So you're saying I'm a coward.

I've got a comment this week that kinda pissed me off. I'm not a person who gets pissed off easily by a comment. Maybe that's because I don't get that many comments and all of the comments I receive so far has been sort of constructive with the exception of Chuck.


So how did this comment leaver managed to piss me off? Ok, here's "How to piss me off with a comment 101"
- Don't write anything, just give me a link to some Christian site
- Make sure it's not a hyperlinked text i.e. make me highlight the link, copy and paste it to the address bar. Jeez that's like 2 seconds of my life wasted there already.
- Be damn sure that the article I will have to read is long-winded, pointless and subtly insulting as well.

That was what Betsy did to me and that is what I'm gonna do to you, my dear readers, so that you can feel my pain. This is the address:
http://www.christiananswers.net/evangelism/beliefs/atheism.html

Ok, I'm not that cruel, the site is here but don't read it. I almost fell asleep reading it and miss the paragraphs where the author insults my intelligence.

How do you know that there is no conscious existence after death? The main reason that people claim to not believe in an afterlife is that they think that the idea is a naive wish-fulfillment in the face of the fear of death.

Credit where credit's due, the author's spot on with these 2 sentences. I do think that God and his paradise should be put in the same box as the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus as it's all "naive wish-fulfillment in the face of the fear of death". But?

But disbelief in an afterlife could have the same intellectual status. It could be the hopeful wish that there might be no accountability to anyone after we die, and the hope that there is no intrusive authority in our lives before that time.

Now I'm insulted. You're saying I'm a hopeful, sinful coward who's petrified at the prospects of being judged by a supreme being, who created time but is outside of time (wtf?), at the end of days. So petrified that I'm in denial of the said supreme being. Excuse me, I feel the need to go into a corner, wrap myself in my beloved security blanket and whimper with fear of the wrath of God before turning that fear into steely denial of God's existence.

If I'm what you suggested I am, I would have believed, even though deep down I'm always a skeptical, in God and all that crap. There's no evidence that God exists or not but if you choose to believe in his existence you stand to lose nothing and gain everything. Here are 2 scenarios.

Scenario 1: you believe in God even though you're skeptical all your life then you die and find out that there's no God, no paradise, nothing. So what does it mean? You wasted all your life believing in something that isn't there and end up in the same place as the evil atheists, the non-believers and everybody else. You lose nothing but a lifetime of believing.

Scenario 2: you believe in God even though you're skeptical all your life then you die and find out that, surprise surprise, there's a God and there's paradise and everything the Bible says there should be. You stand to gain entrance into paradise because you never denounce God outright.

So I guess the smart choice for me if I'm a coward, who fears retribution at the end of days, would be to immediately denounce my atheism and open my heart to God or so to speak. However I don't find anything wrong with not believing in some outdated ancient beliefs. What's wrong is killing people because they don't believe in the same thing as you or because they are different. What's wrong is believing in some ancient text which approves of slavery and rape and which claims itself to be the exact words of God.

If you're thinking I've finished being pissed off, you're wrong. That was just mild annoyance. Here's what actually pissed me off big time:

Why the Atheist doesn't exist

There can be no such things as an atheist. This is why: Let's imagine that you are a professing atheist. Here are two questions for you to answer: First, do you know the combined weight of all the sand on all the beaches of Hawaii? We can safely assume that you don't. This brings us to the second question: Do you know how many hairs are on the back of a fully-grown male Tibetan yak? Probably not. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that there are some things that you don't know. It is important to ask these questions because there are some people who think they know everything.

Let's say that you know an incredible one percent of all the knowledge in the universe. To know 100 percent, you would have to know everything. There wouldn't be a rock in the universe that you would not be intimately familiar with, or a grain of sand that you would not be aware of. You would know everything that has happened in history, from that which is common knowledge to the minor details of the secret love life of Napoleon's great-grandmother's black cat's fleas. You would know every hair of every head, and every thought of every heart. All history would be laid out before you, because you would be omniscient (all-knowing).

