The Fatal Flaws of Faith and Belief
by Michael Horn
www.theyfly.comDecember 25th, 2004
All religions rest on the patently illogical, un-provable premise that “what this book says is true because the book says it’s true”. That, unfortunately, is the best that religion has, and ever can offer, as a way of proving it’s God/divine authorship premise, an embarrassingly paltry, painfully childish claim that would be laughed out of any court, as well as any credible institution of higher learning.
It consequently requires the continuous application of “faith” and “belief” to sustain the promised but perpetually delayed realization, fulfillment and substantiation of its premise and truthfulness. Nonetheless, and incomprehensibly, adherents find something pious and noble about suspending their rational, logical reasoning faculties in favor of clearly unfounded hope and wishful thinking. Some extend this into the realm of the hopelessly delusional by claiming to have a “personal relationship” with a man who, if he ever did indeed live, has been dead for over 2,000 years. Normally, this is known as either lying, hallucinating, schizophrenia, etc. but recently has become an accepted (and admired) expression of a genuine “religious experience”, so distorted have people’s rational thinking become. We even have a president who proudly proclaims this imaginary relationship and his accompanying belief that God wanted him to wage war on our “enemies”. Such willingness to commit irresponsible, unjustified aggression and mayhem, while frequently attributed to divine inspiration by the most degenerate of power-crazed humans, should (lacking the same kind of self-responsibility the delusion demonstrates) more likely be attributed to an equally mythical figure, as in “the Devil made me do it.”
Think of what man has discovered, learned, invented, etc. in the past 3,500 years and compare humanity’s growth and accomplishments in understanding life and its mysteries with the stagnant, insufficient, self-contradictory mythologies of Biblical lore and a clear thinking person has to wonder just how and why people have perpetuated these religions and their beliefs for so long. Certainly, the presumed God (or Gods) of the major religions has/have had sufficient time to realize that the original (and contradictory) messages delivered to humanity via primitive, wandering, warlike nomads and desert dwellers could stand just a wee bit of clarification during these communication rich times, unless God is a vindictive sadist content to have people fighting and killing each other in His name, as the events of the past three and one-half millennia seem to indicate.
One only has to read the first several books of the Old Testament (OT) to realize that the God of that book, the “loving and merciful” presumed author of “Thou shalt not murder” (kill innocents) was the same fellow who specifically commanded the slaughter, infanticide and genocide of well over 10,000,000 people, mostly innocent non-combatants, women, children and infants while emphasizing that it was to be done “without mercy”. He also advocated the stealing and/or burning of the lands and property, the rape and/or prostitution of surviving women, etc. also in contradiction of His specific commandments, i.e. orders as opposed to mere suggestions or recommendations, let alone ordinary good morality. Well, if the presumed Creator of logic itself demonstrates an illogical inconsistency (and certifiable sadism) how is one supposed to deal with that?
Remember also that the people of those times, while more than willing to carry out the sadistic, abominable slaughters, were devoid of weapons of mass destruction so that they had to hack up all the people - all the women, children and infants - one at a time with swords, knives and spears, making today’s Islamic radical butchers seem like inept, small time jokers in comparison.
And, when apologists for this brutal abomination try to say that the people that the Israelites mercilessly slew were killed because they were living terrible, sinful lives one is reminded of the technique of pacification used during the Viet Nam war where villages full of people were destroyed in order to “save” them. (Ah, salvation! Please, save me from all of the saviors!) On top of that, when religious, self-proclaimed paragons of morality and virtue answer the question regarding the killing of innocents, as national talk radio host (and expert on the OT) Dennis Prager actually did with, “Well, if God says it’s good then it’s good”, then clearly the inmates are running the asylum.
All of this, all of this, is justified because God said to do it and God is substantiated as being the Creator because the book that says so, says so? An old book says so, so that should be good enough, right? Great. Here we have 3,500 year-old rewritten, edited, redacted writings, myths, legends, filled with incomprehensible, meaningless rituals and superstitions and equally antique minds remaining calcified in the murky, long distorted and misunderstood misperceptions of ages past perpetuating the bloodletting and barbarism without anyone daring to question the insanity of the matter.
Let’s also reflect on the passage in the Old Testament where God is said to have “hardened the hearts” of the enemies of the Israelites so as to facilitate their slaughter. Gosh, how come this “loving and merciful God” didn’t think of “softening” their hearts instead and thereby give humanity a respite from the bloodletting He so seemed to enjoy, (and at the same time use the opportunity to actually teach something about reason, peace, justice, mercy, compassion, etc.)?
