Secrets From the Ages

Chapter 14

Religions, the False Games

This Chapter is only for the students of this philosophy. It is not meant to make fun of nor insult, nor slur religions and religious people in any way. This Chapter is simply to show the logic of religion, and absence of logic for the purpose of this book. We hereby give no one the right to quote passages from this chapter, other than that which the law allows. Let me say, here at the beginning of this chapter, that if you are a religious person this chapter will probably upset you. So the best course would be to simply skip it.

Many games on Earth have been created with some semblance of logic. They are based on facts. A man starts a company installing replacement water heaters. Lots of facts and logic and action make the company (game) a success. Another man enjoys playing golf. Either he can hit the ball or he can't. Lying about it doesn't improve his game. Now let us take a look at some of the false games.

Dishonesty in the Christian Religion: Most of what I have to say here applies to all religions, not just the Christian religion, but I talk mainly about the Christian religion. A few blatant points of dishonesty are given below. There are many more, but this should be enough here to give the general idea.

Dishonest point #1. The Bible is a book of peace and good will. It has been said that the Bible is the most popular book of all time and that is probably true. What is not true is that the Bible brings peace and good will and understanding. In fact, those who have believed in and used the Bible are responsible for more wars and more deaths than the believers of any other book, with the exception of maybe the Communist Manifesto and the Koran.

Christians say that the Bible doesn't teach war, but rather it teaches peace, but that is their interpretation. The fact remains, the Bible has been the impelling force in more deaths, more torture, more suffering, and more wars than any other book. And not just a little bit, but a thousand times any other book except the Communist Manifesto. The dishonesty is in simply not facing that fact. The facts prove it is not a book of peace. It never has been. No doubt Christians want it to be a book of peace. That is admirable. But let's not pretend that it is, when the facts of history indicate otherwise.

If you think it is going to teach you how to run your life, then you really do have some problems. I told you this segment might be emotional. You can come up with all of the standard arguments if it makes you feel any better, like, "It's not really the book, but rather the people who interpreted the book." And countless other arguments throughout history. But all fail to explain away the wars and torture and death. I've heard the argument that the book is so valuable, like gold, that people fight for it. But the book has always been available to those in power, and to most anyone else who really wanted to read it. No, the fact remains, the death toll is a fact of history.

There is no doubt in my mind that this book has some truth in it. But still there is something wrong. In fact, terribly wrong, or the death toll wouldn't be so high. So handle it with care. That book is the most dangerous book ever written. It gives people a reason to not be responsible. Even today there are people who are prepared to kill because of some conviction that they have acquired from the Bible.

The old world was replete with hangings, murder, torture and death, and even genocide, in the name of the Bible. The new world was populated mostly by criminals from the old world that were tired of it all. Our Constitution separated religion from politics and government. We became the greatest country the world has ever known. Other countries which have prospered have mimicked us in many ways, especially regarding religion and politics. The Bible has been used by criminals to justify evil deeds for nearly two thousand years. They were able to convince people that they were in the right because they waved the Bible. (When I say criminals, I refer to anyone, anyone at all who used the Bible to justify torture, or war. They may not have been considered criminals at the time, but they were criminals just the same.) The fact remains that only where religion has been removed from government has the world advanced.

Dishonest Point #2. The Bible was written by God. Or it was written at least by men who were influenced by God. Really, what proof exists? The answer is that there is not one single shred of proof that the Bible was written by God or even written by men influenced by God. Nothing. There exists only the idea that the Bible was written by God. Christians would like to believe it was written by God, so they will quote all kinds of things that they believe are proof, but none of them are proof. There is simply a point where they must either believe blatant lies or admit proof does not exist that the Bible was written by God. The dishonesty is in continuing to claim that there is proof that the Bible was written by God. The honest thing would be to say we believe it was written by God, but we realize there is no real proof. Religious people continue to prove that they cannot reason logically.

Dishonest Point #3. There is tremendous proof that God exists. Well this is not to argue the existence of God. In this particular argument I don't care if he exists or not, but the fact exists that there is not one single shred of proof that God exists. That's why it is so dishonest. If the Christians would merely say, "Well, I just have faith that he exists." Then they would be honest. But, no, they must say that the evidence of God is everywhere and that the Bible offers much proof. What proof? Well, Jesus came back to life, and he brought a man back to life. That proves that he is God. Really! What doctor on the scene signed a certificate of death for either case. Who notarized statements of seeing them alive again.

