling.

-E

PS – I’m agnostic.

You sir, or correct. It seems like more and more people are finally noticing how stupid religion is.

Hopefully we can keep making progress in that direction.

Honestly Tynan, I loved this post. I don’t think it was alienating or anything like that. If your readers are truly interested in what you have to say then they will read ALL you have to say, not just pick and choose what they want to hear. At least that’s how I feel about it.

I agree, religion is ridiculous. I grew up being southern Baptist and I’ve gone to church pretty much all my life up until I graduated high school. I didn’t go to church when I moved away because I was slowly realizing how political it was, especially the church I went to.

Yes, church provides a place for communities to come together but it is also a huge place for people to show off and engage in status war. My old church was a hot bed for this status crap. It wasn’t about religion or god or any of that. It was about who had what and who had this new house and how much are we overpaying the pastor this year. I hated it. I think the best thing that happened to that church was that it burned down (was is just an old electrical fire or did the Pastor commit arson?) But the church disolved after it burned down which was proof of how these people weren’t here for god. They were only there for their own selfish purposes.

This is one of the main reasons why I’m in limbo with regards to religion now. Also because I took a Rise of Christianity class at UT this last semester which really opened my eyes to a lot of things. It really negated the Bible as a holy book for me. Revelation, for instance, isn’t about the end of the world and Armageddon and all that crap. It was about the 1st revolt against Rome. All the 7 horsemen and 7 trumpets sounding and all that have concrete, real life, connections to Isreal’s first revolt against Rome. Read the book “From Jesus to Christianity” by Michael White if you wanna know more. It was a very interesting class.

I commend you Tynan for writing this post. I’m sure it got a lot of people to think about their views. You may have lost some readers, but I think they were prolly just fair weather fans anyways.

–Allison

P.S. Fix the archive page! There are some old posts I’ve got to read again!

Excellent post Tynan.

I agree 100%.

If you have a solid understanding of evolution and science, you cannot possibly believe that there is a Christian god or any sort of traditional god figure.

And if you don’t understand evolution these days…yes, you are dumb.

Yes! Evolution! exactly. What is so hard to grasp about this concept? They make it in picture book format and everything. This isn’t quantum physics people it’s just baby makin’!

@mike: man up- you don’t believe in hell :)

[Just one more reason you are better than my boyfriend.]

:( this was a rant. come on. give me something amazing to read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if someone starts telling me how much they love Jesus, i just keep quiet. you know i don’t discriminate, if people want to believe in something like that then that’s fine but i think its a case of broken telephone, that bible has been rewritten so many times and translated so many times, any truth that was in there is pretty distorted.

But I would like to believe that there is something more than maggots and dirt after death, would that be nice?

Also after reading many of these books I’ve started to just not care about the after life. Live now, not in the future…the future isn’t real. Not until it’s Now

Friday, September 26, 2008

Sitting in the Houston Airport… Message to Tynan…

Just read your updated blog about religion being ridiculous. I think I would offer the possibility of another adjective. Perhaps divisive, destructive, mean-spirited would fit better. Let’s examine the facts:

(a) EVERYONE is entitled to his or her beliefs; everyone is not entitled to inflict those beliefs on others. I never understood missionaries. As a class they tend to be the most judgmental people I have ever known. How presumptuous is it to assume that your religion is better than another’s, that anyone who does not believe what you believe is a heathen, and that those people need to be converted.
(b) All religions are “man-made� creations. And here is a news flash. The bible is not the infallible word of god. It is a collection of stories written by a bunch of old white guys.
(c) Finally, religion has a ZERO role in politics. Anyone who believes it has forgotten about the provision for the separation of church and state as specified in the Constitution.
(d) Being religious is not defacto good or bad and neither is being an atheist. What is not acceptable is when one attacks another for their beliefs. An atheist calling a religious person ridiculous is just as noxious as an evangelical Christian calling everyone else a heathen.

Tynan, quick question:
Do you believe humanity is getting better, worse, or is the same as it always has been? I think we could agree there are a lot of things wrong with this world, so I’m curious how you explain it and what direction you think it’s going.

Tynan,

There is a big flaw in your thinking here. Every people group in the history of the world has had a huge line of thinking that revolved around magic, supernatural events, religion, etc. You’re assuming that most of the world is stupid and crazy. If you don’t come up with a good explanation for all of these events (and psychosis is not a good explanation due to the vastness of the experience) than you’re just being a bad scientist.

