- September 10, 2018
- Psychology of Personality
- Epifantseva Anna
According to recent studies, the share of believers in the world is 45%. While 55% of the world's population does not believe in God. This fact often puzzles people. Relatives are perplexed why their son does not believe in God. Believers are surprised at the existence of atheism. Why is this happening?
About atheists
How does it look from the perspective of an atheist? Throughout human history, people have believed in different cults, different gods. According to research, religion appeared among our distant ancestors during the Middle Paleolithic - a period between 300,000 and 30,000 years BC.
Who are believers? People who believe that there is a supernatural being above them. In Christianity, modern and the religion closest to the Russian-speaking population at the moment, this is a god who monitors a person’s actions and makes a decision about where he will go after death: to heaven, where he will experience bliss, or to hell, where he will face until the end of time. experience terrible pain. This concept of Christianity is stated in the "Bible", the holy book for Christians.
The dogmas accepted in this religion are shared by a minority of the world's population. People who don't believe in God are called atheists. This word comes from the Greek “theos” - “god” and the prefix “a” - “without”. People who do not believe in God are called agnostics, unless they deny his existence. "Agnosticism" is translated as "unknowable" from Greek.
Many times the concept of Christianity has been sought to be refuted by supporters of atheism. To the question: “Why don’t I believe in God,” everyone answers differently.
History of religion
Almost every European knows the lines of the main Christian book - the “Bible”, which from the very beginning reveals the secret of the creation of man:
“And God said: Let us make man in Our image and in Our likeness ‹…› and God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.
[Gen. 1.26-27]
“And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
[Gen. 2.7].
In theory, it was these lines that drew the line between a human being and other animals that are not the “image and likeness” of the creator.
After the most cruel and dark time, the Middle Ages, when Christianity dominated Europe and religious dogmas were strictly observed, more and more people appeared who did not believe in God. The reasons were, among other things, the iniquities committed by the Church during this period. History has recorded the Bloody Crusades carried out under the name of Christ, indulgences that allowed money to buy God’s forgiveness for any terrible act, and much more.
Wanting to crush the dogmas of religion that dominated the dark Middle Ages, the heyday of religion, the enlighteners of the 18th century argued that people descended from the animal world.
And the excavations really brought new amazing facts. Thus, in 1908, the Swiss Otto Gauser found Neanderthal burials near the Veser River in France. Religiously minded scientists pointed out that the presence of a burial ritual indicates the presence of beliefs among people. Supporters of the lack of religion among ancient people insisted that this was just an accident. But over the years, more and more Neanderthal burials were found, about 90 of them were found in total.
Bottom line
As a result, the confrontation between the 2 camps ended with the fact that the fact that these people had beliefs was recognized when the data that appeared could no longer be denied. It is now reliably known that the Neanderthal, an ancient species of man who lived a hundred thousand years before the modern one, had religious ideas.
With the discovery of numerous strange human bones, declared to be the remains of an extinct species, the question arose: “How does this find reconcile with the belief that God created man in his own “image and likeness?” After all, the discovered type of creature was a primitive form of a person who had speech, but also transitional features from a monkey, which significantly distinguished him from modern Homo sapiens. Some of the scientists who did not believe in God rejoiced with the discovery of evidence that humans descended from apes and not from God, while the other part was confused.
In 1861, after the first skeleton of a special type of Homo neanderthalensis was discovered and described by King, the authoritative professor Rudolf Virchow expressed the idea that the remains belonged to a person who suffered from rickets and then from gout. This explained the obvious deformation of his bones.
However, the argument was soon defeated when, in 1887, several more remains of exactly the same type were found in a cave near Spi in Belgium by Marcel de Puid and Jean Frapon. Near them, primitive tools were found with the bones of long-extinct animals - mammoths, cave bears. If these people also suffered from rickets, it was tens of thousands of years ago, when the climate on Earth was completely different. With the discovery of several finds, it became clear that there would be too many patients. After careful research and a number of new discoveries, it was proven that a hundred thousand years ago in Europe there lived people who differed from us in features that, in their anatomical characteristics, were closer to animals than to humans.