We know that the group who gave evidence have proven that they will kill and steal for their own benefit, as will all races. The fact remains that there is more evidence that Elvis Presley arose from the dead than Jesus. Is he a God too? But even if he did arise from the dead, does that prove he is God? Not in my book. There have been books written about true miracles and many of them can be proven, but they still don't prove that the people were Gods or that the miracles were done by God.

Many believe it, and I have no argument with what they believe, just with what they claim to be the truth. The Bible was written by men. Many would like to believe that it was inspired by God, but no proof exists. Only beliefs and faith. When you walk outside and see a beautiful rose, it might be nice to think that is proof that God exists, but in fact, it is not proof, and it is dishonest to claim that it is proof. (The God of The Bible is infinitely more complex than the rose, and thus infinitely less likely to exist.) Maybe some cosmic children were playing in the vast nothingness and planted a seed from which this universe grew. The result of the seed was evolution toward beauty or some such thing. Or maybe we are all Gods come her to play in a garden of forgetfulness. The possibilities are vast. There are thousands of possibilities. Maybe the universe itself is God. Maybe the universe is a vast mind in which we are all only dreams of that mind. Actually there are millions of possibilities. Again religious people continue to prove that they cannot reason logically.

Dishonest Point #4. Jesus died for our sins and this was the greatest sacrifice that can be given to man. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." For nearly two thousand years Christians have pretended that this is the greatest thing that has ever been. They have pretended that God gave the ultimate sacrifice. BUT HOW COULD THAT BE? How can it be a sacrifice for the ultimate God of all creation to die on a cross, or His Son? Jesus knew that he would be with God in heaven the same minute he died. His Father knew He wasn't losing Him, that They would soon be together.

For a God of such power to die on the cross would be nothing worse than you having a sneezing fit for thirty seconds. To pretend that it was a magnificent thing and a great sacrifice is extremely dishonest, and in addition it is disrespectful to all of the soldiers that died in the first and second world wars and other wars of our country. Those men died so that you can live in a free country, and they had no knowledge of proof that they would ever be alive again, and their fathers never saw them again. Those men really gave their lives for you and me, but Jesus was merely dead for three days, according to The Bible. No great sacrifice. He died on the cross and was dead for three days, and during those days he was in heaven. How is that a sacrifice?

Our service men that died will never see their parents again. That is infinitely a much greater sacrifice than Jesus, and they should honestly be rated above Jesus as far as sacrifices are concerned. If God's son had died and stayed dead forever, then you might talk about a sacrifice. Still, even then an infinite God would be able to do something that would overcome even that terrible thing. The fact is, there is no disaster that an infinite God could not overcome or undo. But besides that fact, Jesus was only dead for three days, and during that time he was in heaven with his Father. Three days in heaven with His Father, that's a short vacation, how do you call that a huge sacrifice?

One can't have it both ways. One can't claim his God is infinite and can do anything, and then claim he did a great sacrifice for mankind. That's dishonest. That's not facing the facts. If one has said his God is all powerful, then he must know that this God can overcome any thing that happens with no problem, and thus any sacrifice that he makes, he can nullify at any time he chooses. One should have the ability to observe that it really isn't a sacrifice. It would be one choice or some sort of a game that God is playing.

Dishonest Point #5. Free will. This is another point where Christians want their belief to be logical in two opposing ways. They want a God who has infinite powers and who knows everything that ever happened or that ever will happen, however they still want to believe that God creates everyone with free will. Again it is a point where they simply cannot be honest with themselves. It would be easy enough to face the facts a dozen different ways, such as saying, "Well, God is infinite and all powerful, but He doesn't know all of the future." The fact remains, if God knows what you will choose long before you are created, then He is creating you to do that which He knows you will do.

Besides the fact that if any being is the way that God created him to be, God still prevents free will. Even if God created a neutral, a nothing being and allowed that being to create all of his own ideas himself and did not influence that being, He is still preventing free will. God says if you don't live as I say, you go to hell forever. If you don't love Me with all your heart, mind, and soul you will go to hell. How can you call that being free to do what you want. Free will is a free choice, not coercion to do what God wants. But it is worse than that. God knows, millions of years before He ever created you that you are going to hell (if you are) and knowing that, He still created you. In that case, he actually created you to go to hell. He knew you were going to hell before He created you.

