Blind Faith?

The foundation for organized religion is faith, but does “god” really value that virtue? Would a “god” need people to have faith in him/her? And why is it more important for people to have faith now, than those who lived in the time of Jesus and Moses, who were afforded miracles as evidence?

Let us start with the first two questions, why would an all knowing, all powerful “god” need lowly human beings to have faith that he/she exists. Is blind belief really a virtue? That quality certainly does not a better human make. The ability to question commonly held conceptions has lead man to many of our greatest discoveries. What if Columbus would have continued to believe the world was flat, or if the Wright brothers would have held the common belief that man’s flight was impossible? Or if people still believed in the theory of divine rule, we would be ruled by kings and tyrants today. I could go on, but let’s just say that the ability to question and use one’s reason to combat previously held myths and beliefs is a sign of intelligence, and human progress.

The alternative, blindly believing in organized religions, governments, and other ideological movements has been responsible for a great deal of tragedies throughout human history. Without the ability to abandon reason and our inquisitive spirit, Hitler would not have had any mindless minions to carry out his massacre. There would have been no Crusades, Inquisition, Witch hunts, or any of the other multiple genocides that human history has witnessed. So what is the intrinsic benefit of faith?

I can think of no benefit that a “god” would receive from belief in his/her existence. “God” certainly does not derive his/her power or prestige from that belief. We are talking about an all powerful “god” who created the world in 7 days and has no equal. Is it possible that having people believe in “god” based on no verifiable evidence would make him/her feel better about himself/herself? I don’t think anyone would believe that “god” could be that vain. That is if a “god” would really need people to worship him/her at all. I don’t think that I want to be in a heaven with a “god” who is so petty that he/she needs one day a week to be worshipped. If I were to sit here and tell all the people that I am greater than to worship me, the rest of the world would frown upon me and probably even call me an egotistical wretch. I also find it hard to believe that a “god” would be offended by a human taking his/her name in vain. These characteristics do not sound very “godly” to me. Humility is a trait that is almost universally admired, it would be sad if the greatest being who ever lived lacked such a simple characteristic. If any of those were the case though, “god” would surely give human beings undeniable proof to ensure the maximum amount of adulation.

Perhaps “god’s” benevolent plan was to make our lives more fulfilling by allowing us the opportunity to have faith in something. So we must then ask ourselves: would our lives be more fulfilling with faith, or with hard evidence of his/her existence? The beneficial aspect of faith in a “god” is two fold: first, people feel more secure with an omnipotent figure watching out for them and second, people are comforted with the thought of a higher plane of existence after they die. The only difference in a “god” that provides his followers with certainty of his existence and one who left it to uncertainty is that the “god” who gave his people certainty would have given his people a much more fulfilling life because they could be confident in those two statements, as opposed to the person who is solely reliant on faith must question the validity of those two statements thereby making him less secure and therefore less fulfilled. So we can be rest assured that “god” does not rely on faith to give humans a fulfilling life because there is a better alternative that he/she could easily create.

In reality though, a true “god” would frown upon people who rely solely on faith because it is an assault on reason, a virtue that “god” gave solely to man. Besides disposable thumbs, reason is one of the few things that “god” us which distinguishes, us from other animals. If the bible is in fact false, which scientific and historical evidence would lead us to believe, I would have to think that a “god”, if he/she does in fact exist, would be offended that we have discarded the gift of reason so readily in order to create and believe in fairy tales, which makes us feel better about the world.

Timing and Preferential Treatment

My next question is, why did “god” pick the time that he did to make his presence felt? There were civilized societies well before Jesus and Moses showed up. Why weren’t those people granted the opportunity of faith and worship? Are we to believe that after thousands of years of human existence “god” suddenly needed to be worshipped? Or was it because “god” believed that people were not behaving properly? If that were the case then we would expect an all powerful “god” to make a change that would have dramatically improved human behavior. Instead, as historians can show, people did not change their behavior whatsoever. If anything human behavior digressed because organized religion gave people a whole new ideal to fight over. Shouldn’t an all knowing “god” have been able to foresee that outcome, or at least rectify it once it began to happen.

If the people who lived prior to Jesus and Moses arrival knew of no divine law, were they held accountable for their sins? If so that would seem fairly inequitable to hold someone accountable for something they had no knowledge of, and if not it would be inequitable to allow them to sin and then ascend to heaven when the rest of us are held to certain standards. I also find it hard to believe that “god” allowed them to worship false “god’s” for thousands of years before stepping in, when we know that bothers him/her. He/She supposedly said, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Yet he/she can not expect people to know which god to worship before he shows up. And if he/she really cares if people are worshipping him/her as opposed to false gods then why not send messengers all over the world instead of only to Jerusalem and Egypt?

Are we to believe that Jesus wanted his word to be heard by everyone or just those in that spot at that time? If he wanted everyone to believe then why not write it down. Or for that matter why not just snap his fingers and create a book of his father’s word? Why was it necessary for him to speak only to a few followers, and then let people mistranslate it, change, and manipulate it for hundreds of years to follow until it was printed? And surely this all powerful “god” could see the future, so I suppose he wanted there to be several different versions of his word that people could not possibly have any clue to the validity of any particular one. And I also suppose he is quite pleased with people fighting over him. It does fit the pattern, anyone that would value being worshipped would also value the attention of being fought over.


Evidence, Faith, and Preferential Treatment

Did Moses and Jesus need to perform miracles to secure the respect and faith from their followers? Couldn’t Jesus have just shown up and relied on his follower’s faith to know he was the one true son of “god”? Why do people today have to rely on faith, when “god” accepted the fact that many others needed evidence to convince them. Are people held to a higher standard today than people who are considered saints by the Catholic Church? And why did “god” give some people direct evidence and not others? Why didn’t he show up in every city/country so everyone would have the equal opportunity to behold this evidence? Or show up every few generations so we don’t have to rely on an obviously fictitious work?

If having faith and adhering to religious laws gets one into heaven and ignoring those laws earns a person eternal damnation then it’s a huge advantage to have direct evidence of a “god.” It’s far easier to follow a divine code if you know for a fact it is a true code. Given that some were given this huge advantage while most were not we must believe that “god” loves some of us more than others, based on their place of their birth. For instance, why did “god” use his power during two particular generations and then withhold it forevermore? It doesn’t make sense for a “god” to give special powers to Moses to free the Jewish people from Egyptian “bondage,” (Some historians claim that the Jews living in Egypt were subject to the same pyramid duty as every other Egyptian, rather than slavery like the bible proclaims.) but then not help them during the Roman occupation, in which they fought many bloody wars for independence, or when Hitler was massacring them by the millions? Why step up during a minor period of suffering, when so many greater catastrophes have befallen the Jews, and many others?