Bear in mind that one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, Thomas Edison, said, "We do not know a millionth of one percent about anything." Let me repeat: Let's say that you have an incredible one percent of all the knowledge in the universe. Would it be possible, in the ninety-nine percent of the knowledge that you haven't yet come across, that there might be ample evidence to prove the existence of God? If you are reasonable, you will be forced to admit that it is possible. Somewhere, in the knowledge you haven't yet discovered, there could be enough evidence to prove that God does exist.

Let's look at the same thought from another angle. If I were to make an absolute statement such as, "There is no gold in China," what is needed for that statement to be proven true? I need absolute or total knowledge. I need to have information that there is no gold in any rock, in any river, in the ground, in any store, in any ring, or in any mouth (gold filling) in China. If there is one speck of gold in China, then my statement is false and I have no basis for it. I need absolute knowledge before I can make an absolute statement of that nature. Conversely, for me to say, "There is gold in China," I don't need to have all knowledge. I just need to have seen a speck of gold in the country, and the statement is then true.

To say categorically, "There is no God," is to make an absolute statement. For the statement to be true, I must know for certain that there is no God in the entire universe. No human being has all knowledge. Therefore, none of us is able to truthfully make this assertion.

If you insist upon disbelief in God, what you must say is, "Having the limited knowledge I have at present, I believe that there is no God." Owing to a lack of knowledge on your part, you don't know if God exists. So, in the strict sense of the word, you cannot be an atheist. The only true qualifier for the title is the One who has absolute knowledge, and why on earth would God want to deny His own existence?

The professing atheist is what is commonly known as an "agnostic" - one who claims he "doesn't know" if God exists. It is interesting to note that the Latin equivalent for the Greek word is "ignoramus." The Bible tells us that this ignorance is "willful" (Psalm 10:4). It's not that a person can't find God, but that he won't. It has been rightly said that the "atheist" can't find God for the same reason a thief can't find a policeman. He knows that if he admits that there is a God, he is admitting that he is ultimately responsible to Him. This is not a pleasant thought for some.

It is said that Mussolini (the Italian dictator), once stood on a pinnacle and cried, "God, if you are there, strike me dead!" When God didn't immediately bow to his dictates, Mussolini then concluded that there was no God. However, his prayer was answered some time later.

Excerpted from God Doesn't Believe in Atheists by Ray Comfort

What I'm wondering is:

- Who the frack decides that the definition for the word "atheist" is "some pain in the ass who knows everything including the weight of all the sand in the world"? The definition from Dictionary.com is "a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings" and that is the definition that I use, sorry to disappoint.

- Would it be possible, in the ninety-nine percent of the knowledge that we haven't yet come across, that there might be ample evidence to prove the non-existence of God?

- To say, categorically, "There is a God" is to make an absolute statement. For the statement to be true, you must know for certain that there is a God. No human being has all knowledge. Therefore, none of us is able to truthfully make this assertion.

- Who says atheists are agnostics? They are completely different. Even though I'm no linguist, the origin of the word "agnostic" is the Greek word "ágnōtos" which means "not known, incapable of being known" whereas the Latin word "ignōrāmus" is a legal term that means "we do not know" originally. The word "Ignoramus" has its modern meaning of "an ignorant person" because of a 1615 satirical play by George Ruggle which poked fun at the ignorance of common lawyers. So I guess what I'm trying to say is even if ignōrāmus is the Latin equivalence of ágnōtos it wouldn't mean that agnostics or atheists are ignorant. Who's the ignorant one now?

- This paragraph just kills me:

It is said that Mussolini (the Italian dictator), once stood on a pinnacle and cried, "God, if you are there, strike me dead!" When God didn't immediately bow to his dictates, Mussolini then concluded that there was no God. However, his prayer was answered some time later.

Of course everybody dies eventually. That is not the evidence that there is a God. How about some Christian try saying this: "Zeus, if you are there, strike me dead!"? If you are not stroke dead immediately it doesn't mean that Zeus doesn't exist coz eventually you'll die and it might be because of Zeus.

- "God doesn't believe in Atheist". Presumptuous much? You are not God, how can you know what he does or does not believe in? Do you hear him talking to you coz really you should see a psychiatrist since it can be a mental illness you have here.

Ok, now I've finished being pissed off. Let's get on with what I wanted to post in the first place. Here's a George Carlin routine for you enjoyment.