thought of the day.5

The Ten Commandments are not about morality but control.
Morality comes from within and demands the very best of us—
insight, compassion and courage.

Commandments or laws are imposed from without and demand nothing more than mere obedience.

thought of the day.4

Believing that the King of the Universe watches over one’s each and every move, knows one’s each and every thought, cherishes one’s each and every hair on one’s precious head, is not an act of humility but unbridled egotism.

thought of the day.3

The seeker of truth holds all “truths” tentatively and welcomes additional information that may prove them false.

The True Believer possesses “The Truth” and eschews any contradictory information as necessarily false.

thought of the day.2

No humane person could be happy in heaven knowing a family member, friend, or even a perfect stranger is suffering in hell.

So if hell exists, heaven cannot.

thought of the day.1

Because we are so profoundly limited by the subjective nature of our mind, the instant the idea of a god enters our consciousness is the instant we’ve created our own god—a false god, an idol.

Atheism then, is not only the most reasonable position based on the lack of evidence for such a being, but must also be, ironically, less offensive to any such possible deity than theism.

The Santa God Delusion

Santa is God to children as God is Santa to adults.

As believers in Santa, we go to the mall to tell Santa what we want and to the mail box to send him letters. We present offerings of milk and cookies, sing songs and read stories about him and his supernatural powers. As believers in God, we go to the church instead of the mall and talk to the priest or pastor instead of Santa. We send our letters in prayer form through the air rather than the mail, our offerings are of cash instead of cookies, and of course we sing songs and read stories about God as well. Both God and Santa are all-knowing, seeing our each and every deed. They sit as cosmic judges, showering the good with toys and blessings, while punishing the bad with a lump of coal or burning them like one. Both hail from faraway places, Santa residing in a secret place atop the world and God above the clouds. Santa writes people’s names in his big book as does God. Both have somehow existed forever and neither seems likely to ever die. Both Santa and God have supernatural helpers and both are creators and distributors of gifts, Santa employing elves to assist him and God, angels.

Both children and adults long to see the object of their affection and many are convinced they do. A glimpse of a red hat in the living room on Christmas Eve, the sound of reindeer on the roof, the jingle of a bell or an angel in human form, a magical, unexplainable feeling, a heavenly whisper, an answered prayer.

It’s fun and relatively harmless to believe such things as a child. It may bring joy and comfort to persist in such delusion as an adult but it’s hardly harmless. Belief in the supernatural leads to unwarranted guilt and fear and the danger increases dramatically with increased power as when the Christian Church burned priceless books and countless people, when Muslims, sure of their ticket to Paradise, flew planes into buildings, or when the most powerful man in the world thought he heard the whisper of his God command war.