Aside from the point of why would He do that, why would He create all that pain for no reason? If He knew before He created you what you will do, then he created you to do what he knew you would do, that then was foreordained and that cannot be called free will? Your will is free to do only that which He knows you are going to do. The fact is, if God were all powerful, why would He create a being that does not worship him, if that is what He wants. He wants only those who worship Him. The dishonesty here is for one to continue to insist that he has free will even though he knows that if he doesn't follow what God has said, he will go to hell for eternity. That is not a very free choice.

If this kind of logic were used in any field but religion one would be the laughing stock of that field of knowledge. It is blatantly dishonest. A being that has not created himself, is then what his creator created him to be. It simple cannot be other wise. Spiritual, philosophical, and religious people have for millenniums desired to have their God or some higher ultimate being be able to create them with free will. But it simply isn't possible. If you have free will, you created yourself, there is no way around it. And you did. You are God. You created yourself, and you have free will.

Dishonest Point #6. Beliefs and the Truth: Christians are fond of saying, "I know that my God lives," or some such similar statement. But the fact is, no matter how loud and hard that they say the word "know" it is still nothing more than a belief when used in the way Christians use it. Christians have somehow convinced themselves that the truth is what they believe. They somehow get the idea that they can change a belief into truth. They refuse to look at the fact that a belief may or may not be the truth. Of course, this generality is true with the believers of any philosophy or religion or cult. Still, it is a source of dishonesty that they all play on themselves first, and then try to push on to the world. The fact remains, a belief may or may not be the truth. The honest way for a Christian to profess would be to simply say, "I believe in God. I know that there is no proof, but I have faith."

The idea that one's belief is true is true of all the other religions, cults, and philosophies. Had they, over the past two thousand years, admitted to themselves that a belief is not proof and that their faith is what carried them along, they would not have killed those thousands upon thousands of non believers. Only people who are willing to lie to themselves will go out and kill and do all those other terrible things. A belief that has no proof may or may not be true and without proof, one will never know for sure. The lie is that one can know the truth for sure without proof. That was true in the past and it is still true across the world today. As long as Muslims can say, "What I believe is the absolute truth.", they can kill the rest of us with absolute impunity.

On the other hand, those who say, "I believe, but I know that is not proof," simply do not have enough conviction to kill for those beliefs. Children are taught this kind of thinking (what I believe = the truth). They soon can't differentiate between beliefs and the truth. When they are older, they continue in this vein. Not too long ago I approached a Christian and said, "You didn't keep your agreement with me.", which in fact, he had not. You know what he said? He said, "So what, I don't have to keep those kinds of agreement?" A Christian has to lie to himself about so many different ideas it soon gets to the point where he cannot differentiate between lying to himself and other people.

Dishonest point #7. God's Plan. God's plan is one more belief on Earth that continues through out almost every religion on earth. It is a universal belief that 99% of all human beings cannot break loose from. There is little doubt that this is a basic concept of all Pieces that are a part of the game here on Earth. It is probably the most revered of all religious concepts. Even those who do not believe in the basic religions and who understand past lives, still hold on to this one concept that someone or something on at higher level has a plan for each of us and for Earth itself. And that this plan is in progress and has been in progress.

But let's look at this concept. If one believes that a higher power has a plan for earth, then it would seem to follow that this higher power must have had a plan for thousands of years. That seems to be true. Most people believe that. The Bible mentions such plans and even gives the details of things to come, all by God's plan. Just by basic logic, let us look at the plans. Look at what has been happening on earth over the past 10,000 years. According to all these beliefs, the course of History must have followed God's plan, as we know that God is all powerful. It is doubtful that he has failed for the past 10,000 years. So what had been the "course of History?"

We all know the general course of history. It has been wars, torture, murder, killing and destruction. There has never been a 20 year span over the 10,000 years we are talking about when a war was not being fought. Cities have been destroyed, genocide has been the order of the decade, children have been butchered, and no one's life has ever gone untouched by the slaughter, regardless of the age in which they might have lived. So can you believe that a God or any power would make those plans. Or are you going to say that God made good plans and people made them bad? Still proves that God is a poor planner as he should include the understanding that people might make his plans bad. But that isn't the point. If one believes that God has a plan for Earth and that he has a plan for each person, he must be terribly depressed by now, as nothing has ever gone according to his plans, unless of course, one believes that God really wants to see all the killing and torture.

