Morality (Sodom and Gomorrah)

IMPURITY-Whatever I thought I knew about morality and religion in the past is very different than what I think today. Many people believe that morality comes from religion and the two are inseparable. Many Christians have this false belief that without the Bible, humans would have never figured out what was "good" or what was "bad." People think that the Bible has delivered upon us the end-all be-all of morality. I truly hope everyone that is reading this really takes a moment to think about this example of what the Bible shows us of morality, and not just morality, equality. This excerpt is from one of my favorite authors and one of the most highly regarded scientists in recent history:

In the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Noah equivalent, chosen to be spared with his family because he was uniquely righteous, was Abraham's nephew Lot. Two male angels were sent to Sodom to warn Lot to leave the city before the brimstone arrived. Lot welcomed them into his house, where all of the men of Sodom gathered and demanded that Lot should hand the angels over so that they could (what else?) sodomize them: "Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them" (Gen.19:5). Yes, "know" has the Authorized Version's usual euphemistic meaning, which is very funny in the context. Lot's gallantry in refusing the demand suggests that God might have been onto something when he singled him out as the only good man in Sodom. But Lot's halo is tarnished by the terms of his refusal: "I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing"(Gen.19:7-8).
Whatever else this strange story might mean, it surely tells us something about the respect accorded to women in this intensely religious culture. As it happened, Lot's bargaining away of his daughters' virginity proved unnecessary, for the angels succeeded in repelling the men by miraculously striking them blind. They then warned Lot to decamp immediately with his family and his animals, because the city was about to be destroyed. The whole household escaped, with the exception of Lot's unfortunate wife, whom the Lord turned into a pillar of salt because she committed the offense of looking over her shoulder at the fireworks display.
Lot's two daughters make a brief reappearance in the story. After their mother was killed, they lived with their father in a cave up a mountain. Starved of male company, they decided to make their father drunk and have sex with him. Lot was beyond noticing when his elder daughter arrived in his bed or when she left, but he was not too drunk to impregnate her. The next night, the two daughters agreed it was the younger one's turn. Again Lot was too drunk to notice, and he impregnated her too.(Gen.19:31-36). If this dysfunctional family was the best Sodom had to offer by way of morals, some might begin to feel a certain sympathy with God and his judicial brimstone.


Source: Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Pages 271-272

Tearing Down the Walls

RECONNECT-It's been several weeks since I've made a new post (mostly due to the Fall semester beginning), but I haven't forgotten about the reasons why I started this blog. Over the past year, I have pulled a 180 degree turn regarding my views about some very important things in life. Religion, God, life, science, and evolution to name a few. Why, you might ask, have I experienced this change? The simple answer to this question is the fact that I broke down a wall in my mind that wouldn't allow myself to let in any possibilities other than what I had already believed. It was definitely not an overnight turnaround. Every neuron in my brain fought against letting go of what I had grown up to know. Finally, the dominoes started to fall, and I am so happy that they did. Everything that I had programmed into my mind was concrete (or so I thought.) I was so closed-minded to the point that I was saying I was open-minded only in denial. Regretfully, I have come to find out that I have believed some pretty ridiculous things in my 28 years on this planet. Talking snakes, ascendancy to Heaven (via "the Rapture"), homosexuals deserving Hell, and most of all, that an invisible God provided eternal life for me if I said a few words and believed.
Here recently while taking an economics class, the teacher had an interesting question. Is "greed" good? (It's from the Gordon Gekko Wall Street speech.) I thought about this for some time, and then I realized what it meant....incentives. Incentives are what humans seek in everything we do so I asked myself, regarding my views about Jesus, if I took out the incentive of Heaven, would I still worship Him? Well, the simple answer to this question is no, and when you think about the ridiculous amount of time that is consumed in worshipping and serving, it just isn't logical or rational to wager on one out of the thousand gods available just because your parents told you specifically to worship this one. I thought about how I could be using that time productively toward my REAL wife and daughter, to my REAL career, to my REAL hobbies. Not some fantasy that I had no proof of. Eternal life....what does that even mean? How could a human being ever have the capacity to understand infinity? It doesn't make sense, but I used to think it was perfectly clear. If you can understand infinite time going forward, then you can understand infinite time going backward, and that is where the fun begins regarding macro-evolution and the birth of our Universe, but I'll save that for another time. You see, if God exists, then He had a purpose for our lives, our race, our species, but that purpose allowed so much death and suffering. My question remains unanswered: how could an all-powerful, all-loving, perfect God, let His children suffer so much? 22,000 children die every single day from starvation and disease. Especially when we have at our "supposed" arsenal Matthew 21:22 at hand. I suppose this is because of "mankind's sin?" There would be nothing holding me back from saving my children from death no matter what means were needed to be used. No matter what master plan I had originally scripted, it would have to be altered because I would go to any lengths to save my daughter or wife from harm. Yet, the contradiction of free will and prayer cannot be answered by my opponents either. If Jesus spoke the infallible truth in Matthew 21:22, then why can't we pray away our disease? Surely anything is possible through prayer. However, no matter how hard we pray, AIDS and cancer remain prominent death machines that eradicate people all over the globe. And speaking of cancer: does cancer come from mankind's sin? The Bible says sin leads to death. I never stopped to consider the alternative, and for this, I am truly regretful to waste so many years....that prayer and God may simply be superstition; fictitious. The problems of infinite regression will always remain; if we were created, then who created the creator? You see my point hopefully, but what I ask is that we all see life through an unbiased lens. Letting go of the bedtime stories that our parents told us. Searching for truth using the scientific method to back up any claims. Living life free from religious dogma, and unaffected by what the local preacher says we must do to get to an unwitnessed, unproven place called Heaven. Letting our children have a choice instead of using fear of hellfire and eternal damnation as a means of control. Tithing, praying, worshipping, and most importantly, we may be wasting our most valuable time and efforts on something that is purely unsubstantiated. For what reason would I believe in these supernatural stories when I innocently laugh inside while reading my daughter a tale of Dr. Seuss? My aim is none other than trying to explain to others how religion can be bondage, and an open-mind that's able to explore all of the avenues of possibility is much more powerful than one that simply recites what their pastor or parents told them. Moraliy and religion can be separated. It is possible that mankind would have figured out that killing each other was a bad thing. Some apologists say without the Bible, we would have no morality. That is simply false. Without relgious control in our world, humans can understand how to make this world a truly better place. A place where questions can be asked, and other ideas and ways of thought are tolerated. One where truth is found, not simply believed.
In conclusion, I leave you with this anonymous quote that I was proposed when I used to militantly defend my Judeo-Christian God awhile back on a certain forum...."when you understand why you dismiss all the other religion’s gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."