It was a triumph for supporters of the natural origin of man. How could an ape-like Neanderthal also be the “image of god”? If not, then the person now living has no relation to God.
In addition, even if we admit that there was no tribe on the planet that served as a transitional stage between the absence of any faith and the creation of religion, it is impossible to seriously assert that a separate, more primitive species of the discovered types of man could have faith. Their brains were small, they had no families, no property, they were guided by the needs to warm themselves and prolong the race. Obviously, the brain simply did not have the ability to reach such a high abstraction as religion. They didn't need her.
What is faith
To understand the reasons for spiritual cooling, we must first understand this concept. Church ministers emphasize that faith is not simply an acknowledgment that the Lord exists. This is a living feeling of his presence. A person feels that God is nearby, that the Almighty hears prayers and responds to them.
Faith is a heartfelt connection with the Lord. It is similar to the feeling that lovers experience. Even if these people are separated by distances, they feel an invisible connection with each other.
Believers' reaction
Adherents of the biblical picture of the world ignored the discovery of these remains and tried to deny their significance in evolution, saying that these were only a people who lived a couple of thousand years ago in Europe, and the bones of ancient animals turned out to be near them by chance. A number of others argued that they were apes similar to humans. The position of believers was also precarious due to the fact that, according to the Bible, the world was created just 5000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. And it made absolutely no mention of the evolution and development of the human species. More and more people did not want to believe in God.
What to do if a person loses faith
First of all, I advise church ministers to find an interlocutor who says the right, good things. It doesn't have to be a priest. The gender and age of a person are also not important. Sometimes a kind interlocutor who has not even yet realized that he is Orthodox can restore faith. But Christ is already next to him and is waiting to meet.
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Another cure for coldness is helping your neighbors. This is not necessarily charity. In everyone’s life there is someone who expects support, a warm word or a telephone conversation from them.
Faith must be sincere and living. If visiting the temple and praying have become formal actions, it is easy to lose it.
A person should grow in faith. Even a small stop entails a fall. You can grow in faith through prayer, meditation on the Holy Scriptures and the works of the apostles, and doing good deeds.
Christianity, according to church ministers, should be a “passion.” We must approach faith creatively. And develop the gifts of the Holy Spirit that every Christian has.
How did religion appear?
Thus, it was proven that the history of man is much older than any religion. People created it as part of culture and modified it throughout their existence. Many religions appeared, lived for several thousand years, and then died. Each cultural layer in human history believed in something different. Completely different beliefs were created in their place. Whatever anyone wants, Christianity plays the same role. Each religion remains with a person as long as he needs, and after centuries, perhaps a dozen of them, it turns out to be extinct and passed on to descendants as part of the history of semi-wild ancestors. Just as people now study the gods of Ancient Greece, in whom those people sacredly believed for millennia, so in the future I will study modern religions. There is nothing left of those gods except myths, and for millions of people they were their whole life, someone shed blood and gave their lives for them.
“Christians need to gather and share experiences”
(priest Konstantin Parkhomenko)
In faith, as in marriage, cooling comes when a person gets used to it. To preserve family and faith, effort and work are necessary.
The following recommendations will help prevent cooling:
- Make sure that the prayer remains alive and not formal (soulless proofreading).
- Constantly “grow” in faith.
- Be creative – develop Christian “hobbies.” For example, embroidering icons, working in an icon shop, reading and singing in the choir, practicing military-industrial complex with children, and so on.
- Gather with other Orthodox Christians and share experiences in overcoming difficulties, talk about pilgrimage trips, provide support, etc.
Reasons for the existence of the Church
Initially, all people are born unbelievers. Every child doesn't believe in God. From birth, he does not yet have time to master the stereotypes imposed on him by the society where he lives. In some corner of the planet, over time, they will convince him that there are several gods, and they require sacrifices; in some society, they will say that using a telephone is a sin, and those who do this should be stoned; somewhere, what if he does not pray something will happen. This is why frequent requests on the Internet arise: “I don’t believe in God, but I pray.” But initially everyone is an atheist.