I'll say right now, we need a new planner as the present one is killing us. We need a planner that will bring peace to earth rather than killing and murder and death that the present plans are bringing. We need a plan that will wake the earth up and bring about some maturity to our civilization. As long as mankind believes that God has it all planed, mankind will never make its own plans. Thus we exist without a plan to bring peace to earth and to the galaxy. But, of course, that isn't the case. A man made plan is in place and is beginning to be implemented.

Further Arguments concerning Religion: We've wound up on this small planet on the edge of a medium sized galaxy in a somewhat vast universe. We're here and often instead of playing and enjoying life we get serious and begin killing one another. One of the main reasons, if not the main reason that we do this sort of stupid thing is religion. All of the major religions have supported killing one another and those of other religions for thousands of years, and still do. The fact is, there has never been a war in which both sides did not believe that God supported their cause. It is an obvious untruth, as very seldom do both sides win. The fact is that very few of the men in any war would have ever killed a single person if they did not believe that their God approved of their actions.

Man has created God in his (man's) own image. With all the killings and intolerance in religions one would have believed that man would have rejected religion long ago. Civilizations have succeeded to the extent that they have rejected religion. As I have said elsewhere in this Chapter, the USA became the greatest civilization on Earth after the Constitution removed all religion from government. This universe is vast. On a clear night look up and see thousands of stars. All of these stars belong to our galaxy. There are more than 100,000,000 stars, greater or lesser than our sun in our galaxy known as the Milky Way. When looking up on a clear night, just one of those stars that you see is not really a star at all, but rather, a full galaxy as big as our own. It is known as the Andromeda galaxy and it is our nearest galaxy neighbor. In that galaxy there are more than 100,000,000 stars. And guess what, there are hundreds of billions of galaxies each nearly as great, or greater than, our own galaxy. The fantastic vastness of the universe is really beyond human understanding.

There are now a number of theories that predict other universes beyond this one, probably with other laws and other things beyond our imagination. The point is, here we are on a tiny planet, spinning around a medium size star, way out on the very edge of a medium sized galaxy, that is one of more than 100,000,000,000 galaxies. Would I believe that the God that made all this is going to be taking the time to direct my life? If he is, it sorely disappoints me.

A God so great as to have created the billions of planets that must exist in this universe would be much greater than to be worrying with a few people here on earth. If you buy the religious theory you must believe God is allowing a few million people on Earth to kill one another, to torture one another, and many to die of a thousand and one different traumas just to allow these people to "evolve", or learn certain lessons all because he didn't create them like He wanted them in the first place. And if we would believe as we are taught, God is seeking to direct each one of these people, and He sees their pain. There must be trillions and trillions of people (beings) in this universe and if He is seeking to direct each individual on Earth, then He must be seeking to direct each one of all those trillions of people throughout the universe. It's staggering how many failures God is having daily, because very few of those people are doing as God directs. Does anyone see any illogic here?

Read further to the answer why we haven't been able to control it all yet. Why God created man: The main reason given that God created man and put him here on Earth was to finally have people living in heaven with God. God wanted people who would worship Him and be good people of their own free will, so, He has given the people He created a chance to prove that they are worthy.

The answer to, "Why did God do this?", is that he was lonely and wanted company? The argument to this reason given in the last sentence above is simple. God is supposed to be supreme and to have created everything. In that case, why would God create the emotion of loneliness? Loneliness is somewhat painful. There would be no point in a God creating pain for Himself.

The present explanations give no valid reason why God would create pain for Himself, or for that matter why God would create the desire to have company. Or for that matter why would God create in Himself the vanity that He would want people to worship him? Company from someone that is not your equal, one would think, would be of little value, especially company from someone that you have created. In any case in order for a God to desire company, he would have to create the desire, and no reason is given for him to create that desire. So when a sculptor creates a statue does it make sense for him to desire that that statue worship him because he created it? Does an engineer who creates a new car wish to have that car worship him? We create in God stupid desires that we would never imagine for ourselves.

