Idiot worship

Why are we here? What is our purpose? Atheists usually answer this with ‘happenstance’ and ‘none at all’, respectively. Believers, however, say that this is too sad a proposition for them to accept. They state – with no little emphasis – that we are here because god created us, and that our purpose is to worship Him.

Let us think about this for a while. So God created us (let’s not go into ‘in his own image’, that’s a bit too much). God created this universe with 200 billion galaxies, each containing 300-400 billion solar systems, and then, as his crowning achievement, he created us. So we can worship him.

Really? Why? To me, almost everything is wrong with this picture:

First, the scale is off. Let’s assume I was a God, and created more solar systems than there are grains of sand on earth. Why would I then want to create a single, tiny planet that orbits one of the more obscure, run-off-the-mill suns in an ordinary galaxy, and populate it with a race of ignoramuses? To worship me? They represent not even a  trillionth of a percent of my creation; yet I went to all this length just to have that infinitesimally small fraction worship me? Why isn’t my crown achievement in a setting befitting it’s purpose – The centerpiece of my creation?

If I had the power to create a universe and the desire to be worshipped, there are much, much better ways to go about this: create an immense, beautiful plane (with physics that allow this), populated by trillions of smart, brilliant and fun beings that worship me.

Then, allegedly, if we worship Him in our lives, we’ll get to worship Him even more after our death. Am I the only one who thinks that this not only incredibly boring, but also an incredibly stupid set up? If before and after death is the same, the concept of death is completely irrelevant. Except for those who don’t worship God – those will be tortured in eternity by this allegedly benevolent god. And here, again, the scale is off: the proportions don’t match: an infinite punishment (eternal torture) for a finite transgression (non-worship in lifetime). Wouldn’t that be an infinitely immoral punishment?

Yet that is not the biggest issue I have with a god that requires worship – it is this: doesn’t it strike you as incredibly petty of a supreme being to have the need to be adulated? This god is all-knowing and all-powerful. Compared to gods, humans are less than ants, idiotic motes of dust who can’t even perform a single miracle, or break a single physical law. Pathetic. If I had the urge to be adored, I’d want to be adored by beings of importance, not the bunch of losers that ruin their own planet the same way pigs trash their sty.
I seriously doubt that a God would want to be worshipped, at least not by us. Consider: Programmers have a rare privilege; they can create virtual worlds in the programs they write. They are, in a very small way, gods and creators of the programs they write. Few, if any programmers ever feel the urge to write code that extols the virtue of their coder. It’s no challenge, serves no purpose, and makes them look really pathetic. So why would a God want something that even the lowliest, personality disorder-ridden geek wouldn’t want?

There is no way a god would ever want to be worshipped. At least not by you, me, or any other human.

So why do believers insist that we must worship their god?

Yep, that’s what I think, too.

Thank God – you’re out!

The gesture is the epitome of sanctimonious self-aggrandizing: thanking god when you score in a game or win in a competition. Believing that god not only favors you over the other team, but also alters reality to help you win is borderline megalomaniac, and a crass contradiction to the idea that your god is just.

A few days ago, referees penalized Kansas City Chief’s Husain Abdullah who, after a successful touch-down, had nothing better to do than to kneel, and thank his god – probably for using his celestial powers to smite New England, the opposing team.

Since it’s not a US custom to penalize open displays of stupidity – even in egregious instances as this – I think that the referees over-reacted. Is thanking god for winning stupid? Yes. Is it in-your-face arrogant? Definitely. Is is unsportsmanlike? You bet.

But it’s also very American. Just watch the Academy Awards.

Pop Quiz

Here’s a nice one to ask bible-thumpers after they quote the bejeezus out of your patience:

According to holy scripture, who is this:

He was called the son of God, born of a virgin, performed miracles, raised the dead, had disciples, was crucified, then resurrected after three days, and was worshipped 1000 BC?

The answer: indistinct. It could be both Mithra and Horus.

It could also have been Krishna – if we moved up the ‘worshipped’ date to 400 BC.

Nietzsche’s not dead

Tomorrow will see the release of “God’s not Dead”, a christian movie (based on Rice Broocks’ book with the same name). OK, so the title invokes Nietzsche – interesting. According to the blurb, the story revolves around a philosophy student who has to fight a dictatorial philosophy professor. The professor requires all students to sign a ‘God is Dead’ statement to get a passing grade, and the student strikes a bargain that he will pass if he can defend his position ‘God is Alive’.

Well, that’s quite some stereotyped cliché’d trope (pleonasms be damned); the movie itself is highly reminiscent of a 10 minute (and logically embarrassingly inept) movie I watched on YouTube some time ago (which pretty much re-told the aforementioned links).

But then, the movie is officially advertised with this tagline:

Atheists say ‘No one can prove the existence of God’. And they are right. But I say, ‘No one can disprove that God exists.’

Ouch. And this is supposed to happen in philosophy class? Is this the level of intelligence we can expect from the movie?

Now, I do understand that this movie is primarily aimed at the average american christian. But do the producers really hold their viewer’s intellect in such contempt that they lead with kindergarden logic? This is going to be one long movie to watch.