The Skeptic's Simple Faith
The Skeptic has spent a lot of time over the years thinking about God and reading the Bible, a lot of smart people will think that to be a huge waste of time because a lot of smart people believe that God is nothing more than a crutch that weak and unintelligent people use because they don't have the mental capacity to deal with life on their own, fair enough, that's the opinion of a lot of people and it's a valid opinion. Certainly the idea of an all seeing, all knowing God who cares for each and everyone of us and all of our petty concerns seems a little silly and improbable but it's not possible for anyone to say with a hundred percent certainty that He doesn't exist, no matter how intelligent they happen to be. An individual can believe with all of their heart that God is nothing more than a myth but that doesn't prove anything, and the same goes for the other side of the argument, the most devout Christian believing in God with every fiber of their being can't prove that God is out there watching over us, both sides have an unprovable argument.
However, the Skeptic really doesn't deal with whether or not God exists, that is something that cannot be proved one way or the other, it's a matter of faith, one believes or one doesn't, it's up to the individual. What the Skeptic deals with is organized religion in all of its incarnations and permutations, the Skeptic tries to be as logical as possible and, for him, that means taking into account what we know about religion and the people who claim to speak for God today and those who made that claim throughout history. For the purpose of this article let's assume God does exist, yes, even the atheists, just make believe He is out there, and we'll assume He actually cares about us and we'll also assume that the Bible is divinely inspired because if these things are not true none of the major Christian religions, Judaism and even Islam, to some extent, are valid. If the Bible is not the Word of God you might as well flush all of these religions down the toilet and forget they ever existed because by definition they are based on the Bible, at least the Old Testament portion of it in the case of Islam and Judaism, and if they don't follow the Bible they are basing their beliefs, doctrines and rituals on the words of mere men. Now following the rituals of men is fine if you're joining a club like the Elks or the Moose Lodge but the Skeptic isn't trusting the fate of his eternal soul to anything any man or woman has to say, it makes no sense whatsoever.
Well, Jesus was a man, right? Well, that's true but in matters of faith everyone has to start someplace and since every Christian religion claims to believe he is the Son of God, or a part of the Trinity, or God incarnate, it doesn't really matter how you phrase it, if you are going to believe in God you need to pick your God and Jesus is as good a place to start as any, after all, He was an historical figure who lived here on the same planet as the rest of us and by most accounts lived a pretty remarkable life. The Skeptic particularly likes the idea of Jesus being God because His particular message is so basically simple, you are all sinners, I came here to sacrifice myself for you and if you accept that you'll receive the gift of eternal life, it can't get much simpler than that. You can sure argue that the very idea of Heaven is silly, you can say the concept of Hell is cruel, you can say the idea of eternal life is nonsense and you might be right on all counts but it doesn't matter. All of this stuff is a matter of faith, a believer does no harm to the atheist and the atheist does no harm to the believer, all we know is in the end one will be correct and one will be wrong, why atheists waste a moment of their time trying to take God out of everything baffles the Skeptic. If the Skeptic were an atheist he would live and let live, why waste the the time, what is the point? What really bothers the Skeptic and the reason he likes to look into things like why the Catholic Church behaves the way it does is because it just feels wrong for a church to claim to represent God when it is so obviously doing nothing of the kind and all anyone has to do is open their eyes to see that.
Fundamental Christians, they're the ones holding up all the signs at football games that read, John 3:16, may be looked at with disdain by a lot of people, even people within the religious community, for their belief in the literal meaning of the Bible but say what you will at least they base their faith on the Bible. Catholics, on the other hand, don't even pretend to care much about the Bible, they base their doctrine on, now this is very simplified, the word of the pope and past popes with little or no regard to the Bible. Now, that might be one thing if those popes were at least somewhat spiritual men but the history of that church tells a very different story. Popes, over the centuries, have been a collection of criminals, frauds, liars, war mongers, adulterers, killers, and just generally nasty people, certainly not someone you'd go to for spiritual guidance. It'd be sort of like going to see Al Capone and asking him to take a job as a guidance councilor in your local high school or to serve as a Sunday School teacher.