When confronted by the glaring inconsistencies and fantasies inherent in the Bible(s), true believers hesitate not at all to selectively attribute metaphoric and allegorical meaning to the “word of God” despite the glaring inconsistency in so doing, i.e. where the Bible makes illogical and or irrational statements and presents them as truth, true believers actually contradict the Bible and say that it doesn’t mean what God is said to have said! It “means something else” (even though the Bible, the word of God, doesn’t say it means something else), and true believers are not short on filling in the illogical blanks with their own rationalizations and interpretations in order to bail out of the obvious abyss, one that simple, clear thinking would suffice to provide the necessary buoyancy to traverse to safer, more reasonable shores.
Another screaming example of the suspension of logic, common sense and obvious morality is to be found in the oft referred to story of Abraham and Isaac. We are told that this was a “test” of Abraham by God, the actual end of human sacrifice, etc. In reality, it’s the clear description of divine child abuse; it seems that no one ever mentions exactly what trauma Isaac must have experienced during this quaint little test, one that the Creator of all that exists certainly wouldn’t need to administer…for any reason. Of course, this is the same Creator who has countless recipes for paying homage to him through animal sacrifice and the smearing of blood and entrails all over the place, pretty lofty stuff for the very Creator of light, atoms, stars, etc. Oh, of course, I forgot, the primitive people of the time needed to go through all this butchery to show their devotion to God and life itself, right.
As alluded to before, religious faith absolutely requires that we unquestioningly accept that the presumed very Creator of logic itself, as well as the laws of cause and effect, both of which are absolutely foundational to the operation of the entire universe and everything in it, capriciously violated (and commanded violation of) all of these and other laws, commandments and crucial moral and ethical standards and behaviors with no rational explanation.
Should we even raise the point that the known universe alone contains trillions of galaxies containing uncountable numbers of stars and planets with life-sustaining conditions, that the very notion that we are so important, that any group on this planet is so important that a “chosen people” must have eternal rights to a specific, forlorn chunk of desert in order to fulfill some whim of the Creator is anything short of megalomaniacal delusion? Do we want to actually think about the premise that people are “born in original sin” and require a man to be mercilessly tortured and then nailed up on a cross to “redeem” them so that they can “enter the kingdom of heaven” and play their harps for eternity? Is there something just a little bit odd about people willing to kill innocents in the name of a “solitary prophet” because some self-appointed “leaders” among them have invented a twisted promise of a truckload of virgins* waiting in their version of “heaven” for doing so?
People often come to religions for two primary reasons, i.e. the desire to know, do and be good and/or out of fear, fear of life, fear of uncertainty of their place in the cosmos, fear of a whole host of things. And there has never been a shortage of those who are more than willing to manipulate the malleable masses and help relieve them of any self-responsibility, logic, discernment, etc. so that they can control and exploit them through religion.
And is somebody here worried about extraterrestrials threatening mankind? What, don’t we have abundant proof that we’re fully willing and capable on our own of destroying every last living thing on the planet and reason itself? As for a God protecting humanity against evil extraterrestrials, that certainly perpetuates the patently, observably illogical premise that we are indeed some kind of extremely special species, dwelling as we are on this tiny speck of cosmic lint, floating somewhere out at the end of a spiral arm of but one of countless trillions of galaxies. A little too self-important, wouldn’t you say?
Is it not clear that all of the God-related premises, theories, etc., all of them, rely solely on belief, not real evidence, not reason, not logic, not true morality, not any rational thing at all – solely on belief and it’s senseless sibling, faith (as well as a good dose of fear)?
And while seeking to explain that the magnificence of life and existence itself obviously begs the existence of God, meaning the one referred to originally in the OT, religiously oriented folks seem oblivious to the existence of the Sumerians, who preceded the Israelites/Hebrews by a very significant length of time, and who not only had the Genesis story but also the story of Noah and a number of other stories/myths thought to originate with the OT and its God. Further, the Sumerians were far more evolved than the later Israelites, and infinitely more knowledgeable in various sciences, agriculture, etc., etc. They knew of, and illustrated, the known solar system, including Uranus and Neptune, etc. They did something else the Israelites didn’t do, they left illustrations, statuary, etc., which clearly showed ET craft, space suits, their “Gods”, genetic experimentation, etc. plus provided information on all of this that has been deciphered/translated. Of course, anyone reading Ezekiel can discern that there is an object being described here that is quite consistent with the common description of UFOs throughout history (and art history, see: http://www.ufoartwork.com ).