Believers are people who recognize a supernatural higher being above them.
The Bible directly stated that God created man “in his own image and likeness.” The Apostle Matthew, the messenger of Jesus, wrote that the creator requires people to be perfect like himself. Christians should try to be like him, to reach his level. But if we should strive to think like him, and he ordered us to be believers. What does God himself believe in? If he is an atheist, then a person should try to be an atheist. This is the fundamental basis of thinking - to admit higher beings or not.
If we imagine that the creator is a believer, then what? The concept of God's omniscience as described in the Bible dictates that he does not have to believe in anything: he knows everything. Just as an auto mechanic does not believe in the presence of pistons in a car, he knows what they look like, knows their properties and how they are created.
Every believer recognizes God as the highest creation, he worships him. Worship includes prayers, real and symbolic sacrifices, glorification of him and constant requests for something. This is always present in the behavior of any believer.
But what could the deity itself worship, which is higher than it? Who should he send prayers to if, according to the concept of monotheism, he is alone and knows about everything. Therefore, he knows that he is alone. He does not need to worship anything, and in the monotheistic religion that is Christianity, believers did not give him such an opportunity. Thus:
- God does not recognize supernatural beings above himself.
- God doesn't send prayers to anyone.
Conclusion: God is a pure and unwavering atheist.
If we return to the beginning of the argument, one thing becomes clear. If God is an atheist who created man “in his own image and likeness” and everyone should try to become as ideal as him (to know, not to believe), then neither faith nor religion is needed. Everyone should strive for knowledge, not faith, that is, for atheism.
Then who needs to have believers? Churches. Why? This is a big business built on human ignorance.
“The Christian life requires consistency and diligence.”
(abbot Nektariy (Morozov))
When a person just comes to the Lord, he feels the warmth of his heart, shows zeal, sometimes is ready to pray around the clock, but often, without calculating his own strength, he gets tired and stops his work to save the soul, then internal devastation sets in.
However, if a person continues to work and pray, then the period of weakening faith passes, he again begins to feel God’s grace and joy from his own Christian life.
If, during a period of life's difficulties, when faith weakens, you stop working and praying out of cowardice, then serious efforts will be required later to take the path of salvation.
Is church about good?
At all times, there were people who subjected loved ones to death for their beliefs when it was necessary for those who had power. They were killed because they were once convinced to believe in one or another god.
People believed in idols, and killed each other in the course of someone's struggle for power. They believed in the gods, and continued to rob, frame and start wars with thousands of victims. Today, those who call themselves Christians continue to kill their own kind. There are wars going on right now in all parts of the globe.
And all this was often approved by the Church. This is because history is not about religion, it is about power. To those who go to kill and die, religion says that this is honorable. Nobody sees the honor, but people are convinced of anything. To those who live their lives in utter poverty and hopelessness, the Church says that this is not a real life, then there will be another, where they will be rewarded for their torment. No one sees retribution and another life, but again, people can be convinced of anything.
In addition, from the Middle Ages to the present day, the Church has been the richest structure, which always receives funds from people. How?
Manipulation is carried out on a person’s main fears. Every Christian knows that if he does not keep the commandments and does not pray in churches, then eternal torment awaits him. And this dogma is instilled in many people from childhood and becomes the cause of strong fear, which turns out to be stronger than the person’s logic. This is where the search engine queries “I don’t believe in God, but I’m afraid of him” come from. According to official data, in this one month, 83 people typed this phrase into one of the search engines.
Fewer turns - faster to the intended goal
You will see how the feeling of gratitude will lead you on a straight path to the lost sense of faith. It will clear the path to God from all sadness, disappointment, doubt and even religiosity.
Do not give up. God is powerful enough to help you overcome your doubts, and He knows exactly what you are going through and why you are finding it so hard to believe right now.