For centuries the Catholic Church has acted like an extension of the Roman Empire with the pope playing the part of Caesar. One pope, Leo X, let the cat out of the bag when he said, 'This myth of Jesus has served us well', he was clearly of the opinion that all that God stuff was no more than a fairy tale and he was quite pleased that his church was there to reap the rewards of what they considered a scam. In the opinion of the Skeptic this is no church and it never was, it is merely an organization that was set up to take advantage of the growing religion of Christianity.
And let's be honest, Islam was founded by a violent man who ran away to a cave in the desert where he wrote the Qur'an, the founding document of Islam that Muslims today hold dear, in the Qur'an you will find stuff like, "Slay them wherever ye find them...", here Mohammad is talking about non Muslims and unfortunately there a hundred more violent verses in the Qur'an and that alone is enough for the Skeptic to write it off as a serious religion. The Skeptic doesn't believe for a single minute that a serious God would endorse that sort of instruction to the faithful, religion should be about forgiveness and love of your fellow man and if you read the New Testament of the Bible that is exactly what you'll find. If you need to kill people who don't want to participate in your religion there's something wrong with your religion. Quotes from the Qur'an that speak of killing nonbelievers are the exact sort of nonsense that leads Muslims to strap explosives to themselves in order to slay people in the name of Allah, again, it's not a serious religion, religion is about love and forgiveness, not torture and murder, Islam does that today, Catholics did it in the past.
Then there are the televangelists and the mega-church pastors, they manage to turn religion into a joke, they don't kill people, they scam them, they are the ones who tell poor people to send in what they can and the Lord will bless them with riches, or the sick to send in money and the Lord will heal whatever ails them, the mega-churches have turned religion into entertainment and makes the pastors of those churches millionaires. These people take advantage of people and they use religion as a means to riches for themselves, if you're paying any attention at all you probably don't need to be told that this is not something that Jesus would exactly embrace.
So this is our world, our religions, people attend mass, they go to their mosques, they attend evangelical services at a mega-church, they watch con artists on television pretending to be men of God, they listen to Glenn Beck who promotes his own vague brand of religion and weaves wild conspiracies into it in order to promote his television show, people do all this so they can feel good about themselves or to reassure themselves that their soul will go someplace nice when they die but unfortunately nobody seems to spend much time thinking about who is worthy of their trust. People can't and shouldn't overlook the failings of their churches, the Catholic Church has such a long and sordid history of one excess after another, they've sold indulgences, they've molested children, they've started wars, they've assassinated political leaders, they've killed people for sport, they destroyed an entire continent, that sort of behavior shouldn't be overlooked, it should be scrutinized carefully and people should hold the church accountable, there's a reason Martin Luther broke away from them and it wasn't because he was in a bad mood that day. A church that behaved like that for close to two thousand years does not change its stripes, the Catholic Church of today is no different than the church of old, it only lacks the power it had in the past, if they still wielded that sort of power they'd still be doing the same old thing. They have adapted, they have changed their behavior because they were forced to change it, do you seriously think they've really changed since those days? Think again, it was only fifty years ago when they were helping Nazis escape justice, think about them today, their priests are raping children and the church hierarchy hides them away instead of helping the victims. We are told Islam is a peaceful religion but it isn't, we're told it is because that's the politically correct thing to say. Look at it like this, radical Muslims may be the ones doing the actual killing but the so-called mainstream Muslims don't condemn it, not in any forcible fashion anyway and that speaks volumes. If they cared about their religion and how people view it they would be condemning the radicals and letting the world know it but they don't and they don't because of all the violence in the Qur'an, deep inside themselves they think it's fine, Allah would approve, Mohammad said so in the Qur'an.
