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发帖数: 3056 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Belief 讨论区 】
发信人: Hardworking1 (我忽悠，你参考！), 信区: Belief
标 题: Good article: God is nonsense
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Tue Jan 15 23:06:22 2013, 美东)
When my son was around 3 years old, he used to ask me a lot of questions
about heaven. Where is it? How do people walk without a body? How will I
find you? You know the questions that kids ask.
For over a year, I lied to him and made up stories that I didn’t
believe about heaven. Like most parents, I love my child so much that I didn
’t want him to be scared. I wanted him to feel safe and loved and full of
hope. But the trade-off was that I would have to make stuff up, and I would
have to brainwash him into believing stories that didn’t make sense,
stories that I didn’t believe either.
One day he would know this, and he would not trust my judgment. He
would know that I built an elaborate tale—not unlike the one we tell
children about Santa—to explain the inconsistent and illogical legend of
God.
And so I thought it was only right to be honest with my children. I am
a non-believer, and for years I’ve been on the fringe in my community. As a
blogger, though, I’ve found that there are many other parents out there
like me. We are creating the next generation of kids, and there is a wave of
young agnostics, atheists, free thinkers and humanists rising up through
the ranks who will, hopefully, lower our nation’s religious fever.
Here are a few of the reasons why I am raising my children without God.
God is a bad parent and role model.
If God is our father, then he is not a good parent. Good parents don’t
allow their children to inflict harm on others. Good people don’t stand by
and watch horrible acts committed against innocent men, women and children.
They don’t condone violence and abuse. “He has given us free will,” you
say? Our children have free will, but we still step in and guide them.
God is not logical.
How many times have you heard, “Why did God allow this to happen?”
And this: “It’s not for us to understand.” Translate: We don’t
understand, so we will not think about it or deal with the issue. Take for
example the senseless tragedy in Newtown. Rather than address the problem of
guns in America, we defer responsibility to God. He had a reason. He wanted
more angels. Only he knows why. We write poems saying that we told God to
leave our schools. Now he’s making us pay the price. If there is a good,
all-knowing, all-powerful God who loves his children, does it make sense
that he would allow murders, child abuse, wars, brutal beatings, torture and
millions of heinous acts to be committed throughout the history of mankind?
Doesn’t this go against everything Christ taught us in the New Testament?
The question we should be asking is this: “Why did we allow this to
happen?” How can we fix this? No imaginary person is going to give us the
answers or tell us why. Only we have the ability to be logical and to
problem solve, and we should not abdicate these responsibilities to “God”
just because a topic is tough or uncomfortable to address.
God is not fair.
If God is fair, then why does he answer the silly prayers of some while
allowing other, serious requests, to go unanswered? I have known people who
pray that they can find money to buy new furniture. (Answered.) I have
known people who pray to God to help them win a soccer match. (Answered.)
Why are the prayers of parents with dying children not answered?
If God is fair, then why are some babies born with heart defects,
autism, missing limbs or conjoined to another baby? Clearly, all men are not
created equally. Why is a good man beaten senseless on the street while an
evil man finds great wealth taking advantage of others? This is not fair. A
game maker who allows luck to rule mankind’s existence has not created a
fair game.
God does not protect the innocent.
He does not keep our children safe. As a society, we stand up and speak
for those who cannot. We protect our little ones as much as possible. When
a child is kidnapped, we work together to find the child. We do not tolerate
abuse and neglect. Why can’t God, with all his powers of omnipotence,
protect the innocent?
God is not present.
He is not here. Telling our children to love a person they cannot see,
smell, touch or hear does not make sense. It means that we teach children to
love an image, an image that lives only in their imaginations. What we
teach them, in effect, is to love an idea that we have created, one that is
based in our fears and our hopes.
God Does Not Teach Children to Be Good
A child should make moral choices for the right reasons. Telling him
that he must behave because God is watching means that his morality will be
externally focused rather than internally structured. It’s like telling a
child to behave or Santa won’t bring presents. When we take God out of the
picture, we place responsibility of doing the right thing onto the shoulders
of our children. No, they won’t go to heaven or rule their own planets
when they die, but they can sleep better at night. They will make their
family proud. They will feel better about who they are. They will be decent
people.
God Teaches Narcissism
“God has a plan for you.” Telling kids there is a big guy in the sky
who has a special path for them makes children narcissistic; it makes them
think the world is at their disposal and that, no matter what happens, it
doesn’t really matter because God is in control. That gives kids a sense of
false security and creates selfishness. “No matter what I do, God loves me
and forgives me. He knows my purpose. I am special.” The irony is that,
while we tell this story to our kids, other children are abused and murdered
, starved and neglected. All part of God’s plan, right?
When we raise kids without God, we tell them the truth—we are no more
special than the next creature. We are just a very, very small part of a big
, big machine–whether that machine is nature or society–the influence we
have is minuscule. The realization of our insignificance gives us a true
sense of humbleness.
I understand why people need God. I understand why people need heaven.
It is terrifying to think that we are all alone in this universe, that one
day we—along with the children we love so much—will cease to exist. The
idea of God and an afterlife gives many of us structure, community and hope.
I do not want religion to go away. I only want religion to be kept at
home or in church where it belongs. It’s a personal effect, like a
toothbrush or a pair of shoes. It’s not something to be used or worn by
strangers. I want my children to be free not to believe and to know that our
schools and our government will make decisions based on what is logical,
just and fair—not on what they believe an imaginary God wants. | E*****m
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