(2) Evolution? Did it happen? Even if one believes in God he has got to have some slight amount of ability to reason. There is no possibility of evolution not happening even if God does, in fact, exist. If one believes The Bible concept of God, then he must believe that God created everything in the universe. So The Bible says, God created the Heavens and the Earth and the Earth was without form and it was dark. He then created light (the sun) and gave form to the Earth. What do you have there? The process of evolution.

The situation on Earth evolved from no form to form and from no light to light. He created the animals. But did He create a squirrel or a fish or a pig without evolution, when there had never been a squirrel before, ever, in the universe. Do you think that it could be created without evolution. He first had to create a single cell and then a thousand different kinds of cells and put them all together to make a squirrel. He had to decide on how each of those cells would interact with the other various cells. But a squirrel had never been conceived before, thus God had to decide on the color of each cell and the function of the teeth and the function of the eyes and so forth.

It doesn't matter if God took a second or a thousand years, in going from one point to the next concerning that squirrel, God had to evolve that squirrel somehow in the real universe or in His own mind. It doesn't matter how it happened, the fact is, God or something had to create each thing that exists in this universe, and everything in this universe changes. If God created this universe He did not create it fully functioning as it is now, because it has been changing for 13 billion years since it was created.

It evolved from His first ideas of it. The Bible says that. He didn't just one instant have no universe and the next instant have a full fledge universe. He thought about it and planned it. Thus it evolved either in His mind, or in actuality. His own body didn't just spring into existence. His body had the shape it had out of an evolving. There was no light at first, so what would be the purpose of eyes? There was no air to breathe, so what would be the purpose of lungs? Either God's body evolved according to those things that He created, like air, light, gravity, legs to move His body around on whatever planet, or land He created, and so forth, or He evolved other bodies as He created things.

If He evolved His own body and finally made man and woman, then possibly there was no evolution here on earth, but if not then the evolution was in heaven with God's body. But there really had to be an evolution at some time or another. Why this kind of an universe? Why not one where everyone has wings and the entire universe in filled with air and there are trees that grow on air and one flies from tree to tree in any direction for billions of miles or light years?

The fact is there are thousands, or billions of different ways one could make an universe, but this one is the way it is because it evolved that way. It doesn't matter if it evolved in God's mind first, or He had it evolve. The fact is, any universe would have to evolve to reach the situation that now exists. All things have had to evolve to the point that they are now. That is true even if they were created by God or a God. If everything was exactly as it was at the beginning of time, well then, we could say nothing has evolved, but then, nothing is the same as it was yesterday much less the beginning of time, and thus it has evolved.

I doubt that a God would take the time to change each tiny thing continuously. I rather believe that he would set things up so that they changed on their own accord, and thus you have evolution, and of course, that is exactly what we the Players did. The point that I make is why do we even have an argument about evolution? It had to have happened and it is continuing to happen all the time as long as the universe exists.

That argument does not disprove the existence of God one way or another. It does prove the absence of reason in religion. Evolution cannot prove or disprove the existence of God. But the fact that things exist in themselves prove the existence of evolution in this universe. It cannot be otherwise. Things are always in the process of changing. If there were any logic in religion its proponents would have seized upon the idea of evolution to prove God's existence instead of fighting for a completely illogical idea.

God's Plan. All religious people believe that God has a plan for Earth and even for each individual life. So if there is a God like The Bible describes, then one must believe in a plan, that is, a plan that God has for Earth. One must then believe that the plan is in progress and that things are going according to God's plan. How could things not go according to God's plan? After all, God is infallible and cannot be wrong. We must then assume that God planned that thousands of children would die each day and that thousands of people would starve to death and the thousands more would die of different debilitating diseases. If you have ever seen someone die of Alzheimer's disease, you would wonder about God's plan. If the Earth is going according to God's plan I would say that plan is a dismal failure at this time.

God is sold as a loving, wonderful, compassionate God, so how can anyone accept that idea when he knows of all the terrible things happening across earth on a continual basis. God can stop it any time he wants, according to the belief. So why create all the evil and pain and suffering? Since God created everything, he must have also created evil. So why create it?

