For some reason, I can't finish blogs anymore. I'll get about 2/3 done, and bam, brick wall. I've started three or four blogs since the last one, which, by the way, earned me some quality emails from some very angry people. The popularity (or lack there of) for that religion blog seems based less on what I wrote, but instead on which side you came into the discussion with. It was less to convince anyone (which may be the one thing in this universe which is truly impossible), but just to say some stuff that I thought. As such, nobody was convinced.

Which made me start thinking about this kind of stuff. Why is it that someone could be presented with practically irrefutable scientific evidence, but still maintain - even to the point of violence - that a book written at a time when alchemists attempt to turn lead to gold has ANY scientific value at all? Do people want to believe so much that they would prefer ignorance to true enlightenment?

Thinking about that, I noticed several other areas where such blinding belief is present. Politics, penis enlargement pills, money making schemes, ghosts, Atkins, diet pills, and a whole other host of things like that. The problem isn't these things in particular. The problem is on the people's end. These things all focus on fundamental desires and self esteem issues that people want to believe work - they NEED to believe it works. They are placebos for the self esteem.

Say you are a moderately overweight person, and this aspect of your life has caused much harm to your day to day living. You can't get dates. Other people make fun of your weight. You are insecure to the nth degree. You see a commerical for an electrical belt, which shocks your muscles into exercising - without you haven't to do any work. The infomercial shows hot, bronzed, muscular bodies of people half your age. Forget for a second, that they've got muscles in places that the belt doesn't affect. You want to believe that dream because the alternative is so distasteful.

So, you order the belt. The first time you plug it in, your body sweats, causing the belt to short circuit and electrocute you. If you think I'm kidding, I'm not. That really happened. Weight is something that requires knowledge and work to maintain. The fact that exercise is difficult and boring, and your day to day life is too busy to take the time, it is really easy to want to buy into a something-for-nothing plan. I mean, even if exercise is beyond you, that weight problem still controls you.

The problem is, it isn't that you believe. That you honestly believe that penis enlargment pills really work. It's that you WANT to believe. Your self esteem is controlling you from behind the scenes to make you feel better about yourself. Even faced with evidence to the alternative, that need to feel okay is more important. Nothing is more important.

When it comes to literal interpretations of the Bible - it isn't really about whether the Bible is true or not. It's not, by any scientific and objective measure in existence. That's not really what the debate is about, though it is what the arguments are about. It's because, for some people, to deny the Bible is to deny God. God is such a large part of their very being, not only would living without God leave a hole in their self, it would mean that those many years that they lived with God were a lie.

That's okay. You do not have to deny God to interpret the Bible in a different way. You just have to deny the way you have been choosing to honor Him. That's difficult and not something just anyone will jump into. It is a problem at the very core of self esteem, and self esteem has a defense mechanism that could floor King Kong if it wanted. People DIE because of self esteem. The only way to overcome it is to recognize what you are doing and make that choice. We can't make it for you.

I imagine it must be a scary prospect, to be alone in this universe. To go into nothingness when you die. To not have those pearly white gates waiting for you, or to have a giant friendly figure who has reason for even the most senseless events. When your friend dies, I imagine it must be comforting to think that he is okay - somewhere out there. It is a fundamental fear that everyone shares... kind of like having a small penis.

Religion is a placebo effect. It exists to make you feel better, and for no purpose beyond that. But just like penis enlargement pills, people can take advantage of that need to feel purpose. They can offer sugar pills for $50 and people WILL buy them. They are taking advantage of a tiny hairline fracture in our self esteem, and some people aren't strong enough to fight it.

I'm not anti-religion. There are a lot of good things which have come out of it, on a small scale. Things like communities, good deeds, and a direction towards friendship. There are also a lot of bad things... famous bad things. The Inquisition, the crusades, killing abortion doctors, trying to discredit science to gain support for creationism (which may be the worst of the bunch). Some people take advantage of that placebo effect to control you.

