Increase Jesus, Diminish Self

What this message wants to say:

No man is above God at any point in his life, but it is easy to be tempted to think so. Daily, when a person has their fair share of successes, they may feel the desire to attribute their success to their own strength. Too often, humanity falls into the trap of thinking that strength comes from personal ability or accomplishment. Without realizing that God is the one that gives us this strength, we are truly lost, but when we stop to think about the sacrifice that Jesus gave us, we are able to push aside our pride and accept that God gives humanity the strength to press on. We simply must ask for it, therefore, we must humble ourselves before almighty God and thank him daily for the strength that he gives us to press on. In that, Jesus must always be held above us, for he gave his very life to save ours.


The truth behind it all:

Religion has always had a sick fantasy of reducing humanity to its knees in deference to a god. Truly, to worship a god is to decrease one's own potential to promote a fantasy, and as a result, humanity has been held back as a species. Somewhere in the book of Romans, it is written that all of humanity deserves eternal punishment, for we are nothing more than evil, sin-ridden creations that have fallen short of the glory of God. This teaching is one of the main ways a church clergy can easily cut down its listeners and worshipers in order to turn them into obedient slaves to religion.

Human beings are only as evil as they are allowed to be. For centuries, we have tried to set moral standards for one another; to set boundaries between right and wrong, whatever we define them to be. Killing someone is immoral, yet the bible makes excuses for the deaths of millions within its pages. Rape is certainly a morally reprehensible act, yet there are several instances in the bible where it is sanctioned. Still yet is another issue within the bible: slavery. Owning another human being was common in biblical times, and God himself gave instructions on how to own another human being including how much to pay for one, how long you can own one, how to marry them, how hard and/or often you can beat them, and how to pass them down to your descendants. When religion makes way for these atrocities, one truly must wonder if it's religion that's responsible for making allowances for the evil that lies waiting in people's hearts.

To conclude, this message simply states that one must promote Jesus as their lord and savior, but by doing so that person diminishes their humanity, their self-respect, their dignity, and their decency to an absurd degree. God himself called for human sacrifices on more than one occasion, and several nameable people actually obeyed this order; they sacrificed their humanity, the only valuable thing they would ever have, in order to satisfy the ravenous hunger for blood of their god. Even to this day, many people who worship God act as though they are mindless, repeating to themselves, "Praise Jesus, for he is lord." Only human beings would think to sink to such a low point, and the bad part is, things can only get worse before they get better. Do the right thing, preserve your humanity and enjoy the only life you'll have, because once it's over, it's over for good.

The Devil Doesn't HAVE to be an Atheist.

In another fictitious world, yes, the devil is no atheist. In my fictional world, a Ranger, Bard, Paladin, and Sorcerer do battle with a legendary dragon with the aid of four different gods. The point? It doesn't matter how you say it, devils and gods are figments of the imagination. We live in reality, but some people don't seem to recognize the difference between what's real and what's fantasy. Reality is the most difficult part of life, so it comes as no surprise that people invent ways to make it easier. Unfortunately, the recliner in your living room isn't what I'm talking about.

Many people often wonder, 'Why doesn't God do the things that he used to do, such as raining fire from heaven and turning water into blood or wine?' Well, the answer is simple; he didn't, because he never existed, and neither did the thousands of other gods before and after him. Christianity has been around for a very long time and is the oldest religion because it's mainstay in human society has been mostly political. Why does this matter? Well, think about it. Worshiping God (let's say this for the sake of argument, by the way) is engaging in a monotheistic religion, which is the worship of a single god. All that is required at this point is to gather up about a hundred of your closest friends (a lot of which should be in very high places, pardon the pun) and spread the word that you've found the one true god. Oh, and do make it sound very convincing, like... 'If you don't believe me, here's his book. And if you still don't believe me, we'll torture or kill you.'

Polytheistic religions had next to no chance of establishing a political position in society. Imagine having to worship a bunch of different gods, and what if someone didn't want to worship a particular god? More problems than necessary would arise, so it's no surprise that a 'one true god' was conceived, then spread around like a disease until it had infected nearly every corner of the globe. Let's not also forget the issue of money, which religion has no problem with. Slap the two together and suddenly you have a god that demands 10% of your weekly income for whatever reason in addition to a human sacrifice every now and again. We won't get into any of the other requirements you have to meet to be a 'good' person.

Another big problem is that the Christian religion is divided into several denominations who obviously can't agree on the same thing. For example, some of them believe that the doctrine regarding the Holy Trinity is correct, while others believe that God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ are separate entities with different purposes. Still others regard the Abrahamic teachings to be accurate, while a couple (that I'm aware of) don't teach from the bible at all! You'd think that if God wanted his word taught right, he'd either have taught it himself or had a single book written in a language that EVERYONE could understand.