So along comes any person who never bothers to think. He fears death or some such thing, and then he thinks he has come to grips with the question of God and why God allows such things, and finally he buys it all. He believes finally, that God has directed his whole life and has led him to this final truth. In this vast universe of trillions and trillions of planets and stars God is going to take the time to direct a tiny little person's life? For what purpose? So He can have people to live with Him for eternity, and of course, worship Him for eternity. If you buy that, then there is no point in reading this discussion. Start praying now. God has to create the suffering of millions to have people to live with Him. It would be a reasonable idea, almost, if God was not able to create good people at will. Why create evil at all. What's the point?

If evil happened to exist without God's creation or permission then maybe there would be some point to testing people to see if they could resist evil. But since God created it all, why create all the suffering? One simply doesn't need to create evil. None of the arguments make sense, and religious leaders have been saying for all time that it doesn't need to make sense, just keep the faith, baby. They always have an answer, but seldom logic. Bible Basics: The Children of Israel were God's chosen people. So God led them almost personally. He provided a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day while they were in the desert. They, however, decided to worship a golden cow while they were being led away from slavery by God. This really irritated Moses and he broke the Ten Commandments written in stone by God, the only thing ever written by God. It would seem like the Children of Israel were a poor choice as a favorite people.

You must understand, God made all these people. He knew in advance everything that they would do. That is He knows everything that you have done, and will do in the future. If you are going to fail him and wind up going to hell, well, He already knows that. So, if you are going to be bad and go to hell, and He already knows that, what is the point of Him creating you? Is it to make the good guys look good? Is it so that He can have the good guys sitting around realizing how lucky they are that they missed hell, or is it that God wants to observe your pain? I cannot come up with any logic that makes the slightest bit of sense to explain why an all knowing God would create people whom He knows will fail, and then punish them for the failure.

Let's look at the logic of this? Let's say you are God. You want people to worship you of their own choice. So you create some people and command them to love you with all their soul. But you want them to choose to obey that command, so you say to them, "If you do not obey that command I will send you to hell. Well, in actuality, you really send yourself to hell by not obeying that command." What kind of a choice is that? You also say to these people, "If you do any of the evil that I have created, you will send yourself to hell." So basically what you are really doing as God, is putting a gun to these people's head and saying, "If you do not chose to love me, I pull the trigger." Now what kind of a choice is that?

Still the preachers claim that you have a choice. You can choose to go to heaven or you can choose to go to hell. Isn't that a hell of a choice? The same choice is available to the man standing on the edge of a thousand foot cliff with a gun pointing at him. The person with the gun is saying, "Choose to kneel and worship me, or be shot and fall over the cliff." It's a choice, but not one which would stand up as a choice in a court of law. Mankind has been so used to this poor logic that even non religious people are afraid to argue the point.

The point I am trying to cover is that the basis of these religions has no logic. In order to be a Christian you must be totally dishonest with yourself. You can read it, but you cannot make any sense out of any of it. Finally you have to accept it with faith and lie that it is logical and true. Lots of people don't buy it. I would believe that one must have a great deal of guilt to accept such illogic.

Another point. Remember according to religion God knows everything that ever will be or that ever has been. He knows everything that ever will happen. People cannot tell you the reason for God's existence. Why would any being want to exist who knew everything, including what will happen. Does anyone see the illogic? Here is a God that knows everything, loving those He is going to send into outer darkness for eternity. He knew that He was going to send those that He is sending into outer darkness millions of years before He even created them. (Or to hell fire depending on what sect you belong to.) There He is, sitting on a throne, or some such thing, knowing everything that is going to happen today and tomorrow, but there He is still going through with it all, still attempting todirect your path. It would seem, not for His benefit, but maybe for ours. Look at that, if you know exactly who is going to win a race, or a baseball game, why bother? Why watch it? Worse yet, why bother to direct it?

Would you go to a fight if you knew that the fight was fixed and that your man would lie down in the first round? The One God rule: Ask any Christian how many Gods there are. Of course, he will say only one. But the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says in one of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." Why put in a full force commandment if there are no other Gods. Why say Gods, if he means idols, or persons, or things, or activities? One more proof that all Christians interpreted The Bible to fit their own beliefs and it doesn't matter what The Bible really says.

The Bible says, "God is love." Christians all interpret this statement any way they happen to believe. It has nothing to do with what The Bible really says. All Powerful God: Christians claim that their God can do anything, that He has absolute power. Then it is only natural for them to claim that God can make you any way He wants. Of course, The Bible says that God made us in His image. If we are in the image of God, we must be Gods.

