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http://www.ghg.net/phf/disbelief/do_you_know.htm
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If you know there's a god, please explain your knowledge,
what it's based on, and why we should believe you or
accept your knowledge.

If you don't know there's a god, but instead, you believe
there is a god, please explain for us how your belief differs
from delusion/imagination and how your belief is meritorious
compared to innumerable beliefs in other ultimate beings
which don't mate to yours.

If you claim faith, doesn't your perspective fall under the
area of belief, not knowledge? If belief, why is your belief
of merit as you must admit that anyone can believe anything,
so either you're claiming your belief is veritable and other
beliefs are less so -or- you're claiming that any and all beliefs
have merit and therefore, whatever, just believe something/
anything, so long as it mates somehow to your belief.

In other words, with the belief/faith thing, all you're doing
is claiming belief/faith is "the god" and whatever your belief
or faith is invested in is of far less consequence than is the
merit of merely having belief/faith in something.

For those of the belief/faith motif, do you comprehend how
anything can be placed there and how that invalidates your
belief/faith as superior to acceptance of empirical evidence?

Furthermore, don't you understand that your belief/faith
motif is merely based on assertions and claims, not evi-
dence?

Don't you understand that anyone can claim anything, but
claiming it doesn't make it so?

Put another way, in terms which christians are likely to
understand, let's say I die and meet "the ultimate be-all
end-all thingie" and it asks me, "Why didn't you believe
in me?"

Do you think that stating that "anyone can claim anything,
so how in the world could I possibly determine what was
real from what was delusion, when it came to supernatural
claims?", would hold any weight?

If I throw in "cancer-why?", "diabetes-why?", "parkinson's
disease-why?", "depression-why?", "genetics absent from
the bible-why?", "lies in the bible-why?", "god-murder in
the bible-why?", "allah-why?", "ignorance of science-why?",
"silence from you-why?", "ignorance from you-why?",
"disregard for Chinese-why?", "disregard for most of the
world apart from the Jews-why?", "disdain for the human
ability to think/reason/ explore/reveal-why?" . . .

What do think this ultimate be-all end-all thingie would
respond with? Guilt-trips? Ignorance of genetics? Ignor-
ance of the influence of stimuli on human behavior? What?
Please do examine your faith and tell me, what in the world
would this ultimate be-all end-all thingie respond with?

Nothing? Condemnation? Revulsion for the human mind?

If so, therein resides the emptiness and anti-humanity of
your faith.

If guilt-trips, therein resides the emptiness of your faith.

If tossing me into hell, therein resides the anti-humanism
and absurdity of your faith.

Religious faith as worthy or meritable?

I think not and I must say, in all honesty, humankind would
be best-served by leaving the mythical deceit and threats
and emptiness of faith in our past, and would be wise to
live free and vibrant in knowing that we're natural beings in
a natural world of wonder. Let's free ourselves from reli-
gious faith and, instead, live for that which we know and
that which we can know, in this life, on this earth, in this
time.

May we all live long (forever, if possible), and prosper, in
a natural world of wonder, with all humans for all humans
being the credo to live by, rather than fear of death/imag-
inary beings.

I love you all. As no god is my witness, we have so much
more in common than we do differences. Let's live together
in peace and love, and enjoy to the ultimate extent that is
humanly possible our time together in this world of wonder
and mystery, knowing full well that no god worth being with
could hold a pro-human and pro-love and pro-peace and
pro-children and pro-nurturing and caring philosophy
against us, no way, no how.

- - -

As for our life on earth and the issues we all must deal with
as part of our natural existence in a natural world:

Let's look at prisons, for example, in no small part a reflection
and result of the religious influences upon humankind, to date ...

Should prisons be made to be very unpleasant places for all
inmates or should prisons be more unpleasant mating to the
severity of the crime, kind of a human effort to implement hell-
on-earth for those deemed unworthy of freedom on earth?

Most prisoners serve time for non-violent 'crimes' (such as
smoking a plant, of all things) and leave prison. For those
prisoners, I suspect most would be more interested in
resources devoted to insuring they re-enter society in a
manner in which they are likely to fit in than most would be
to push them so far down they're not likely to ever recover.

As for hard-core criminals / lifers / and the like, what kind of
prison would most suggest as the 'ideal'?

One should be aware that America imprisons a higher per-
centage of its citizens than any country in the world, other
than Russia. Hmmmm, makes one wonder, why is that?

Also of note, the U.S. has one of the

o highest murder rates,
o highest execution rates,
o highest gun-toting rates,
o highest imprisonment rates,
o highest crime rates,
o highest divorce rates,
o highest anti-evolution rates,
o highest church attendance rates,
o highest christianity rates ...

A nation more focused on power/authoritarianism/impris-
oning/condemning/punishing/fearing than it is focused on
freedom/ love/prosperity for all?

A nation more focused on materialism/slavery to work/
inordinate profit for the few than it is focused on pleasure/
quality of life/equanimity/fairness/enjoyment of our one
sure chance at it?

A nation of brainwashed followers of imaginary ultimate
authority beings (thank god?) and faiths based on ultimate
punishment/reward (thank god?) which Americans use as
a model for how we live out our time on earth?

A nation focused on preparation for death, with real reward
for a small minority and a life of labor/slavery to those in
power by the overwhelming majority, rather than an egali-
tarian celebration of life for the many?

A nation of selfishness and greed rather than sharing and
caring?

- - -

I caution you to think and ponder what I've written, rather
than resorting to the typical anecdotes of exceptions which
folks point to in order to perpetuate what must be, as of this
moment, judged to be, in my opinion, a pitiful failure or, at
best, a faltering step away from past insanities ...

We can do better ...

And the first step is admitting we've failed/faltered ...

And the next step is endeavoring, each and every one of us,
to make a better world, a better life, for the many, by virtue
of knowing for certain that more authority / more condemna-
tion / more divisiveness / more demonization is nothing but
fuel for the fire in which we find ourselves.

Instead of more fuel on the fire, more prisons, more cops,
more laws-that-are-designed to promote the welfare of the
rich rather than the welfare-of-the-many, we need more cool
water of passion for peace, love, joy, a sharing and caring
society devoted to human kindness and health and well-
being and pleasure on this earth, at this time, in this life, not
as a respite from the pain of slavery, but instead, as the pri-
mary reason for being, 24x7x365 (366 every leap year).

- - -

~~~
Pro-Humanist FREELOVER
http://www.ghg.net/phf
(Freethinking Realist Exploring
Expressive Liberty, Openness,
Verity, Enlightenment, & Rationality)
~~~