Let me ask a question of those that follow the main monotheistic religions here (Judaism, Christianity, Islam).
God is omnipotent, omni-benevolent and omniscient? Yes? Good.
Now whilst it is basically a fact that modern humans have been around for the past 200,000 years (that is, in our relatively current form, as opposed to earlier hominid evolution which we can trace back for millions of years before), let us operate with a minutely small assumption that they have been around for only 70,000 years.
Monotheistic religion emerged about 4,000 years ago, yes?
So for 66,000 years, God watches. He watches while humans die, mostly of simple bodily infection, with ridiculously high infant mortality rates. They probably live for perhaps 20-30 years, on average, in comparatively squalid conditions, and die in horribly painful ways. For 66,000 years God watches and does nothing. He watches as humanity suffers and toils, as thousands of generations struggle and die in such conditions, as thousands of children die before they reach the age of 3 and does absolutely nothing.
This is to say nothing of the wars and evils they will inflict upon eachother, as opposed to those they suffer by virtue of their very existence.
After 66,000 years (perhaps 62,000 to anticipate the argument that the events described in the earliest parts of the Bible constitute an intervention) of such suffering, God decides "that's enough of this, I'll fix all this up" and finally decides to intervene in the world by picking one group of people and furthering their cause to the detriment of those who once inhabited the land that he helped them violently invade (what a coincidence, those people just happened to write that book, but let's put that aside for a second).
Several thousand years later, he decides that his previous solution really won't do, and says "I'll fix this up again", essentially by offering human sacrifice in the most brutal and torturous of ways.
How fortunate that the evidence to suggest that such a ghastly dogma is true is precisely nil.
Why is it, then, that such a nonsensical ideology currently holds an inordinate amount of control over the legislative and executive governmental arms of many apparently secular nations, such as ours and the USA?
God is omnipotent, omni-benevolent and omniscient? Yes? Good.
Now whilst it is basically a fact that modern humans have been around for the past 200,000 years (that is, in our relatively current form, as opposed to earlier hominid evolution which we can trace back for millions of years before), let us operate with a minutely small assumption that they have been around for only 70,000 years.
Monotheistic religion emerged about 4,000 years ago, yes?
So for 66,000 years, God watches. He watches while humans die, mostly of simple bodily infection, with ridiculously high infant mortality rates. They probably live for perhaps 20-30 years, on average, in comparatively squalid conditions, and die in horribly painful ways. For 66,000 years God watches and does nothing. He watches as humanity suffers and toils, as thousands of generations struggle and die in such conditions, as thousands of children die before they reach the age of 3 and does absolutely nothing.
This is to say nothing of the wars and evils they will inflict upon eachother, as opposed to those they suffer by virtue of their very existence.
After 66,000 years (perhaps 62,000 to anticipate the argument that the events described in the earliest parts of the Bible constitute an intervention) of such suffering, God decides "that's enough of this, I'll fix all this up" and finally decides to intervene in the world by picking one group of people and furthering their cause to the detriment of those who once inhabited the land that he helped them violently invade (what a coincidence, those people just happened to write that book, but let's put that aside for a second).
Several thousand years later, he decides that his previous solution really won't do, and says "I'll fix this up again", essentially by offering human sacrifice in the most brutal and torturous of ways.
How fortunate that the evidence to suggest that such a ghastly dogma is true is precisely nil.
Why is it, then, that such a nonsensical ideology currently holds an inordinate amount of control over the legislative and executive governmental arms of many apparently secular nations, such as ours and the USA?
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