There is this little church down the street from where I live, well the one I am thinking about is actually across town -not the one that is actually right next door. I drive by it every day, yet have failed to note exactly what religion it is affiliated with, not that it matters I suppose -at least not for my purposes this morning.
This little church has one of those lighted billboards that is right on the highway, what would pass for a highway in a town this small at any rate. The message that is up on the little board can vary from trying to be thought provoking “What if God is waiting on a sign from us?”, to just plain humorous “Git ‘R Done for Jesus” (that was on display while Country Thunder was in town.
Whoever it is that puts the little messages up on that board seems to be making an effort to keep from putting up anything that would turn away your average non-affiliated person; never any of the doom and gloom, the end is near, repent or burn in hell type stuff. I don’t really think you can scare someone into religion anyway, at least not anyone capable of rational thought, but that is for a different post.
For the last week or so the sign has had a message on it that just pisses me off whenever I drive by. It says “Don’t put a question mark where God put a period.” I don’t know why this one gets to me so much, well I guess I must have some idea why or I wouldn’t be sitting here right now then, would I?
It really irritates me when anyone starts using phrases like “God said…”, or “The Bible says…”, especially so if they are trying to make a point using that as an argument. The reality is that if there is a God and he did say something it is certainly not what is written in the Bible.
While atheists believe that the Bible is nothing more than an old novel, even religious zealots have to admit that what is written in it was not written until well after the crucifixion of Jesus. It has been translated and revised so many times over the centuries that it is now impossible to say what it might have said at the time it was penned. God had nothing to do with it.
I am not sure exactly what question the billboard was referring to. Homosexuality? Birth control? Slavery? Female subservience? Evolution? It doesn’t really matter. Whatever it was referring to it was encouraging people to live their lives based on the limited understanding of a culture that lived over a millennia ago. If you want to live that way -believe in the bible as a literal truth- that is your decision, but try to at least be honest enough to admit that it is not the word of God, but the word of someone who claims that he spoke to God. Then think of the wild-eyed guy on the corner screaming “repent, the end is nigh!”, he also claims that he spoke to God, but he is just crazy, right?
So, here is my new theory; Religion = delusion + time
while writing that I was trying to find a link to an argument that I once read that said that God didn’t actually take a rib from Adam to create Eve, but that it was instead a different anatomical components that was removed and it was mistranslated in the bible. While I was not able to find a link to that argument, I did find a link to a completely different argument. If you are a firm believer in evolution (like me) you really should read this article. I have been debating this subject based on faulty logic for a long time, make sure you don’t make the same mistake.