zappepcs's Journal: Speaking of the wrath of a deity.....

Yes, it would seem that the wrath of god is a recurring theme in life, history, and religion. A common theme across all of those three. You have to wonder about that, well I did anyway. I subscribed to the Atheism reddit, and despite what your feelings might be about Reddit in general, they do seem to have a nice aggregation of Atheism related stories. Here is one such story. For what it's worth, the blog author seems to write well, and state his opinion without too much partisanship. It's worth a read.

Full text: http://www.atheistrev.com/2008/02/god-wants-scorched-earth-warfare.html

FTFB:

Continuing on with this project to read the Christian bible cover to cover is becoming increasingly arduous. I find that I have to be in the right mood to read it, and that even then, it is slow going. My last post in this series dealt with Deuteronomy and Joshua. This one has me moving through Judges, Ruth, and 1 Samuel. Frankly, it also has me wondering how much more of this I can take.

and

In Judges, we also see yet another mention of the scorched earth sort of warfare utilized by god's chosen people. They kill every last one of their enemies, including their livestock, and burn their towns to the ground (Judges 20:41-48). But the atrocities do not stop here, for the conquering Israelites also kill the women and children, saving only the female virgins (Judges 21:10-11). After all, they need to capture wives. Surely the Christian god would not condone such practices! Actually, this god not only condones but commands these very war crimes. When the Israelites refuse to kill sheep and cattle which they might actually be able to use, they are severely punished (1 Samuel 15:7-34).

I particularly like how this author (vjack at Atheist Revolution) is reading the christian bible in view of how we would react to such things happening in the current world. It's not hard to imagine that our current morals are a much higher standard than those in the god paradigm. In fact, we would probably have tried him for war crimes and hung him long ago if god were actually real.

Cold dispassionate and scientific analysis of the religions (and their holy texts) based on the 'god of Abraham' can only lead to an understanding that they are organized insanity. It might not ever happen in my lifetime, but I look forward to the day when humankind is no longer plagued by these things. Citing Star Trek is probably cliche' but it works here. They did not worship any deity on the Enterprise, and despite the lack of religious guidance, James T. Kirk was a man of morals. He was the kind of leader and human that most religious folk wish they could be. Star Trek became hugely popular because the characters were of admirable quality, had morals, and in the face of adversity they behaved the way that good people should, they way christians believe they should, wish they could. Shame they have to keep believing in their imaginary friend.

If you bang your head every time you get into your car, you should eventually think about changing the way that you get into your car. Perhaps it's time we change how we live. Maybe this religion thing is really not so good for society as a whole?

In politics, following the money and finding out who is getting rich off of tax dollars is a damned good way to figure out where the graft and corruption is. Ever wonder what happens when you follow the money generated by organized religions? Think about that, and like the author of the blog I reference we should be worried that these people and their money believe in killing on massive scales when their compassionate deity says they are right... or rather when they say their deity says they are right. I think we should take away their ability to raise so much money and influence tax free. That's just me, but I think it would help curb the unbridled way in which they try to manipulate governments.