So that's it, if you are going to believe in God the Skeptic thinks you ought to be smart enough to go to the source, read the Bible and interpret it for yourself, if you don't you are wasting your time. Religion is all about the afterlife, if there is no afterlife there's no point to religion, so if you believe in God doesn't it make sense to go to the source that most of the world's religions use to claim their authority, the Bible? That's where the Skeptic went and when he read it he didn't recognize most of the world's religions in there. There was nothing in the Bible about killing people who don't believe as you believe, there's nothing about buying forgiveness of sin, there's nothing about giving money to hucksters to gain wealth or healing, there's nothing about it being okay for priests to molest kids, there nothing in the Bible that even remotely resembles the Catholic Church, Islam or hucksters like Beck who use religion to make a living. In fact there's a lot of stuff in there that actually says exactly the opposite of all these things. And, for the Skeptic, that's all it really takes, the only source that even claims to to quote Jesus is the Bible so why would anyone listen to anyone who doesn't take what they are saying from the Bible? The Catholic Church loves to claim they are the only true religion, they claim they are the only place a person can go to avoid spending an eternity in hell, but here's the good part, they made it all up, just as surely as L. Ron Hubbard invented Scientology, they made it all up. They made up an entire set of rules that have no basis in the the Bible, no place in the Bible mentions purgatory, praying the rosary, confessing to priests, collecting old bones as relics and a host of other silly nonsense, it's not there, you can look all you want. Now there's a lot of sites on the internet that like to claim the Catholic Church is the work of the Devil but the Skeptic won't go there, the Skeptic will only say he wouldn't go there for spiritual guidance and he'll leave the judgment of the church to God. The one place the Skeptic will take an absolute stand is on the issue of the Vatican, this is a religious state and recognizing it and maintaining diplomatic relations with it comes too close to a state religion for the Skeptic, no other religion operates like this and the United States should cut off relations immediately. Why all the people that like to take issues of separation of church and state don't take this to court is a mystery.
This is really an article written for people who believe in God, if you don't believe none of this stuff matters to you unless you just want to ridicule the Skeptic and other believers for being simple enough to believe in a Supreme Being. However, if you do believe you ought to spend some time thinking about which church you attend, does that church basically follow the Bible or are they making stuff up as they go along? Are you listening to some televangelist telling you that he can make you rich if you send him some money? You might want to reconsider that. Are you a Muslim? Do you honestly believe all the nonsense that religion puts out, the Skeptic doesn't much go for the politically correct stuff, Islam is not a peaceful religion, they are like the Catholic Church of old when they were holding inquisitions and burning people at the stake, they are violent and they don't make many excuses for it. Seriously, is there a Muslim out there who thinks it's okay to kill people for drawing pictures of Mohammad? That's a religion you really want to want to claim as your own? It seems to the Skeptic that there are very few Muslims that seem very happy or content, they are all angry about Israel occupying land they feel is theirs when they know in their hearts that the Jews were in that area before there even was a Mohammad, they know it because they claim the old Jewish prophets as their own, oh they claim they were Muslims but that's the thing about Islam, it just seems delusional, heck they even claim Jesus was a Muslim but they don't seem to be a happy people, they seem angry and the Skeptic thinks it's because they are following the religion of a crazy man who dreamed it all up in a cave.
So does the Skeptic sound like one of those foolish fundamentalists to you? Well, in one sense he is, he believes that Jesus was God and he sacrificed Himself for us, that's in the Bible and you either believe it or you don't, the Skeptic chooses to believe. Where he parts with fundamentalists is on other subjects like evolution etc? Who cares? It's in the past and there is nothing in the Bible about having to believe anything other than Jesus is God and he died for you...the rest of it is no more than parlor games. What possible difference is there if we evolved or were created in a flash of an eye? It doesn't mean anything, we're here, how we got here is a mystery. Evolution is the most likely scenario but maybe that isn't exactly what it seems, maybe God just kept making different sorts of humans until he got one he liked? Abortion, how could anyone be for it, especially late term abortions, the Skeptic doubts even the most hard core abortion rights types could stand to watch one performed, just the thought of sticking scissors into the skull of a living baby before it exits the mother makes the skin crawl but being against it or for it isn't something that is required of Christians, it's really a very secular issue. It's simple, is our country going to allow it or not? If we do the people who choose to participate will either be judged by God or, assuming there is no God, there will be no judgement. Simple. Ours is a secular government and shouldn't have anything to do with religion or religious practices and that's how it should be in a country with so many different faiths. Getting involved in government like most religions attempt to do also makes the skin crawl, just seeing these so-called religious leaders out there endorsing candidates and supporting one position or another doesn't feel exactly right. It looks to the Skeptic as if these guys are simply using their positions as church leaders to make a name for themselves and that is not what being a spiritual leader is all about. That is all about making money, gaining fame, grabbing at power, all things the Bible strongly advises against, yet there they are, claiming to speak for God and ignoring His will.