I believe in a higher power because I’ve had a myriad of experiences in my life that can’t be chalked up to any conceivable simple and natural explanation. Why not all people have experiences like this I don’t understand, but you’re basically saying that about a fifth of the population are nuts. Not so.

However, the main problem with casting such simple minded explanation on complex realities like you do here is that people (and I mean no-one) don’t understand how the vast majority of energy, power, and matter operates in the universe. For example, of the energy that is in our immediate environment for perception, that we know exists, between our 5 senses we only directly perceive less than 1% of what’s there.

In addition to having vastly limited perceptual capabilities, of the information that we take in through the senses, we distort the information through the frame of our beliefs, attitudes, and predispositions. To say that it is not possible for a god to exist is to deny our fundamental misunderstanding of reality and to assume that our internal representations match what is actually there, which is, of course – a psychological misnomer.

You should know that if you are really a good pickup artist. I imagine you’ve studied NLP.

“the map is not the territory”

Anyways, the same goes for any religious group trying to say they have ‘proof’ that they have some sort of corner on truth. I just personally get tired of people assuming they’re scientists and teaching truth when they understand as much about the nature of the universe as a cat understands about baking a cake.

dave

p.s. a clarification, my view of the world isn’t better or more true than yours, either, just to say that yours is superior to anyone’s is a leap of logic that comes from unbridled ignorance.

I have to say this one a great blog. I agree with it in all areas except one. I don’t believe that religion should exist at all. I think that it started off as nothing more than a way for human beings to attempt to find and comprehend the answers to questions that we may never know the answers to. Examples: Where did we come from?, Why are we here?, etc.

But some people have used it and manipulated and twisted it up so damn much that it serves to do nothing but control people and put power in the hands of a select few. Churches take in billions of dollars every year, pay no taxes, and always need a little more. As George Carlin said, when it comes to big major league bullshit you have to stand in awe of the all time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. Religion is nothing more than willful slavery. It supports blind submission to authority, it detaches humans from their natural world and each other, it reduces human responsibility to the effect that god controls everything and in turn awful crimes and senseless acts can be justified in the name of divine pursuit.

If religion is going to exist then i think that it should exist privately and most certainly be kept out of schools, and never force fed down peoples’ throats like the way it is here.

Unfortunately i live in Georgia right in the middle of the god damned bible belt. So of course religion is everywhere, children are raised on it, and the way it works down here is like this. Either you go to church and believe in god and jesus and are accepted or you are seen as a horrible person and shunned by society. It doesn’t matter how kind, friendly, and good you are to others. You will NOT be accepted.
However no one will ever say anything to your face. Only behind your back. And no one will ever acknowledge the fact that they are turning their backs on you. They won’t invite you to things, they will find excuses to not hang out with you, all the while “praying” for you.

Just another perfect example of how religion detaches people from their own humanity.
It fucking disgusts me. I think that it should be a strictly personal subject, never brought up in school, and most of all it shouldn’t be a factor that causes you to judge someone. For example, thats just as fucking stupid as not wanting to hang out with someone because they’re black. End of story.

hey, i love your post.
but i just have to ask, you honestly believe we came from rocks and gas colliding in space which then became monkeys and are now us. If there is no point to life, why live at all. And if we came from animals, how do we know what is right and what is wrong and where do we get our conscience from?
I just have to say, if i believe in god, and heaven, and a judgement day but there is none, i lose nothing, i just live a pure life, but if you believe there is no god, no heaven no judgement day, and there is, you lose everything.

Hehehe :) Let’s rename this post:

People Become Ridiculous When They Talk About Religion.

Now that’s much more accurate, in my book.

Some of these comments are just so funny. Especially the ones that claim being an Atheist requires as much faith as being a Theist.

Yeah, atheism is a belief. Just like NOT collecting stamps is a hobby. ;)

Fine, strong atheism does have something to do with beliefs (believing there is no god) but most atheists tend to be weak ones (not believing there is a god). There’s a big difference.

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”

I always ask religious people if they find their beliefs logical. Yes or no question. Usually, if I enforce the ‘yes or no’ bit, I can force them to admit that religion is illogical. And that’s all I ask for, is that people understand that fact. If they then wish to believe anyway, fine. I don’t really know why people would choose to believe in some things though. And I wish that people would be more educated about their beliefs overall.