In conclusion, the devil is no atheist because he exists in a fictional world where the god he corresponds with exists. Unfortunately, that world is outside of the bounds of reality, something that was conjured up in someone's head. In reality, things are far more different and operate on a predictable basis where science and the people who understand it can logically pursue an end that all of humanity can comprehend. I honestly wouldn't want to live any other way, especially if that way deluded my sense of logic.

Choose: Jesus or the Flamethrower!

Yet another instance where the Christian masses attempt to threaten humanity with the false promise of an impossible afterlife. Here, yet again, another message is conveyed from the forked Christian tongue stating that unless we (humanity) accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we shall all die our second death in the lake of fire. What's ironic is that I myself even received this threat from my own grandmother, the one individual that is supposed to love and understand me the most. Threatening someone with eternal damnation is not the best way to get someone to believe, unless the person is dimwitted beyond all reason.

Directing a threat at someone to get them to do what you want them to is one of man's most primitive methods of control. This is a cheap tactic that is used in times of war, as well as love. Yes, even in relationships, a thinly veiled threat can be issued to bend the other person to a specified command, and how appropriate, because God's 'loving' relationship with us is one of violence, destruction, and coercion. All through the bible, one can find passages where God used his prophets to issue threats against humanity in an attempt to get them to submit to worshiping him. Despite all this, there are many strong individuals in this world who refuse to bow to such cowardice, preferring not to worship such a tyrant.

God is no better than the people who convey his message; the bible proves this. Using the assumption that he exists (for the sake of argument, of course), it would seem that this almighty being has managed to convey the wrong message in a time where the correct message is needed the most. A fatal error like this can only be explained as God being fallible, full of flaws, and ultimately a fake. Much of the content in the bible describes human behavior, not godly behavior; even George Carlin himself stated that 'our DNA has not changed significantly even over the course of one hundred-thousand years!' If that statement is true, then the bible is just the ultimate, 'epic fail' attempt at brainwashing a society that could otherwise be secular and free from tyranny.

To conclude, I'd like to add that when I was a child, I was told not to believe in fairy tales, yet I was taught about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and other fictional characters. Believing or not believing in these fictional characters brings no benefit or harm to anyone, yet somehow, not believing in the Christian god can bring eternal damnation to a person. Mind you, this is the same god that exists in a book that also mentions (and describes) satyrs, unicorns, angels, demons, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We have zero evidence to support the existence of any of the aforementioned entities, least of all a god. Thus, threatening humanity with a fairy tale is quite possibly the most humorous idea ever conceived. The only problem is, nobody seems to be laughing.

What I -really- mean when I say 'fight against atheism'...

Atheism is not a fight, and it's not a battle to prove anything. When I say that Christianity is losing the fight against atheism, it simply means that Christians are providing weaker and weaker arguments for their religion in an ongoing struggle to keep said religion alive. Atheism, for the most part, is not a fight to uphold any beliefs, but rather it is a stance on disbelieving theistic beliefs. More information can be found at this blog.

God Is Back-Asswords

The message on this sign has got to be one of the biggest lies ever told. Aside from the fact that God has never been anyone's best friend, whoever came up with the idea for this message is clearly trying to compare a genocidal maniac with a loving, loyal companion. Modern-day Christians try to inform the world daily that God loves each and every one of us and wants to have a personal relationship with his children. The big problem with this approach is that it's extremely hard for me (and millions of other people) to believe this kind of garbage when God has the bloodiest history known in any book in existence.

Dogs, although capable of being savage animals, can be trained with affection and devotion to become guards, loyal companions, guides for the crippled or blind, and even hunters. God, on the other hand, is supposedly beyond human control and can do whatever he wants. According to the bible, however, there's no compassion to be had in this being whatsoever. He has punished the human race for being true to their nature on more than one occasion, slaughtered his creations many times over for crimes as huge as disobedience or as slight as forgetfulness, cursed many people with diseases, misfortune or what-have-you, and all for what? This so-called 'best friend' even condoned the death of infants by allowing them to be dashed against stones (Psalm 137:9)! What kind of madman do these brainwashed fools worship anyway?