Perhaps now you have truly lost the faith that you always had, or you have simply changed a little yourself. Either way, this is an opportunity to take a deep breath, look around and enjoy everything you see along the way.
If greater faith is not within your power now, so be it for now. Hold on!
Hypocrisy
The argument of a person who does not believe in God against religion often sounds like this: “doing good out of fear of punishment is hypocrisy.” The Bible clearly states that those who do not act in a certain way will be punished. One popular view on this point points to a paradox in the concept of Christianity. Namely, that God monitors actions and sends people to hell, where they will spend their entire eternal life in terrible torment, but at the same time he loves them. Reading the Bible, people begin to not believe in God because they do not feel his love. This process occurs after familiarization with the “Old Testament” to a greater extent.
This leads to another common position: “I don’t believe in God, because he couldn’t be so cruel.” After all, the Bible states that God is an ideal entity.
Ancient people
From the perspective of a person who does not believe in God, it also looks very strange that man has been living on Earth for more than 300,000 years, and, according to the Bible, only those who believed in God will be saved. In today's world, most of the population is guided by completely different beliefs. Why are the Christians who appeared recently right? And where do they put most of the people who have ever existed, who could not know about the existence of Jesus and the canons and did not believe in God? In hell? For what?
Before modern religion, people lived and worshiped their deities for many thousands of years. Each generation considered its gods to be real, the only true ones. Ancient religions are tens of times older than Christianity. Christianity is only a couple of thousand years old, but ancient religions are over 300,000 years old. And the foundations of each cult changed along with the development of man, depending on his needs.
It is also easy to explain why Christianity arose. It's all about people's thinking, about human psychology: a person always has someone in his head whom he is afraid of. If you look at those who have power in this world, you will notice significant differences in their thinking from those postulates used by other segments of the population that make up the backbone of believers.
History of the adoption of faith
It is reliably known how in Rus' Prince Vladimir chose a new faith for the country. The chronicles of that time indicated how he sent messengers to different countries. Everyone had to study the tenets of religions in neighboring countries - Islam, Buddhism and Christianity. All this was done to choose the most beneficial religion for Rus'.
The choice of belief did not decide his spiritual question, but the one that gave specific advantages in power. So, he used Christianity to unite with the then powerful Byzantium. Religion was an instrument of power.
Psychology
Another argument in favor of not believing in God is the following position.
The whole point is that religion, from childhood, shapes a person’s thinking in a certain way so that he is convenient for management. Anyone who believes is afraid of his natural needs, afraid of everything around him. He doesn’t value his life because he believes in the next one, which means he won’t fight for anything in this one. All this also turns beliefs into convenient means of manipulation for those in power.
Those who act on the principle “I don’t believe in God, but I’m afraid of him” put fear at the forefront of their lives. A person thinks the same way in all spheres of life, and begins to act one way or another, fearing the boss and other people in power. Such a person will not become strong, he will not be able to become a threat to power. Just as someone who constantly repents and looks for his sins and defects in everything will not become one. He is humility, which is so convenient for those who want to live beautifully in this life. The whole system is built on using others in a way that they don't understand.
Intermediate position
Someone doesn’t believe in God, but prays not to slide down. This is often done by psychologists who are confident that beliefs are necessary for a person to survive. They point out that it is religious ideas that explain to a person what he cannot understand and what he fears. Death is an unknown that frightens. And faith eases this fear, making it clear what will be waiting there. Therefore, psychologists often do not believe or deny God. This helps them live a happier life.
The following grammatically incorrect query “I don’t believe in God, but I hear his whisper” was also found on the World Wide Web. It should be noted that it has been officially proven that convincing yourself that there is communication with supernatural beings, and clearly hearing voices in your head means being mentally ill. Someone begins to believe that in this way he communicates with God. But the opposite proves that this syndrome is easily treated with drugs that cure schizophrenia. Only a psychiatrist can select them.
“Faith is impossible without prayer”
(Priest Valery Dukhanin)
Faith must be embodied in life - by visiting church, praying, treating people around you, and so on. Otherwise, it fades into the background. Faith is the feeling of the presence of the Lord when you feel that He is nearby. It is supported by prayer - conversation with God.
