February 16, 2004

This is sort of a spin-off of Bob's Random Thoughts section, only way better. And by that, I mean longer and by me. I'll take something I've thought about and just write about it for a while. First thing I've chosen to do is religion. Christianity actually...

The further from Christianity I get, the more strange it seems. If you really think about it, it's silly. Why did God create us in the first place? Just to have little beings running around to worship him? That hardly seems worth it, at least from my vantage point. I mean, if we don't believe in this story, then we're going to burn in hell for all eternity. He's going to put trillions of lives (and counting) on the line just to be worshipped. I hardly think it's fair to put all of us in danger for that. It seems sick actually. I would have rather never been created if I knew there was a chance I would burn forever. Just leave me not in existence like I was before birth if that's the case.

And the story begins with God creating us a "perfect" world. Only the world wasn't perfect at all. It had evil the whole time. Satan, the serpent in the tree, was there. That was Satan wasn't it? I can't remember for sure. The snake tricked Eve into eating a poison apple who then got Adam to eat it. OK. Whatever. Doesn't that just prove that the world was never perfect to begin with? To me it does. And if that's true, that's a fault on God's part, not man's. If it were really perfect, it would've remained perfect. And, again, it's not fair. Two people at the beginning of time mess up, and the rest of the world pays for it for the rest of eternity? Yeah, real fair.

God's powers have no limits too. So after Adam and Eve screwed it up for everyone, why not just wipe the slate clean and start again? That seems way more humane to me than to just let everyone after them pay. "Oh crap, the whole thing's shot now... Ah well." They messed up, and because of that, we're all at risk. Punish the two that made the mistake, and let the rest of us live in Perfect World version 2.0.

Also, why leave our fates up to the people who came before us? By that I mean leaving his story to people to pass on from generation to generation. People are dumb. He knows that. We used to think that the earth was the center of the universe, we used to think the earth was square, and we used to think there was nothing wrong with slavery. If you ask me, coming from the fools we used to be, way back when, should be reason enough to let us all off the hook for not believing.

We've come a long way since thinking we were the center of the universe, but we're still fools. Not all of us, though. There are also liars, thieves, and con men. And these are the people he has sent to spread his message. He couldn't possibly hold not believing against me. I can see Tammy Faye Baker crying on TV, "Send us money! Send us money!" and believe her or I can believe a scientist digging up bones that prove we evolved from a species of monkeys. Even he has to say "Yeah, Chris, I wouldn't believe her either. She's a terrible spokesman for me and she has a book that changes with each printing. The scientist, on the other hand, has skeletal remains to back up his story. It's a no-brainer."

If God exists and there was a true Bible, I'm sure it has been twisted and distorted by man so badly over time, God couldn't possibly punish us for not believing. That's just my opinion. I'm not saying there isn't a God. I'm just saying if there is, I doubt we could even begin to understand how he operates. So why try to live by this book that could very well be nothing like he originally meant? I say just live your life. Be moral and upstanding. If you're truly a good person, I don't think God would send you to burn in hell. He'd be understanding (given the circumstances) and he'd be happy to have you in heaven.