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Captain Kirk meets Pollyanna
Paedophilia is Not a Crime
Kill the puppy dogs
Is sex with animals always wrong?
Circumcision
Family Values in The Bible
The Logic of Christians
Why I am an Atheist
An atheist reads the Bible
Islam: tolerating intolerance?
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Your puny weapons are of no use against my atheism |
There are a couple of incidents in the Toy Story films when Buzz Lightyear aims his blinking LED at the other toys, that is what I feel like when people quote the Bible at me. Buzz is just a toy but he thinks he is a real Space Ranger with a real and deadly laser built into his arm. I don't know how to tell them, I don't mean to be nasty about this but that book doesn't scare me or impress me. Whenever it is brandished at me as if it was a mighty weapon of truth the whole scene takes on the appearance of farce.
The Bible is a book, written by men who claim to have heard the voice of God. Usually when we hear people claiming to have heard voices in their heads telling them to do things like kill their son or steal large numbers of animals (didn't he steal them? How else could he afford to do it?) and put them into a boat we would treat them as if they were mentally ill. However, when those men are far distant in time and place from a totally alien culture we cannot know whether they are sincere, we cannot even know for certain that the stories we have been told refer to real people and real events. To accept that flimsy evidence is rather rash, but to then go on to say that not only is that old hearsay account of value but it is actually of more value than anything else that has been written since is bordering on the lunatic.
I have no doubt that these people are sincere when they warn me of the hellfire and damnation I face. I can even forgive their smugness when they tell me about it. The hardest thing to do is to keep a straight face. Christians are just like Buzz Lightyear: well meaning but lacking a vital piece of information that prevents them from seeing the reality. Of course all along they see the precise opposite to be the case, it is me that is under the spell of the Evil Emperor Zurg.