If a person tries to live following the truths of the Gospel and repent of sins, then God will strengthen his faith.
Photo: Proza.ru
Where are the most believers?
Over the 20th–21st centuries, 63 studies were conducted in which scientists looked for the reasons why people believe in God. Many of them were surprised that 45% of the world's population are believers. Despite the fact that modern man has been in space, climbed deep into the atom, made discoveries regarding the origin of man, which showed the true history of the appearance of people on Earth. Which, by the way, did not coincide with the biblical one. How was such a number of believers possible?
In the course of research by Gregory Paul, it was revealed that in the first-tier countries there is one curious relationship. The higher the level of religiosity of the population, the worse the quality of life in the country. Thus, the United States of America was recognized as both the most religious country in the world and the most disadvantaged of them.
From the point of view of the scientist himself, the relationship between these phenomena is explained as follows. A person’s confidence in the future and peace of mind leads to the fact that he does not need additional psychotherapy. He does not need protection and consolation from religion.
Thus, this points to the psychotherapeutic role of belief. Scientists explained this mechanism this way.
Everyone knows that many unfair events are happening in the world: children die a painful death, someone commits lawlessness and remains completely unpunished, good people suffer a lot. But faith explains everything, it provides a cure for the pain that these situations cause. She says: “everything will be rewarded in the next world.”
Believing that one day justice will come, a person gets rid of the need to struggle and worry in this world. A logical explanation for everything appears: “if someone died, it means it’s good for him, since the ways of the Lord are inscrutable.”
A person has a strong fear of uncertainty built into him. When a person gains faith, he thinks that he can control his life and predict the outcome. At least for your posthumous life.
In addition, religion solves the most pressing question that faces a person: what will happen after death? The thought that one day he will die causes him a lot of suffering. However, the answer to this question, which states that man will not die, inspires him. It becomes clear to him what to do to live happily and forever: to go to heaven. Faith also provides the tools with which to get there: pray, keep the commandments, communicate with priests and go to church. This explains the high popularity of the Church today.
New in blogs
The author of the text is not an atheist.
SHOULD I TRUST RELIGION, OR WHY DO I NOT BELIEVE IN THE CHURCH GOD?
But really, why don’t I believe in him? After all, so many people believe, and they believe unconditionally, earnestly, sometimes even fanatically. And many of them, in turn, are perplexed that there are individuals who reject the almighty and merciful creator of all things. Such people even consider us, who do not believe in their God, to be somewhat limited, perhaps even stupid, and often sympathize with our blindness. But are we all really so blind who do not believe in the intelligent source of the universe? It often happens that those who believe in God have not heard or read the arguments of those who do not believe in him, or do not want to hear them, being firmly convinced that they are right.
What grounds do I have to claim that the god whose existence monotheistic religions insist on not only does not exist, but that his existence contradicts common sense itself? First and most importantly, these are the glaring contradictions underlying religious dogmas, making these dogmas mutually exclusive, and the religions themselves meaningless. Secondly, there are obvious discrepancies between many religious postulates and the realities of life, human experience and the latest discoveries of science. I’ll start in order and begin to consider the dogmas. To do this, I will list the main ones here:
There is only one God (there are no other gods).
God is omnipotent, unlimited, and stands above all the laws of the universe, since he is pre-eternal.
God is omniscient, which gives him the ability to know the future, and this dogma stems from the dogma of his omnipotence.
God is unchangeable.
God is light, love, goodness, there is no darkness in him.
The ways of God are inscrutable.
God is beginningless, infinite, including in his manifestations. (From here naturally follows the dogma of his fundamental incomprehensibility, which intersects with the dogma of the inscrutability of his paths).
Man is a sinner before God.
All the will of God.
A person has freedom of choice.