The Skeptic likes things to be as simple as possible because in the end this is all about simplicity, life has become extremely complicated and it really doesn't need to be. After all, we're only human beings, we eat, we sleep, we have sex, we do our best to amuse ourselves, sometimes we do several of those things at once but the thing is, these things apply to all of us, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, everything else is pretty much noise, including the Catholic Church, Islam and any other religion that ignores the Bible, essentially the founding document of these religions. It's a simple message made complicated for no other reason than to gain power for the people making the changes. As the Skeptic writes this it occurs to him that it's quite similar to how the courts and politicians have made our country more complicated than it needs to be by ignoring our founding document, the Constitution, that too is an effort to gain power for the people involved. Read the Constitution, just like the Bible it's easy to understand, you'll see the courts and the Congress were never meant to have the power they have grabbed for themselves, all about power.
This was never intended to be an article written to give advice, it was meant as an explanation of why the Catholic Church, Islam and religious frauds don't get much respect at the Skeptics Post but here's a little free advice anyway, you may take it for what it's worth. Simplify your life in every possible way, you'll be so much happier for it, by taking out all the extraneous stuff and keeping only the essentials you'll find a lifestyle that really means something. The Skeptic is not telling you how to live your life, believe in God or don't, trust the knuckleheads running this country or don't, but he is telling you to simplify, know what you believe and leave others alone to do the same. That's what America was supposed to be, a place where we could be free to make our own choices, to succeed or fail on our own without the government running in to rescue us or grabbing at every dollar they can if we are successful. We don't need our government so deeply ingrained in our lives. The same goes for religion, believe what you will or believe nothing at all, it shouldn't matter to anyone but you. The Bible is there for the reading, it's the book that all Christian religions were founded on, the good news is you really don't need any of those religions putting their own spin on it, it's not a difficult read, its message is actually quite simple and uncomplicated, it might be worth a look, it certainly couldn't hurt. Trust the Skeptic on this, you don't need that old Nazi, Pope Benedict, an imam, a sleazy televangelist or Glenn Beck to tell you how to run your life, you are quite capable of making your own decisions. Try it, this isn't about hate or prejudice, this is about taking control of your entire life, from the way you see government, to how you treat others and how you see God. Why would you take spiritual advice from from a church that tolerates child molesters in its ranks, and why would you worship with people who think it's okay to murder people and why would you allow hucksters to take your money and your time and give you nothing in return? Why would anyone do those things when we are all capable of making our own decisions, certainly any decision you make could be no worse than the Vatican would make, it's guaranteed to be better than the decision to blow up a bus full of innocent people. The Skeptic doesn't want you to stay away from your church or your mosque, he certainly doesn't want any religion banned or done away with, he would just like people to pay more attention to things like religion, religion has caused a lot of problems throughout the years and a lot of that trouble comes from the blind trust people give them. It's not easy to say this stuff but sometimes someone has to step up and say the obvious, it's like we're all sitting around and pretending everything is fine but everything is not fine. How can it be fine when two of the world's biggest religions are so clearing not acting in good faith? No, everything is most definitely not fine, it is a mess. If you are going to believe in God think about finding a religion that at the very least bases its doctrine on the Bible and not on the rantings of crazy old popes from a thousand years ago or the lunacy Mohammad put to paper in that cave. Find a church where love and forgiveness is the message you hear from the pulpit, then apply that to your own life and see for yourself how living a simple life can be the fullest sort of life you could ever imagine. If you can't find a religion like that get yourself a Bible and read it, start with John 5:24, it can't get any simpler than that.