So where is the acknowledgement and recognition of this mild interruption to Biblical accuracy and supremacy on the part of the true believers? Locked away in either ignorance of its existence or denial, as most of reality regarding these profound questions is. And safely in its place, on public display like a replica lest the true object be stolen, is belief and faith in transparent fantasy, fraud and disinformation.
So, is this also an indictment of “Judeo-Christian values”? Well, that depends on what one perceives them to be. While they may have been altered to reflect authorship by, and give reverence to, the God of the OT the (original) Ten Commandments (or perhaps Twelve) are certainly universally worthy teachings and guidelines. Such concepts as “Do unto others…” “As you sow, so shall you reap”, etc. likewise reflect truth and wisdom, reflecting as they also do the eternal laws of cause and effect, as well as a universal morality that’s not the exclusive province or property of the Judeo-Christian religions. It’s obvious to anyone who has even a nodding acquaintance with other philosophies, religions, sources and cultures (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism come to mind) that Judeo-Christian values, the true and sensible ones, are neither unique to, nor originating solely from, these religions.
And lost to many is the obvious reality that it is the individual who validates and authorizes “truth”, not God. All one has to do to understand this is to acknowledge that there is more than one religion, one possible belief system, and to notice that people choose (or default) to one or another of these, thereby effectively saying, “this is the true religion”. Please realize that all of these different people, with all of their different individual, as well as group, understandings of their beliefs, in countless sects and cults, believe (and, therefore, claim) that theirs is, of course, the one true religion and one true God. By definition and logic they can’t all be right (and all must be wrong). As a matter of fact, many of them believe each other to be wrong, as the historical religious wars and contemporary conflicts clearly illustrate. So where is the real “one true God” who could straighten all this out in a nanosecond? Don’t hold your breath for a personal appearance or a logical answer.
Is it any wonder, in light of humanity’s collective religious and secular delusions, fantasies and genocidal mania, that an intelligent extraterrestrial human species, with an actual functioning morality based in eternally valid, consistent and immutable universal laws, and derived through knowledge, wisdom and spiritual understanding, might face quite a challenge in attempting to extend to this confused species a helping hand so that we might avoid our own self-destruction? Is it possible that such an extraterrestrial species may recognize its own place in Creation, is aware of its own limitations and the dangers of, once again (even unintentionally), being mistaken for the “Creator” or the Creation itself, and still wants to find a way to help us to help ourselves without violating our free will?
Just how would a race of people who know, not believe but know, that life, survival and evolution rest on self-responsibility and true spirituality, not on turning our individual and collective power over to imaginary gods, religious intermediaries, politicians, false “leaders”, etc. approach a world like ours where just such abdication of self-responsibility is at the core of most of the world’s belief systems, and to which most of its population adheres in one form or another?
In the Meier case, we have been given an astonishing (and unparalleled) nearly 50-year record of impeccably accurate information covering an extremely wide range of subjects, all far beyond the scope of knowledge of Meier himself, and published by him well in advance of the “official” discovery or occurrence of the events foretold. If this is true, and you can begin to verify it for yourself ( www.theyfly.com ), it certainly warrants careful examination of the information provided to us regarding our near, probable but still changeable future. (Note that I suggest careful examination, not belief.)
In other words, unlike the vague, mostly symbolic, metaphoric messages of Biblical and other prophetic sources, the Plejaren have provided enormously specific, detailed information that leaves no doubt as to what it refers to. In a world where the best of our leaders can barely speak truthfully for 50-seconds, it seems the Plejaren have done an impressive, and painstakingly patient, job of establishing a foundation of credibility for the sake of trying to sufficiently lubricate our cultic, contaminated minds that we may recognize the dark hole into which we have propelled ourselves, apparently unknowingly, and begin to extricate ourselves…through our own hard efforts.
And they seem to have done this in as oblique, yet effective, a manner as they could so as to not encourage or perpetuate the “savior” myth; they offer no gods, angels, saints, ascended masters, “space brothers” initiated planetary lift-off or any form of “rapture”, just an opportunity to avoid a worldwide rupture, if we’ll take it, which means taking full and complete responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, actions and lives individually and collectively. That also means finally outgrowing the infantile, and deadly, acceptance and dependence on the “what this book says is true because the book says it’s true” premise.
Is it too much to hope for that we can leave the age of delusional, murderous religions, unfounded faith and beliefs for the age of knowledge and truth in time to avert the worst of what may that otherwise may be coming our way? Can we loosen our own grip on the sword of fear and greed that humanity has wielded against itself for thousands of years and transform it into one that we can use instead to cut through the bonds of past illusions and limitations, to gain true freedom and real peace and then have it be an implement to guard what will have been so long sought after and fought for?
Please read more from Michael Horn