To blindly follow is built into a very genes. It is a natural consequence of living. The weak willed follow the strong willed. You have to be damn careful of who you follow. A good leader is one who can follow his own agenda while making his followers think it is theirs. All I'm saying is, beware. Quacks and charlatans are out there in force, and it would be a mistake to think that whatever you believe with all your heart doesn't have plenty of both.

Yeah, I've been stirring up trouble with the last two blogs. One guy was really offended that I compared religion to male "enhancement" pills. I saw that one coming. Actually, most of the good and bad emails I've gotten, I saw coming. It kind of worked out exactly how I thought it would. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this public figure thing? Know who you are pissing off and when to piss them off. But at that point, why bother?

I think I like to play Devil's Advocate a little too much (in this case, I really was the devil's advocate). I like to challenge other people, frequently against their will, to think outside the box. I don't know why that is. But when someone says "I believe XXX", I can't help but say "No you don't".

The thing with being a devil's advocate is not to convince someone of another idea. It is to have them cement their own idea. Many people, myself included, tend to latch on to ideas without really thinking about it. For example, there are several urban legends which I just accepted without question until I found out much later that they weren't true. I'm not the only one, or sites like Snopes, FactCheck.org, or Talk Origins wouldn't exist.

The problem lies in the fact that I don't just want people to question whether toilet water flushes in a different direction in the Southern Hemisphere (it doesn't). I want them to question the really important stuff. The stuff which makes them who they are. The thing which separates man from animal. I want people to listen to the words of the song they are humming and wonder what the hell they mean. There are so many answers out there with so few questions. That bothers me.

Indeed, what good is an unexamined life? It is worthless. One of the greatest mental gifts that we have is our ability to step back from a situation and examine it with clarity and objectivity. So why is it that so few people bother? Why do people say, "I could do no more than I did" when even a cursory examination would show that statement to be false.

The worst part is, many people look towards others to provide the questions. I've seen more than a few webcomic creators plop their comic in front of me and say, "How can I improve this?" If you can't answer that question yourself, then you aren't trying. What they are really asking is, "How can I improve this a lot by doing as little work as possible?" They don't even know the real question they are asking. There is this invisible handshake between parties which agrees that what is said is not what is meant - yet neither can put into words what that handshake means.

If you were to ask me, "Do you believe in God?", I could answer that quickly or I could answer that with dozens of pages of text. But that's not the important question. Most people don't realize that. They think that their answer to that question is most important question they could ever answer. People have died because they answered that question, yet ultimately, it means next to nothing.

It's not about believing in God. It never has been. Believing in God is, surprisingly, not the single most defining moment in your life. The question is, "Who do you go to for help?" When you have a problem you cannot answer, where do you go to answer it. Who do you ask? What do you learn? How do you do it?

For some people, who use God as an excuse, they go the people who taught them that God was important. They go to their parents. They go to their preachers. After those guys have answered enough of your questions for you, you grow into them. You become them - not in every way, but in how you answer questions and, more importantly, in what questions you ask. Believing in God doesn't make you stupid. It's the people you trust that do.

I play Devil's Advocate because I don't trust my own conclusions, and because I don't trust them, I constantly question them. Through this questioning, I arrive at a deeper understanding and appreciation of the topic, or I discover the flaw in reason and approach a new answer. Questioning everything is the most important thing I can do or ever have done. That so few people respect questions as much as I do, I find somewhat scary.

So, I make them question. Rarely will these questions lead anywhere. You can answer a question a thousand different ways to your satisfaction, frequently in the stupidest possible way. But asking the questions is important, even if the answers aren't. Too many people live an unexamined life. Too many people are looking for answers without understanding the question. Too many people are willing to lay down their lives for religion or patriotism with only the smallest appreciation of what those words really mean. When you strip away the bull****, religion and patriotism are very similar and very important - but not through paying lip service to someone else's ideals.