However, the Skeptic really doesn't deal with whether or not God exists, that is something that cannot be proved one way or the other, it's a matter of faith, one believes or one doesn't, it's up to the individual. What the Skeptic deals with is organized religion in all of its incarnations and permutations, the Skeptic tries to be as logical as possible and, for him, that means taking into account what we know about religion and the people who claim to speak for God today and those who made that claim throughout history. For the purpose of this article let's assume God does exist, yes, even the atheists, just make believe He is out there, and we'll assume He actually cares about us and we'll also assume that the Bible is divinely inspired because if these things are not true none of the major Christian religions, Judaism and even Islam, to some extent, are valid. If the Bible is not the Word of God you might as well flush all of these religions down the toilet and forget they ever existed because by definition they are based on the Bible, at least the Old Testament portion of it in the case of Islam and Judaism, and if they don't follow the Bible they are basing their beliefs, doctrines and rituals on the words of mere men. Now following the rituals of men is fine if you're joining a club like the Elks or the Moose Lodge but the Skeptic isn't trusting the fate of his eternal soul to anything any man or woman has to say, it makes no sense whatsoever.
Well, Jesus was a man, right? Well, that's true but in matters of faith everyone has to start someplace and since every Christian religion claims to believe he is the Son of God, or a part of the Trinity, or God incarnate, it doesn't really matter how you phrase it, if you are going to believe in God you need to pick your God and Jesus is as good a place to start as any, after all, He was an historical figure who lived here on the same planet as the rest of us and by most accounts lived a pretty remarkable life. The Skeptic particularly likes the idea of Jesus being God because His particular message is so basically simple, you are all sinners, I came here to sacrifice myself for you and if you accept that you'll receive the gift of eternal life, it can't get much simpler than that. You can sure argue that the very idea of Heaven is silly, you can say the concept of Hell is cruel, you can say the idea of eternal life is nonsense and you might be right on all counts but it doesn't matter. All of this stuff is a matter of faith, a believer does no harm to the atheist and the atheist does no harm to the believer, all we know is in the end one will be correct and one will be wrong, why atheists waste a moment of their time trying to take God out of everything baffles the Skeptic. If the Skeptic were an atheist he would live and let live, why waste the the time, what is the point? What really bothers the Skeptic and the reason he likes to look into things like why the Catholic Church behaves the way it does is because it just feels wrong for a church to claim to represent God when it is so obviously doing nothing of the kind and all anyone has to do is open their eyes to see that.
Fundamental Christians, they're the ones holding up all the signs at football games that read, John 3:16, may be looked at with disdain by a lot of people, even people within the religious community, for their belief in the literal meaning of the Bible but say what you will at least they base their faith on the Bible. Catholics, on the other hand, don't even pretend to care much about the Bible, they base their doctrine on, now this is very simplified, the word of the pope and past popes with little or no regard to the Bible. Now, that might be one thing if those popes were at least somewhat spiritual men but the history of that church tells a very different story. Popes, over the centuries, have been a collection of criminals, frauds, liars, war mongers, adulterers, killers, and just generally nasty people, certainly not someone you'd go to for spiritual guidance. It'd be sort of like going to see Al Capone and asking him to take a job as a guidance councilor in your local high school or to serve as a Sunday School teacher.
For centuries the Catholic Church has acted like an extension of the Roman Empire with the pope playing the part of Caesar. One pope, Leo X, let the cat out of the bag when he said, 'This myth of Jesus has served us well', he was clearly of the opinion that all that God stuff was no more than a fairy tale and he was quite pleased that his church was there to reap the rewards of what they considered a scam. In the opinion of the Skeptic this is no church and it never was, it is merely an organization that was set up to take advantage of the growing religion of Christianity.