Free Will: In the question of free will, Christianity believes that God made us with free will. So let's look at that. Let's say that God made the Earth and something goes wrong at Earth's core and Earth blows up. Was that explosion the responsibility of God, or did Earth decide to blow up of it's own free will? Could God give Earth free will to blow up or not blow up? So if God did not give Earth, a non thinking entity, free will, then the explosion would have to be the responsibility of God. What a terrible thing to think, eh? So what about man and free will? God made man with free will. All Christians know that. But what does it mean. God created evil and allowed man to use evil to kill and cause tremendous suffering over the millennia. God made man and He created all the desires and all the emotions that cause man to do many evil things. But man theoretically has the power to not follow these emotions that God created. Man has the power to resist all of those desires that happen to be different than what God wants. I hope you see what I am saying. Simply that God created all the desires and all of the ability to withstand the desires that God says is evil. You were created the way you are. If God did not create you with enough ability to withstand the evil desires you will not then withstand them. Why should God cause such suffering when He could create beings that are just like He wants them to be without the suffering?

The answer to that is God wants his people to want to be with Him, and the suffering is to teach them lessons. But an all powerful God could create beings who already have those lessons, or who don't need those lessons, or who already understands all about pain and how bad or good it is. If God can do anything then all the pain makes no sense at all. The fact is, no one, not even God can create another being and give that other being the gift of free will. The being will always be how he was created. His desires will have been dictated by the Creator. The being is always what the Creator created him to be, and it cannot be otherwise.

If God created you, He created you with desires, needs, wants, and the ability to think. Then He gave you free will. You will follow those desires that He created. That's not free will, that's preordained influence by God. OK, let's say He created you completely blank, but He gave you the ability to create your own desires. So what is going to determine what desires that you create? Well, whatever it is that He created in you is going to determine those desires. If He created you, how He created you to be will still be what determines what you do and are. However, the fact that God could have created you with free will, but also with the desire to serve Him, and He could have created you any way that He wanted, eliminates any logic in it all. Why cause you all the pain and millions of people dying and tortured to death just to get people who would choose him? Why not create people who would choose God of their own free will? He can do anything, can't He?

God's affliction. In the Ten Commandments God says, "Thou shalt have no other God, before me," and "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and strength." It is mentioned that you can go to hell for breaking any of these Ten Commandments. He also says, "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." He admits to it. He shows the need for revenge and jealousy that exceeds the most base of human beings. So why would anyone worship such a God? It doesn't make a lot of sense. Well, this is only part of the argument. We could go on and on for a whole book, but I am sure that you already have the idea. Maybe you already knew these arguments.

I've already said it, but let me say it again. The Creator is always responsible to His creations for their imperfections. It is not and cannot be the other way around. Morality, honesty, integrity, love, and all the other positive attributes: They really come from within you. It is your responsibility to create and have these things. Christians believe that all these come from God. The problem is that down through the centuries those that have relegated the responsibility for these things to God have been those who killed, tortured, and created wars, more so than any other group. Those who believe that they need God to tell them what is right and wrong, never seem to get it right. The reason is that each person must accept ultimate responsibility for creating those things and never expect them to come from somewhere else.

The Religious Plague: Religion prevents people from taking responsibility for self. One cannot say continuously that one is doing God's will and still take total responsibility for his life. Either he is doing what he wants or he is doing what God wants. One tries to say that he wants what God wants. But there is confusion there because one does not always know what God's plan for him is. Sometimes he thinks he knows, but there is always a question. The worst thing that religion does to mankind is prevent the proper training of children. Religion teaches us that we are created by God with a free will and that then we must be good and do things right using our free will. The fact is, however, we are as we are taught when young, mostly before six years old. That's already been covered. Anywhere on Earth that you travel, what you find there was taught to children before they were 6 years old at the point where their brains quit developing.

So, because religion will never allow children to be taught logical thinking, we have a tremendous problem. We have billions of people who cannot think and who cannot be trained to think logically. Thus wars and hate and many other problems of mankind. It doesn't take people who love, or people who have faith in God, or people who believe in God to bring about understand and peace. It take people who can think logically, people who understand that man is responsible for man, that one, anyone, has what he has created, and will have what he is creating. That one cannot escape what he is creating either by doing something or by refusing to do something.

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