Now let’s begin to analyze individual dogmas and try to find out how much they agree with each other. Let's take the dogma of the Fall. A banal question immediately arises, which has been asked to various clergy for many centuries, but to which they never bothered to give any intelligible answer. This question sounds something like this: if God is omnipotent, then why did the people he created and the angel Satan sin? It turns out that God, wanting to create completely obedient, perfect beings, made a mistake and created something different from what he intended? So he's not omnipotent at all?
Seeing such a contradiction and trying with all their might to save their religions, theologians came up with a clever excuse that, at first glance, resolves this discrepancy and justifies faith in God. These people said that God gave his creations freedom of choice, and by using it in a bad way, they destroyed their own original perfection. However, this explanation reveals yet another contradiction, which theologians and believers themselves do not want to see, as they say, “point-blank.” To identify it, let's ask ourselves the following question: Can an all-perfect and all-powerful God, who also has complete freedom of choice, one day “go bad” like Adam and Eve and Satan, sin by violating his own principles of goodness, light and perfection? Can he turn into an evil demon, become darkness?
The answer is, of course: never! After all, God is perfect, unchangeable, he is constant in his eternal qualities. Okay, but in this case, if the creatures he created “broke”, sinned, possessing the same freedom of choice that he possesses, then they therefore did not possess perfection similar to the perfection of God, but were endowed with the perfection of some other, lower quality . We already know that there is only one god and there are no other gods, we also know that an omnipotent god cannot make mistakes. And if this is so, then the non-absolute perfection of our first ancestors and Satan could not be a consequence of his shortcomings. God means he deliberately created his creations less perfect than himself. Being the wisest being in the Universe, God could not help but know where this would lead. He could not help but know that anyone who is not endowed with his divine perfection has all the risks of “breaking”, “deteriorating”, “rusting” throughout subsequent eternity. In other words, to sin. Thus, the Fall should not have been such an unpredictable surprise for him. Among other things, this god, being a fair, loving being, simply could not be angry with Adam and Eve, as well as with Satan. After all, it was he and no one else who created them not as perfect as he himself is, it was he who invested in them the perfection of some other, lesser dignity. So what, then, are his defective creations to blame for? Doesn't the fault lie with the swindler?
Along the way, another dogma comes to mind about the omniscience of God. After all, if he truly knows the future, if he sees the future in all its details, then he could not help but see how people will sin, and Satan will rise up against him. Seeing all this, knowing 100 percent that it would happen, God nevertheless placed the notorious Tree in front of our ancestors and created Satan. It turns out he wanted people to sin, and Satan rebelled against him! How could it be otherwise? After all, being omnipotent and seeing everything in advance, God could change the future by removing all bad events from it. At the same time, he would not have violated anyone’s freedom of choice, since no one at that time existed in reality. This means that if God exists, if he knows everything in advance, and is able to change the future, he did not change it, then such a future suited this god! But in this case, no sin exists, and our whole life, the entire existence of the Universe, even the crucifixion of Christ itself loses its drama, and takes on the character of some kind of clownish comedy, which the Lord God arranged for his own entertainment.
Dostoevsky, through the mouth of one of his heroes, expressed the idea that if there is no God, then everything is allowed to man. The classic was wrong, oh, he was wrong. On the contrary, if God exists, then it is then that everything is allowed to a person, since it was initially justified by God himself.
To once again be convinced of the absurdity of religions, let us ask ourselves the question: how does God actually know about future events? Despite the naivety of such a question, it is of no small importance in our task of bringing religion to clean water. From believers and theologians I have usually heard two answers to this question. 1) God, being omnipotent, is able to travel in time, 2) from nowhere. God is pre-eternal, he is outside of time, and thanks to this he knows everything about everything, including what will happen tomorrow.
We are considering the first option. If God draws knowledge about future events from time as from some source, then he loses his exclusivity, omnipotence, and pre-eternity. It becomes dependent on time, even secondary to it. Moreover, time in this case also turns into a creator, creating the future, and then we come to the conclusion that at least two creator gods act in the universe: God the creator of the world and God-time, the creator of the future. Funny! It would be interesting to know how such a circumstance relates to the dogma of monotheism? But this discovery nevertheless does not justify God. Even being a being to some extent dependent on time, but remaining omnipotent (which in itself sounds absurd, because how can someone dependent on something be omnipotent?), or almost omnipotent, very powerful, God could change the future in the best side. What, couldn't? What kind of god is he then?