And let's be honest, Islam was founded by a violent man who ran away to a cave in the desert where he wrote the Qur'an, the founding document of Islam that Muslims today hold dear, in the Qur'an you will find stuff like, "Slay them wherever ye find them...", here Mohammad is talking about non Muslims and unfortunately there a hundred more violent verses in the Qur'an and that alone is enough for the Skeptic to write it off as a serious religion. The Skeptic doesn't believe for a single minute that a serious God would endorse that sort of instruction to the faithful, religion should be about forgiveness and love of your fellow man and if you read the New Testament of the Bible that is exactly what you'll find. If you need to kill people who don't want to participate in your religion there's something wrong with your religion. Quotes from the Qur'an that speak of killing nonbelievers are the exact sort of nonsense that leads Muslims to strap explosives to themselves in order to slay people in the name of Allah, again, it's not a serious religion, religion is about love and forgiveness, not torture and murder, Islam does that today, Catholics did it in the past.
Then there are the televangelists and the mega-church pastors, they manage to turn religion into a joke, they don't kill people, they scam them, they are the ones who tell poor people to send in what they can and the Lord will bless them with riches, or the sick to send in money and the Lord will heal whatever ails them, the mega-churches have turned religion into entertainment and makes the pastors of those churches millionaires. These people take advantage of people and they use religion as a means to riches for themselves, if you're paying any attention at all you probably don't need to be told that this is not something that Jesus would exactly embrace.
So this is our world, our religions, people attend mass, they go to their mosques, they attend evangelical services at a mega-church, they watch con artists on television pretending to be men of God, they listen to Glenn Beck who promotes his own vague brand of religion and weaves wild conspiracies into it in order to promote his television show, people do all this so they can feel good about themselves or to reassure themselves that their soul will go someplace nice when they die but unfortunately nobody seems to spend much time thinking about who is worthy of their trust. People can't and shouldn't overlook the failings of their churches, the Catholic Church has such a long and sordid history of one excess after another, they've sold indulgences, they've molested children, they've started wars, they've assassinated political leaders, they've killed people for sport, they destroyed an entire continent, that sort of behavior shouldn't be overlooked, it should be scrutinized carefully and people should hold the church accountable, there's a reason Martin Luther broke away from them and it wasn't because he was in a bad mood that day. A church that behaved like that for close to two thousand years does not change its stripes, the Catholic Church of today is no different than the church of old, it only lacks the power it had in the past, if they still wielded that sort of power they'd still be doing the same old thing. They have adapted, they have changed their behavior because they were forced to change it, do you seriously think they've really changed since those days? Think again, it was only fifty years ago when they were helping Nazis escape justice, think about them today, their priests are raping children and the church hierarchy hides them away instead of helping the victims. We are told Islam is a peaceful religion but it isn't, we're told it is because that's the politically correct thing to say. Look at it like this, radical Muslims may be the ones doing the actual killing but the so-called mainstream Muslims don't condemn it, not in any forcible fashion anyway and that speaks volumes. If they cared about their religion and how people view it they would be condemning the radicals and letting the world know it but they don't and they don't because of all the violence in the Qur'an, deep inside themselves they think it's fine, Allah would approve, Mohammad said so in the Qur'an.