I once saw a bumper sticker which stated, "God is the Answer". I can't help by wonder, to which question?

I've been receiving a lot of emails from people trying to explain why they are Christian, and I've been somewhat surprised by how similar these emails run. Basically, it comes down to faith. What is faith? I'll get to that in a second. But first, I want to talk about the fact that one Christian emailed me and said that Mormonism is a cult, while their faith is the one true faith.

Obviously, there is a difference. Objectively speaking, there isn't. Mormonism and the Church of England were born from greed instead of idealism, yet the end result is the same. I am cursed with the ability to see connections. I can't look at something without seeing the spider web that extends beyond it and connects it with everything else. And it doesn't matter what name you give something, if it has the same connections and is functionally equivelant, it is the same thing. That's right, the Catholic church is functional equivelant to a a shaman, dressed in bear skins, sitting in a cave throwing bones on the floor to predict the future. Why nobody else sees this, I have no idea.

As for faith. It cannot be trust. Faith is the ultimate subjectiveness. The ultimate unreasonableness. It lacks rational thought. It says, no matter what you say, no matter what you show me, no matter how convincing your argument, I'm going to believe this anyway. Nothing can change my mind. Hey, if you want to be a closed minded asshole, go ahead, but don't wrap it up in pretty packaging.

Faith has a place for the desperate. No matter how things get, you've always got that anchor to hold you down. You could be living in a cardboard box after your family died in a freak lawnmower accident and still find peace of mind in faith. Sometimes, saying that you'll be unreasonable is the best way to survive, for reason cares not for your own personal feeling of wellness. Nothing cuts deeper than the truth, and faith provides an outlet where you can hide from the truth if needed.

Not everybody needs faith. As scathing as the truth may be, there are people who find solace in even that. At the very core of our beings, we need something to believe in. Not blind faith, but a direction and understanding. Most people don't realize that this can change. They seem to be happy to try and be the same person for the extent of their life because changing would be to deny what you were before.

Christianity is not special. It has MUCH in common with hundreds of other religions. Judaism is not the first religion, nor is it the last. Much of Christianity, such as the concept of Christmas and Easter are actually borrowed from other religions. Can you imagine? The celebration of the birth of Christ was actually a Roman holiday absorbed into the Christian faith to advertise Christianity to people who would've converted if it were just more "fun". How can you take your beliefs seriously after that? How can you look at Christmas and think that Christianity is somehow more right than Viking religions, long since lost and dismissed?

Religion existed before government and before science, so it is not surprising that its chief interest is in these two areas. Religion tends to provide moral guidelines by which the society can best benefit. Many religions include a few extra guidelines for the gain of the church. But when man was dwelling in caves, the leader of the pack was frequently the strongest - and the only way for a new leader to rise to power was through force.

As you can imagine, the alpha male thing works in tiny societies with dominance over the other species, but when humans were the weakest creatures in the forest, they needed cunning to survive - strength wasn't enough. Being the strongest did not mean being the smartest, but luckily, the smart ones were... uh... smart. They figured out a way to control those stronger than them by manipulating them through fictional beings. I'm not saying they did this intentionally. They probably believed what they preached. However, the subconscious is an amazing thing and once you start getting chicks, it will find ways to extend your power.

Religion BEGAN as a way to control others, in thought and deed, for it is only through controlling others that one develops any sort of power. Eventually, through religion, the social structure of the human social group changed from the strongest to the one with the best leadership capabilities. Notice I didn't say smartest, because once those rules were written down, and assuming they did work towards survival instead of against it, the next shaman merely needed to lead his people according to those guidelines - not invent more.

As for the science aspect, it should be obvious. When mankind was first developing, it had no idea what the hell lightning was, or what those crazy blinking lights in the night sky were. As I mentioned yesterday, answering questions to one's own satisfaction is easy. For those people, unaware as to the sciences of the universe, found it much easier to think that lightning was thrown by some person in the clouds. Crops grew or die not based on weather patterns and luck, but because their sacrifices appeased the gods. When the crops died, it wasn't because of the drought, but because the sacrificed the wrong person - so they sacrificed even more.