Second option. God lies outside of time, and thus no passage of time exists for him. Wonderful, but if this is so, then God is immobilized! In this case, it does not manifest itself in any way, because any manifestation requires action, and action can only occur in a certain time period. Does this mean that all the stories in the Bible about the descent of God onto the sinful earth, his participation in the affairs of people, and showdowns with Satan are fiction? Moreover, a god lying outside of time, and therefore completely immobilized, would never be able to create anything, remaining absolutely static forever. So this option also disappears. Although the churchmen have one objection to this matter. They say that time as a substance is still little studied by us, and it is possible that God can create while being outside of this time. It sounds absurd, of course, but let’s not argue, let’s temporarily agree with the holy fathers, because we are not talking about anyone, but about an omnipotent being called God, for whom everything is possible, even creating something, without the existence of time. Okay, so be it, but this does not justify our God one bit. Even being outside of time, and at the same time creating, and being omnipotent and omniscient, he saw everything in advance, but did not take any action to prevent future universal catastrophes.
Here a third option involuntarily comes to mind: Since other gods do not exist, and since our god still knows the future, then he himself invents this future! But this already looks more plausible. And in fact, who else should invent the future if not him? After all, he is, after all, the only creator in the Universe. It turns out that if religion, together with theologians, is right, if the creator of the world exists, he, as the creator, is alone in the universe, and knows everything in advance, since he himself invented everything, then he is the author not only of all good human deeds, but also of all crimes, atrocities, meanness and abominations, even the most terrible and disgusting. However, it turns out to be a nice portrait of our heavenly father! How, after this, can one believe the statements of theologians that God is only love and light and he cannot stand darkness and evil? But we’ve just seen what he can endure, and how, because he himself once conceived all this nasty stuff!
In an effort to save their faith at all costs, theologians hasten in such cases to remind us of the freedom of choice that the magnanimous creator allegedly granted to his creations. The presence of this freedom supposedly refutes all the fabrications of free-thinking people that God and no one else invented the future. To support their position with specific facts, gentlemen's heralds usually cite as an example some facts from real life. They can tell you the heartbreaking story of some drunkard who drank bitter until he was, say, forty years old, and then believed in God, overcame his vice, and set out on the path of a righteous life. Such metamorphoses or similar ones, according to the holy fathers, are the best evidence in favor of the fact that man has freedom, that God did not invent anything one day, and that our future is in our hands.
However, what deceit on the part of the church ministers! I just want to shout to them: where do you see freedom of choice here, gentlemen of God, mediators? After all, if your god exists, and he truly knows the future, then he should have known everything about our poor drunkard, even before his birth. This god had to see that he would drink vodka, and know exactly when he would break with this activity. Well, where is the freedom, where is the choice? If at least one creature in the Universe knows everything in advance, this creature is also omnipotent, and is the creator of the world, then the future is predetermined, even in the smallest details. Freedom of choice in this case turns into an illusion. It is real only in our imagination, but in reality we are all puppets in the hands of God, actors forced to play roles written for us by one screenwriter. Moreover, we are deprived of the opportunity for even minor improvisation. After all, if it existed, this possibility, if we had even a tiny bit of freedom in the presence of God in the world, then millions, billions, billions and an infinite number of our actions not prescribed in the divine script would nullify the further possibility of fulfilling this script, would make it impossible for God to predict not only what will happen tomorrow, but also in a minute, a second. Our freedom would take away God’s omnipotence and would make him equal to us before time. And here we have to decide: either there is no God, but individual individuals have the opportunity to travel through time, through the possibilities of Consciousness unknown to science, and thus learn about future events. With this option, it is possible to explain all the phenomena of self-fulfilling prophecies, and the presence of freedom of choice is preserved. After all, everything that was prophesied was not conceived by someone, but was fulfilled by us, but in the future. Or God exists, and then there is no freedom of choice, there is no point in repenting, improving oneself, or generally striving for anything. The presence of God makes our life meaningless.