So that's it, if you are going to believe in God the Skeptic thinks you ought to be smart enough to go to the source, read the Bible and interpret it for yourself, if you don't you are wasting your time. Religion is all about the afterlife, if there is no afterlife there's no point to religion, so if you believe in God doesn't it make sense to go to the source that most of the world's religions use to claim their authority, the Bible? That's where the Skeptic went and when he read it he didn't recognize most of the world's religions in there. There was nothing in the Bible about killing people who don't believe as you believe, there's nothing about buying forgiveness of sin, there's nothing about giving money to hucksters to gain wealth or healing, there's nothing about it being okay for priests to molest kids, there nothing in the Bible that even remotely resembles the Catholic Church, Islam or hucksters like Beck who use religion to make a living. In fact there's a lot of stuff in there that actually says exactly the opposite of all these things. And, for the Skeptic, that's all it really takes, the only source that even claims to to quote Jesus is the Bible so why would anyone listen to anyone who doesn't take what they are saying from the Bible? The Catholic Church loves to claim they are the only true religion, they claim they are the only place a person can go to avoid spending an eternity in hell, but here's the good part, they made it all up, just as surely as L. Ron Hubbard invented Scientology, they made it all up. They made up an entire set of rules that have no basis in the the Bible, no place in the Bible mentions purgatory, praying the rosary, confessing to priests, collecting old bones as relics and a host of other silly nonsense, it's not there, you can look all you want. Now there's a lot of sites on the internet that like to claim the Catholic Church is the work of the Devil but the Skeptic won't go there, the Skeptic will only say he wouldn't go there for spiritual guidance and he'll leave the judgment of the church to God. The one place the Skeptic will take an absolute stand is on the issue of the Vatican, this is a religious state and recognizing it and maintaining diplomatic relations with it comes too close to a state religion for the Skeptic, no other religion operates like this and the United States should cut off relations immediately. Why all the people that like to take issues of separation of church and state don't take this to court is a mystery.
This is really an article written for people who believe in God, if you don't believe none of this stuff matters to you unless you just want to ridicule the Skeptic and other believers for being simple enough to believe in a Supreme Being. However, if you do believe you ought to spend some time thinking about which church you attend, does that church basically follow the Bible or are they making stuff up as they go along? Are you listening to some televangelist telling you that he can make you rich if you send him some money? You might want to reconsider that. Are you a Muslim? Do you honestly believe all the nonsense that religion puts out, the Skeptic doesn't much go for the politically correct stuff, Islam is not a peaceful religion, they are like the Catholic Church of old when they were holding inquisitions and burning people at the stake, they are violent and they don't make many excuses for it. Seriously, is there a Muslim out there who thinks it's okay to kill people for drawing pictures of Mohammad? That's a religion you really want to want to claim as your own? It seems to the Skeptic that there are very few Muslims that seem very happy or content, they are all angry about Israel occupying land they feel is theirs when they know in their hearts that the Jews were in that area before there even was a Mohammad, they know it because they claim the old Jewish prophets as their own, oh they claim they were Muslims but that's the thing about Islam, it just seems delusional, heck they even claim Jesus was a Muslim but they don't seem to be a happy people, they seem angry and the Skeptic thinks it's because they are following the religion of a crazy man who dreamed it all up in a cave.
So does the Skeptic sound like one of those foolish fundamentalists to you? Well, in one sense he is, he believes that Jesus was God and he sacrificed Himself for us, that's in the Bible and you either believe it or you don't, the Skeptic chooses to believe. Where he parts with fundamentalists is on other subjects like evolution etc? Who cares? It's in the past and there is nothing in the Bible about having to believe anything other than Jesus is God and he died for you...the rest of it is no more than parlor games. What possible difference is there if we evolved or were created in a flash of an eye? It doesn't mean anything, we're here, how we got here is a mystery. Evolution is the most likely scenario but maybe that isn't exactly what it seems, maybe God just kept making different sorts of humans until he got one he liked? Abortion, how could anyone be for it, especially late term abortions, the Skeptic doubts even the most hard core abortion rights types could stand to watch one performed, just the thought of sticking scissors into the skull of a living baby before it exits the mother makes the skin crawl but being against it or for it isn't something that is required of Christians, it's really a very secular issue. It's simple, is our country going to allow it or not? If we do the people who choose to participate will either be judged by God or, assuming there is no God, there will be no judgement. Simple. Ours is a secular government and shouldn't have anything to do with religion or religious practices and that's how it should be in a country with so many different faiths. Getting involved in government like most religions attempt to do also makes the skin crawl, just seeing these so-called religious leaders out there endorsing candidates and supporting one position or another doesn't feel exactly right. It looks to the Skeptic as if these guys are simply using their positions as church leaders to make a name for themselves and that is not what being a spiritual leader is all about. That is all about making money, gaining fame, grabbing at power, all things the Bible strongly advises against, yet there they are, claiming to speak for God and ignoring His will.