Compared even to a mistreated pit bull, God is the furthest thing on the visible spectrum from being anyone's best friend. I'd rather have the seat torn out of my pants by a dog anyday than for anything this God could dish out to happen to me. One only needs to look at the many stories in the bible to see how much of a pissing contest God has had with himself just to prove his power: Job, Pharaoh, Adam and Eve, Noah, David, and even his own son, Jesus Christ. Dogs don't do this; if someone who owns a dog is being threatened, chances are that dog is going to jump to his master's defense in any way it can. God, on the other hand, is quick to judge and condemn which is unfortunately excused by Christians by them claiming that he's the ultimate authority and shouldn't be questioned. I've already gone into some detail about what I think about authority being questioned.

In short, it doesn't matter how 'God' is spelled, he's still going to carry with him the same bloodstained past and the same immoral actions that he's always had, making him the most ass-backwards creation most people have ever heard of. Apologizing and making excuses for this deity don't make a difference for what he did, even if he is the ultimate authority. I, for one, will never worship a being that sees fit to kill someone for simply disobeying a command, even out of forgetfulness. Now, if you'll excuse me, my dog needs a walk.

God's Not-So-Enduring Word.

I've gotten into a trend of thinking lately, and the trend goes something along the lines of people saying the most outrageous things. Here, we have the perfect representation of that trend. On the outside, the message seems to be trying to give comfort to Christians, informing them that God's word is unchanging and forever steadfast in its ability to convey the life-giving message that has been constant in the pages of the holy book that represents it. On the inside, however, things are different; as with most things, surprising to say the least.

One need only google how the bible came into existence to find many different theories on how the process went about, which is my overall point. If God is constant, and his word the same, there would be no need to debate it; it would be enduring and steadfast, able to stand up to the most relentless of attacks. As it stands, philosophers and theologists go back and forth trying to prove one way or another that their theories are the right ones or that they know exactly what happened. It's a constant battle on a single subject that has been ongoing for centuries with no end in sight, and even worse, innocent bystanders with different or a lack of beliefs find themselves caught in the crossfire, most of the time unintentionally.

The English dictionary (pick one up at your local store) has many definitions on the word 'endure', but all of them seem to point to the conclusion that it means to continue forward without giving in. It is true that the bible has been under attack for centuries, but has it really stood the test of time? There are many different versions of the bible, all of which have a plethora of differences. If we included the Christian argument that God is completely unchanging and so is his word, then reality would very quickly disagree. It would seem then, that the bible has indeed stood up to the test of time, but it has been bent, twisted, and changed in order to allow it to do so.

To endure something means to last through, and with the way things are going in the world today, God's word will eventually need a new translation to regain its footing. Each and every day, churches around the world lose another member, and the ones that remain are desperate to refill their ranks with people who have been indoctrinated into the Christian faith. I'd like to reiterate that if God and his word were both constant and unchanging, there would be no need to debate it, much less to discuss an endurance issue. As it is, both God and his word have been, are, and always will be subject to debate and theories. Will his word endure forever? Time will tell.

Wishful Thinking.

This is a very interesting message that caught my attention, and was a bit tricky. Obviously, what the message wants to convey to the Christian fellowship is that wishing and praying are two different things. Wishing is merely hoping for something to happen, while praying to God is what will set things right. In a fictitious world, this manner of logic would make perfect sense. But in a world where reality disagrees with the existence of any gods, this message would likely raise a few questions.

Wishing and praying, both in a secular society (and even world), both rely on a single element: hope. When engaging in either practice of praying to a god or making a wish upon a star, one is hoping that something beneficial will happen (or in the former, disastrous, mainly towards the opposition). The sad fact is, hope is very easily crushed. When someone wishes or prays for something, there's a high chance that whatever it is they are hoping for won't come to fruition. The same can also be said for someone who prays or wishes for something and someone in another part of the world is praying or wishing for the exact opposite; SOMEONE is going to be very disappointed. My point? Prayer and wishes are not mutually exclusive, but hope is when combined with either of the two.

There is another difference between the two, however. Prayer can be used to calm a person, and helps them feel as if they're really talking to another human being. Wishing, as I've experienced, can sometimes get a person unraveled and excited. But then again, so can prayer. It's all about how you approach the situation, I suppose. Different people do different things. I, for example, don't pray. I try not to wish, but on occasion, I do. Hope is what drives me to wish for things, and it also drives me to carry out the actions I need to fulfill on my part to help the wish come true. What do I do when I get stressed out, though? Instead of praying, I count to ten.

In conclusion, in a world where gods exist, this message would be perfectly correct. However, we live in the real world where fairy tales are just that: fairy tales. It's nice to think that we might have a father in the heavens who watches over us, but it's just wishful thinking, the substance of things hoped for: faith, which is something I won't go into at this time. The bottom line is that wishes and prayers both require hope to fuel them, regardless of how you go about engaging in either practice. The real question is, which of these is the REAL substitute?