So, as we can see from the examples above, not everything in religion is as smooth and consistent as theologians try to present to us. Religion is full of contradictions and ambiguities, and these inconsistencies give rise to a lot of questions to which the clergy do not have intelligible answers. So that people do not completely lose faith and so as not to lose their entire flock, God’s servants resort to all sorts of tricks. For example, they call on believers “not to philosophize.” This translates as: “Don’t you dare think for yourself, think only in the direction indicated in our sacred books. If you see a contradiction, ignore it. All doubts come from demons, if you can’t overcome them, you will end up in fiery hell.” And a person who has gone through such zombification really doesn’t notice anything anymore. If he read in the Bible that God is omnipotent and omniscient, then reading further about the fall of man and Satan, he deliberately forgets about such qualities of God. Then, reading about the coming Last Judgment and the reprisal against the horned one, he again remembers the omnipotence and omniscience of the Creator, believing all the prophecies. After all, God could not make a mistake in his predictions, he knows everything in advance, and does not care that he could not once prevent the Fall, and generally found out about it by accident. Such a deliberate, endless split of consciousness helps to cram seemingly incompatible things into it. It’s the same as believing that some disabled person, who has not had legs since childhood, won a gold medal in the 100-meter race at the Olympics, or that your neighbor ate himself yesterday, leaving nothing of himself. To be fair, it should be said that such savage tricks with their own minds are performed by believers not only out of fear of hellish torment beyond the grave. They are also prompted to such mental manipulations by a different kind of fear: the fear of losing faith, or more precisely, a beautiful fairy tale about a kind and fair uncle sitting on the clouds, or in some transcendental world. It’s so nice to realize in this cruel reality that somewhere in the unattainable and incomprehensible distance, there lives a being entirely woven from light, love and goodness. And it’s so unbearably creepy to even admit the thought that such a creature might not exist. It’s not for nothing that the ancient saying goes: “a lie lulls you to sleep, but the truth can kill”! So the majority prefers to deceive themselves. And besides the fear of losing faith in a kind and caring dad, a person is tormented by the fear of the unknown. Religion gives the illusion of knowledge of the world, it would seem to explain how this world came into being, why there is evil and suffering in it, how to correct this situation, and provides guidelines for the meaning of life. And suddenly it turns out that everything is wrong, it is unknown how our Universe appeared, it is unclear why we came to this world, is there something beyond the threshold of death, and if so, what is that world like? The abyss of the unknown has always frightened man; these are the characteristics of our psyche. And the majority, cowering in the face of reality, chose to bury their heads in the sand of religious dogma. So it’s simpler, easier to live with a primitive, like a child’s drawing of a space rocket, religious model of the world order. Why rack your brains to learn something when everything is already clear? What is clear? And while the good and kind little god sits at the top, the bad and evil Satan is snooping around. When the time comes, God will come down, deal with Satan, and everyone will live happily.
A zombie consciousness does not tolerate free-thinking; it is harmful and destructive to it, just as a means of exterminating fleas is destructive. That is why the zombified consciousness strives with all its might to silence any free-thinking. After all, the voice of free thought is heard everywhere, even through the thickness of sand. Its sounds, combined into words, and words into phrases, destroy a beautiful fairy tale and force the thought to work. And this, oh, is contraindicated for ostrich brains.
However, let's not get distracted. If someone believes that the inconsistencies listed above exhaust all religious contradictions and absurdities, then such a person is deeply mistaken. There are so many of them, these absurdities and contradictions, that you are simply taken aback and, frankly speaking, you are at a loss in doubt about where to start. So, one might say, we are at the very beginning of a path that should inevitably lead us to such a wonderful place, such an elevation, from where many things can be seen at a glance, including the entire false essence of religion.
