Heretics Corner Podcast

i started to view my life as pointless when i was really little. why should i even bother staying alive if i exist just to die and be resurrected later? the view that living in this world is the price for “eternal paradise” took away my urgency for living and prevented me from fully engaging with many aspects of my life. i never planned for the future because i believed armageddon was going to happen and kill me before i could do anything worthwhile, i never made many friends because i was told they’d just be armageddon fodder in the end, and i didn’t take my aspirations and passions seriously because i was told that i could only successfully follow them once i died.

the lack of self-preservation comes from the extremes you’re expected to go through for god. growing up, i was constantly told that i should be prepared to die for jehovah’s glory. martyrdom was almost the ideal outcome, you would hear stories of people being killed for their faith and congregation members would declare that it was the ultimate expression of love. because of this view, coupled with the sense of foreshortened future, i’ve become very reckless with my safety and physical well-being when it comes to the things i love. it’s not that i would never sacrifice anything for those i love if i was never given this expectation, it’s that i often find myself taking unnecessary risks to ensure the safety and comfort of the things i care about. the lengths i’m willing to go to disturb me.

Tradition

Emotional/mental abuse

Fear tactics 

Manipulation

The threat of physical violence

Threat being shunned 

Fear of disownment/homelessness

Pressure from bribery or blackmail

Pressure through guilt

 is really damaging and traumatic to peoples mental health.

“I am not shaming my family by telling the truth.

I am honoring our future generations. I am showing our ancestors a different way. I am redefining the Tangs’ ‘possible.’”

I like to think that when we love ourselves, we are coming home – even if we have to leave the one we know. When we dare to love ourselves over the outdated stigmas of past generations, we are coming home. To ourselves. And to a wild, lonely, beautiful new place that bursts with the potential of what we can make it. Redefining home.

I know it can be painful. You’re wonderful and strong and I’m so proud of you. One day you’ll be able to take this day and celebrate it in your own way, or leave it alone entirely if that’s what you want.

It’s sad that this has to be said but it does because unfortunately, too many people take disagreement as hostility. At least if its an atheist who is doing the disagreement. I do not hate Christians. I don’t think they are all bad people. I harbor no ill will towards them. I just happen to think they are wrong. I get asked why I’m not a Christian a lot so I thought I’d answer the question. I could probably write a small novel on this but this seems like a good start for now. 

1) The concept of Christianity is entirely based on the Bible. We have no original manuscript for it so you have no idea what it said originally.

2) The Bible was supposedly written by a lot of carpenters, shepherds, fishermen, and similar type professions. Such people would have been totally illiterate during that time period.

3) Based on the date that the original Bible was supposedly written, the Book spent over a 1000 years being copied, translated, and intentionally altered by hand until the printing press came about in the mid-1400’s. You couldn’t copy it once without making some error accidentally and it was handled entirely by powerful men with plenty of reason to alter it for personal gain. Churchgoers were often illiterate until the past couple hundred years and mass was given in Latin on top of it back then. So most people would be none the wiser if something had been altered.

4) The Bible plagiarized stories from numerous pre-existing religions: both monotheistic and polytheistic. For example, In the Persian scriptures of the Zoroastrians tell the story of how their god created the world and the first 2 humans in 6 days and then rested on the 7th. The names of these two human beings were Adama and Evah. Sound familiar? The Zoroastrians also invented the concept of heaven and hell and their art portrays the prophet Zarathustra as being surrounded by the same halo of light in which Christian figures are often depicted. Zarathustra even looks like Jesus before they white-washed Jesus. Chapter 125 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead is the same as the 10 commandments only written in negative confession. The story of the great flood was stolen from The Epic of Gilgamesh- right down to using birds to find dry land and the fact that the boat landed on a mountain.

5) I find it morally contemptible that the Biblically conceived God supposedly gives you enough free will to hang yourself with so that is not really free at all. Love him or burn forever? They’d call that abuse if he were human. And if Christianity is so true, why must they drill it into the heads of children before they have the capacity for critical thought? Its easier to get people to accept extraordinary claims as children. That’s just brainwashing 101.

6) I find it morally contemptible that the Biblically conceived God supposedly committed an act of genocide against all firstborn Egyptian sons because he was mad at one guy (the Pharoah). The whole point of the Pharoah is that he alone controlled Egypt and why could this God character have not just unilaterally eliminated him with a bolt of lighting? Instead, Christians believe he murdered a bunch of random people and children who had nothing to do with the decision to keep or free the Jews. But then again, Christians also believe this God murdered the entire fucking world in a flood because our “free” will became a pain in the ass. Not just people but also animals. I guess those giraffes were really acting up!

7) The Bible has dozens of current versions and resulted in hundreds of sects of Christianity with wildly varying beliefs. So if they can’t agree on what it says, why should anyone believe it?

8) Most Christians believe in the Christian god because they were born into a country where Christianity is the dominant religion. Most people in India are Hindu because they were born into it too. And the same with Muslims in Iraq. And so on and so forth. If there was any divine truth to Christianity over any other faith, why don’t we see more conversion? Why aren’t non-Christians flocking in? Because it sounds absurd to anyone who hasn’t had this stuff drilled into their heads for their entire life.

