[Vision2020] great letter to the editor

Mon Dec 28 16:58:28 PST 2009

Maybe it's time again for the reminder posted after my signature below.

Simply put, there is no test or way to decide which, if any, of the host of religious/supernatural beliefs are true.  If there was, there would not be the great plurality of religious beliefs which now exist and continue to grow in diversity.

The plea that one must accept so-called "religious truth" on faith is a grossly absurd one.  The more faith required to accept a belief means the less credible evidence there is for it.  When the probabilities (based on reliable evidence) of any sets of beliefs hover near zero, then all such beliefs are equally likely, or more accurately, unlikely.

The alleged Christian God demands "Either you believe in me or I will torture you eternally."

How could the adjective "omnibenevolent" be applied to such an alleged being by any rational, mentally healthy person?  If such a god exists, and really means the utterance above, then such a god clearly has a serious mental health problem.  Such a god is more like Idi Amin than any sane creature.

If Christians or any other religion advocates chose to believe in such a mentally unhealthy god, then that adjective phrase seems to apply to them also, especially when they attempt to force their beliefs on others, and to control other's behavior based on such absurdities.

Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

waf at moscow.com
208 882-7975

Repost:

There are tens of thousands of different religions each holding dogma contradictory to each of the other religions. If individual nuances are considered then there are probably billions of such mutually contradictory religious beliefs. Given the existence of this multitude of mutually contradictory religions, only one religion, if any, can be true. It is logically possible and quite probable, that none of them are true.

Again, applying the test of logical consistency it is quite clear that some religions are patently false. Those religions that contain direct or derivable contractions are false. Those that contain derivable absurdities or gross improbabilities are most likely false. 

The most damning problem of religious disagreements is that there is no accepted or successful, tested method for resolving the truth of knowledge claims based on the existence of supernatural beings. If there were, there would be a universally believed religion. 

However, the number of different religions in the world continues to grow. The number of different Christian sects and cults, the number of different Christian theologies, and the number of different scholarly Christian interpretations of and arguments about the content of the New Testament and related documents continues to grow, not abate.

In each different religion or sub-religion (sects and cults) there can be found individuals who rabidly believe that their religion is absolutely right and everyone else's is wrong - witness the Christ Church Cult's advertisements in the local print media a few years ago or the crackpot garbage on Cultmaster Wilson's blog.  It clear from the above analysis that the majority, if not all, of these rabid believers, are wrong.

The above point of view was succinctly summarized in the February 2004 issue of Discover Magazine in an article on diet and nutrition: "Nutrition used to be like religion. Everyone said, I have the truth, everyone else is wrong."

Intensely holding any belief, religious or not, in the face of contradictions, or in the face of the lack of cogent evidence or even the possibility of cogent evidence is a delusion. Clinical psychologists have names for the various forms and symptoms of these delusions. Among them are defense mechanisms. All people use various defense mechanisms for short periods of time. When defense mechanisms are intensely used over a long period of time they become pathological, especially if such delusions are used to proscribe other people's behavior or produce in the deluded self-limiting, self-defeating behavior.

Before various cultists bombard me with angry, irrational emails, cards and letters, the above does not absolutely assert that there is no religious truth. There might be. At this time there is no successfully tested, accepted method to determine the truth of superstitious including supernatural religious knowledge claims. In simpler terms, if there is a religious truth, at present there is no way we can know that particular religious belief is the truth. In the future there might possibly (but not probably) be a such method for determination.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bill London 
  To: vision2020 at secure.fsr.com 
  Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 11:12 AM
  Subject: [Vision2020] great letter to the editor

  This letter to the editor (below) was published in the Daily News on December 25, 2009.  Perhaps you were busy that day and missed it.

  The message is right on.

  BL

  -------------------------------    

  Last night I attended the Lena Whitmore Concert and found it to be a wonderful and uplifting experience - that was until the end when the parents' complaints emerged while waiting to collect their kids. It seems the "Good Christians" in our community considered themselves persecuted because they had to listen to a couple of songs not dedicated to Christ's birth.

  There were 15 songs last night; eight were Christmas songs, 53 percent. There was one song for Hanukkah, representing 7 percent of the program, and one for Kwanza for another 7 percent. The remaining 33 percent of the songs were secular and nonreligious. It seems that the Christians in our community have defined persecution as getting your way most of the time. Apparently they think they need to get their way all of the time.

  I would like to take this opportunity to remind Christians they do not have exclusive rights to the month of December. In addition to Christmas, December is graced with Hanukkah, Kwanza, Bodhi Day, the Islamic New Year, Ashura, Yule, the Pancha Ganapati Festival and Hijra. Yet the Hindis, Buddhists, Pagans and Muslims do not claim persecution when none of their songs grace the elementary school program, despite having children of these faiths in the school.

  So while Christians are singing "Peace on Earth, good will to men," they are readily engaged in religious sniping, ensuring that good will is only offered to Christian men. If Christians think they are being persecuted and lament the trials of getting your way most of the time, you should try not being Christian; perhaps then you would truly know what the face of persecution looks like. For many, persecution is found on a Christian face. Is it no wonder then, that so many are choosing not to be Christians?

  Khaliela Wright, Moscow

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