The idea of sacrifice is a simple one which runs through nearly every religion that has ever existed. The basic premise is that in order to appease a higher being, you have to praise them - why? Do gods have self esteem issues? Well, if they were human-like, they would, and mankind cannot fathom a higher being unlike themselves. And what's the best way to make someone else happy? To praise them. Flattery.

But flattery can be empty. Eventually, someone must realize that just going to church is unmeant flattery. It's just lip service. Brown nosing. No, to appease the gods, they needed a real show of humbleness. What better way to show true praise than to sacrifice something important to you? How could that EVER be lip service? So mankind started offing itself to appease gods created in their own, petty image. That's right. We weren't created in God's image, but vice versa.

Sacrifice is petty and stupid, and it isn't surprising that it is no longer practiced by most religions. But it used to be. There are several places in the Bible which sacrifice is a prominant and very visual show of dedication to God. If Abraham was willing to murder his own son for God, then surely, God must be worth believing in. That's right, it's the oldest advertising technique in the world - the bandwagon sale.

It even goes both ways. You sacrifice to God, but because the New Testament is about a kinder and caring God, it isn't Abraham which sacrifices his son to God, but God who sacrifices his son to us. Is there any greater way to show the humbleness of God - the same God which previously wiped out the planet in a global flood? That whole fire from heaven was too depressing to gain new members to the religion. A new message of acceptance and love, also needed at the time when Jews were being oppressed by the Romans, was needed. What better way to convince people to join your faith and buy into your ideals than to be in the place of God himself and have him sacrifice his son to you?

Faith says that I can't say what I just said. Faith says that I cannot even think what I just thought. It says, these are the boundaries of what you believe and you may not step outside of them or I will abandon you. It is fear of that which prevents people from reaching outside of their faith. That's the only conclusion I can think of, because it is nothing sort of paralyzing fear which prevents people from objective questioning of what they believe.

I'm not comfortable with that. It makes me uneasy. As I said in the last blog, an unquestioned life is worthless. By the same stretch, if you only ask questions you know the answers to, it is equally worthless. If you only ask questions within the very, very, very small area of faith, you are stupid in the classical sense of the word. You only ask questions which the Bible answers, and you can't question the Bible.

Faith will not abandon you. You could throw out your Bible tomorrow and still find warmth and comfort in your faith. If you don't believe me, try it for one week. Just say, okay, the Bible is wrong. I'm going to listen to everything else objectively for one week. I'm going to go to their side because I want to test the strength of my faith. I will read sites on evolution from their perspective and accept them as true. At the end of one week, if you feel that your faith is in any way weakened by this new acceptance of science, you are free to go back. You've made your faith stronger by questioning it. Though I can't agree with the outcome, I applaud the practice.

If at the end of that week, your faith is undamaged, perhaps even stronger, then you'll realize that faith does not require the Bible. Faith is a personal thing. It's walls can grow or shrink as far as you will let it. If you believe, your belief does not need to be narrow. Maybe those Sunday Christians which you have always despised as being weak are not the weak ones after all. Maybe they are the strong ones, finding a faith which allows them to live and breathe in a modern world while still having a guiding light which gives them meaning and direction. Maybe it was through questioning the Bible that they became better Christians than those who accept only the Bible.

I was in a class once - the Philosophy of Science - and there was a creationist who sat behind me. He was studying to be a teacher (*shudder*). He said, and I'm not kidding, that gravity was only a theory (in the same way that Evolution is "only" a theory). Because balloons float, gravity was false. I'm not suggesting that all creationists are that completely stupid, but that's what their arguments boil down to. Because balloons float, their narrowly understood understanding of gravity fails. If you think that's insane, you should see a creationist try and talk about the fossil record...