9)If you read the Bible, there is actually some pretty sick shit in it besides just the aforementioned genocide. The whole idea of the Bible is that it is supposed to be the divinely inspired word of god. I don’t know why God couldn’t just write his own book but supposedly he told his prophets what he wanted to be written. So if that is true, God is not an entity deserving of my praise or respect. Here are examples of this contemptible god character condoning sexual slavery:   In Numbers 31:17-18, Moses commands his people to kill men, children and women who aren’t virgins. Then tells his people that they may KEEP any woman or girl who is a virgin for themselves. Then in, (Deuteronomy 21:10-14) Moses spells out a ritual to purify a captive virgin before sex. Then in (Leviticus 19:20-22), The Bible tells you that if you bang a slave while engaged to another woman, that you must beat the slave girl and sacrifice a sheep.

10) Either the Bible is bullshit or god sanctions sexism repeatedly. For example: 1 Timothy 2:12, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent.” 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. Colossians 3:18: “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.” Deuteronomy 22:13-21 “If however the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death…” Leviticus 15:19-30 Menstruating women are unclean. Anyone or anything that touches she is unclean.

11) This God character in the Bible also sanctions physical slavery many, many times, not just sexual slavery. Here are a few examples: Ephesians 6:5, "Slaves obey your earthly masters with deep fear and respect.” Colossians 3:22: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord.”

12) Either the Bible is bullshit or the God character in the Bible sanctions murder many, many times.:   (Numbers 16:41-49) In this verse, the Israelites complain that God is killing too many of them. So, God sends a plague that kills 14,000 more of them. (Deuteronomy 17:12) says to kill people who don’t listen to priests (Exodus 22:17) Kill witches. (Leviticus 20:13)Kill gays. (Leviticus 20:27) Kill Fortunetellers. (Exodus 21:15) Kill someone who hit a parent. (Proverbs 20:20) and (Leviticus 20:9) Kill people for cursing their parents. (Leviticus 20:10) Kill adulterers (Leviticus 21:9) Kill a priest’s daughter who has sex. (Exodus 22:19) & (Numbers 25:1-9 NLT) Kill people of other religions. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13) Kill Nonbelievers (Deuteronomy 13:13-19) Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God (Deuteronomy  22:20-21) Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night (Leviticus 24:10-16) Kill Blasphemers (Exodus 31:12-15) Kill people who work on the Sabbath (Isaiah 14:21 NAB) & (Leviticus 26:21-22 NLT) Kill kids of Sinners etc, etc, etc.

13) God is supposed to be this big divine being who created an entire universe full of billions upon billions of planets and stars. And yet the Bible claims he cares an awful lot about incredibly petty, stupid human things. Here are a few of his downright stupid rules. Don’t get a tattoo or a piercing. (Leviticus 19:28) Don’t eat Shellfish. (Leviticus 11:10) Don’t cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. (Leviticus 19:27) Don’t get divorced. (Mark 9-12) Don’t wear cloth of blended fabrics. (Leviticus 19:19) Don’t eat pork. (Leviticus 11:8) Don’t work on Sundays. (31:14-15) Don’t have pre-marital sex. (Deuteronomy 22: 20-21) etc. etc. etc.

14) The Bible contradicts itself all over the place. If the Bible doesn’t have any consistency, why would anyone believe it? Again, there are way more examples than I can list here. STATEMENT 1: Genesis 1:26-27 Adam and Eve were created at the same time. CONTRADICTION 1: Genesis 2:7 and 2:21-22 Adam was created first, woman sometime later. STATEMENT 2: Genesis 1:24-27 Animals were created before Adam. CONTRADICTION 2: Genesis 2:7 and 2:19 Animals were created after Adam. STATEMENT 3: Genesis 1:31 God was pleased with his creation. CONTRADICTION 3: Genesis 6:5-6 God was not pleased with his creation. STATEMENT 4: Exodus 20:13 “Thou shalt not kill.” CONTRADICTION 4: Look back at #12. I listed a bunch of people the Bible says to kill STATEMENT 5: Genesis 6:19 “And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark.” CONTRADICTION 5: Genesis 7:2 “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

15) There is simply is no evidence for any god, much less the Christian god.  In fact, there is some scientific evidence that debunks biblical stories. Here are a few examples. Darwinian evolution debunks the idea that animals or people were created as they are today. We have archeological evidence of human beings existing long before humans were supposedly created according to the Bible. There is no geologic evidence of a worldwide flood. And in theory, how did kangaroos get to this ark from Australia? Fly? Millions of species couldn’t have gotten to the ark if they tried. There are an estimated 6.5 million land animal species. That’s just land animals. If all this flood water was salt water, it would have killed all the freshwater animals (or vice versa) so Noah would have had to include either all saltwater or all freshwater animals as well. There is no fucking way all those animals fit on a boat with the dimensions described in the Bible. Besides, there just is not enough water around to account for the water levels rising above the highest mountaintop. Then Noah supposedly lived to be 950? lol. Come on. People had significantly shorter lifespans in ancient times than they do today for obvious reasons. Only 0.0173% of Americans live to be 100 with the benefits modern medicine and sanitation.