The Skeptic likes things to be as simple as possible because in the end this is all about simplicity, life has become extremely complicated and it really doesn't need to be. After all, we're only human beings, we eat, we sleep, we have sex, we do our best to amuse ourselves, sometimes we do several of those things at once but the thing is, these things apply to all of us, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, everything else is pretty much noise, including the Catholic Church, Islam and any other religion that ignores the Bible, essentially the founding document of these religions. It's a simple message made complicated for no other reason than to gain power for the people making the changes. As the Skeptic writes this it occurs to him that it's quite similar to how the courts and politicians have made our country more complicated than it needs to be by ignoring our founding document, the Constitution, that too is an effort to gain power for the people involved. Read the Constitution, just like the Bible it's easy to understand, you'll see the courts and the Congress were never meant to have the power they have grabbed for themselves, all about power.
This was never intended to be an article written to give advice, it was meant as an explanation of why the Catholic Church, Islam and religious frauds don't get much respect at the Skeptics Post but here's a little free advice anyway, you may take it for what it's worth. Simplify your life in every possible way, you'll be so much happier for it, by taking out all the extraneous stuff and keeping only the essentials you'll find a lifestyle that really means something. The Skeptic is not telling you how to live your life, believe in God or don't, trust the knuckleheads running this country or don't, but he is telling you to simplify, know what you believe and leave others alone to do the same. That's what America was supposed to be, a place where we could be free to make our own choices, to succeed or fail on our own without the government running in to rescue us or grabbing at every dollar they can if we are successful. We don't need our government so deeply ingrained in our lives. The same goes for religion, believe what you will or believe nothing at all, it shouldn't matter to anyone but you. The Bible is there for the reading, it's the book that all Christian religions were founded on, the good news is you really don't need any of those religions putting their own spin on it, it's not a difficult read, its message is actually quite simple and uncomplicated, it might be worth a look, it certainly couldn't hurt. Trust the Skeptic on this, you don't need that old Nazi, Pope Benedict, an imam, a sleazy televangelist or Glenn Beck to tell you how to run your life, you are quite capable of making your own decisions. Try it, this isn't about hate or prejudice, this is about taking control of your entire life, from the way you see government, to how you treat others and how you see God. Why would you take spiritual advice from from a church that tolerates child molesters in its ranks, and why would you worship with people who think it's okay to murder people and why would you allow hucksters to take your money and your time and give you nothing in return? Why would anyone do those things when we are all capable of making our own decisions, certainly any decision you make could be no worse than the Vatican would make, it's guaranteed to be better than the decision to blow up a bus full of innocent people. The Skeptic doesn't want you to stay away from your church or your mosque, he certainly doesn't want any religion banned or done away with, he would just like people to pay more attention to things like religion, religion has caused a lot of problems throughout the years and a lot of that trouble comes from the blind trust people give them. It's not easy to say this stuff but sometimes someone has to step up and say the obvious, it's like we're all sitting around and pretending everything is fine but everything is not fine. How can it be fine when two of the world's biggest religions are so clearing not acting in good faith? No, everything is most definitely not fine, it is a mess. If you are going to believe in God think about finding a religion that at the very least bases its doctrine on the Bible and not on the rantings of crazy old popes from a thousand years ago or the lunacy Mohammad put to paper in that cave. Find a church where love and forgiveness is the message you hear from the pulpit, then apply that to your own life and see for yourself how living a simple life can be the fullest sort of life you could ever imagine. If you can't find a religion like that get yourself a Bible and read it, start with John 5:24, it can't get any simpler than that.