First, go read it.

Now, let’s look at what the extremely well-written piece actually said. I think it said to forget about all that crazy Bible stuff (if it seems wrong to you), and just be nice to each other.

Brilliant.

But why not forget about it all together? The only reason the Bible endures is that most people are too weak and stupid to build their own morality without the leverage of an other-worldly threat. And that’s depressing.

They read the Bible, embrace and evangelize the nice parts, and either ignore the filth or sign it off to an angry God that we cannot challenge with our puny little minds. This piece encourages people to do that, which is why I don’t like it.

It claims, in a light-hearted way, to actually know what God thinks of the Bible. It claims to speak with God’s voice in saying, “I don’t know what I was thinking with all that crazy stuff. Just do the good stuff.”

Which translates to, “If something sounds wrong to you, you have permission from God to ignore it. And if it sounds right to you, it’s the word of God.” In a world with 6 billion people and a metric shit-ton of weapons, this is a bad way to go.

Humans thinking they know the mind of the creator of the universe are dangerous. They might not be dangerous themselves individually, but what they teach is itself harmful. Whenever one group “knows” what God thinks, and another group goes against that thing, you know have justified violence.

Just look around at the most religious parts of the world. The problem is one group’s opinion that they have the REAL inside track, and that the other group is wrong. It’s so utterly obvious, people. Wake the fuck up.:

Image from sketchesofexistence

Let me get this straight. You think the Creator of the Universe cares personally about your life, and that you know, with absolute certainty, what he wants for all of humankind.

I, on the other hand, think that we’re basically alone, not very special, and are just fumbling through our random existence trying to do the best we can.

And I’m the arrogant one?

This seems like some random funny audio clip of a psychopath or con artist. It’s not. It’s the foundation of a multi-billion-dollar religion. Scientology.

Listen to it. It’s Hubbard explaining his fantasy scam in his own words.

And somebody send it to Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Will Smith.

[ Hubbard Acting Like a Lunatic ]

This is for the people who believe in God, and believe in the power of prayer.

The next time you have the urge to pray for someone I want you to try something. I want you to offer something to them. I want you to make a pact with God regarding your life and the life of the person in need.

Say these words:

Take from me, and give to him.

And here’s what I want you to offer:

1. Offer to not get your raise at work this year
2. Offer to have a powerful enemy at work who hurts your reputation
3. Offer a reduction in title and pay
4. Offer to be fired and to struggle financially for six months
5. Offer to grapple with a horrible disease
6. Offer to never truly be respected by those you love
7. Offer to die early and never achieve your goals
8. Offer to never attain happiness in your life

In other words, on a scale equal to your offering, give of yourself something that you desire greatly — something that God has the ability to take from you. Give it in exchange for the thing you’re asking for, on behalf of that person you’re trying to help.

For example:

Take from me the promotion I’ve been working for for two years, in exchange for giving that man a stable job to take care of his family.

But do this with belief. Do this knowing that God will really take it.

I’ve done this a few times myself throughout my life as a believer. And I’m somewhat ashamed to say that I’ve done it even after being an atheist. I offer to the universe, sort of, but a universe that has the ability to make the trade. I have not done it recently because I’ve been too selfish, and too cynical, as of late.

But I do it as a believer, so I don’t offer much. It’s amazing what happens to your willingness to give via prayer when the gift is coming from your own prosperity. I have in the past, but only a few times, offered much of my future success in return for the easing of suffering of someone. I was very moved at the time, and it was an honest offering. As a selfish person I hope it wasn’t accepted, but to this day I wouldn’t revoke it if given the knowledge that it was real.

And that’s my challenge to believers: rise at least to the height of this morally deprived atheist. Put something behind your prayers. Offer something of yourself. It’s too easy to ask that someone receive a hundred bundles of happiness if not a single one is coming out of your own stockpile.

Offer gifts from your own finite supply, and see if you are as generous.:

Here, Derren Brown, an atheist illusionist, instantly converts a room full of “atheists” to Christianity. Guess what? It would have worked on me too — and I’m a fairly savvy guy. Anyway, for those of you who are Christians due to “experiencing God”, I beg you to watch this entire episode.

Keep something in mind while watching: what makes your beliefs in God different than the beliefs of the people in this episode? Do they believe less than you? What about your experiences that proved or supported God were more solid than these peoples’?

Keep that in mind as you’re watching.

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Most Westerners know very little about the Middle East and the people that live there. This lack of knowledge hurts our ability to understand, and engage in intelligent discussion about, current events.

For example, frighteningly few know the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and most think the words “Arab” and “Muslim” are pretty much interchangeable. They aren’t. So here’s a very brief primer aimed at raising the level of knowledge about the region to an absolute minimum.

Basics

1. Arabs are part of an ethnic group, not a religion. Arabs were around long before Islam, and there have been (and still are) Arab Christians and Arab Jews. In general, you’re an Arab if you 1) are of Arab descent (blood), or 2) speak the main Arab language (Arabic).

2. Not all Arabs are Muslim. There are significant populations of Arab Christians throughout the world, including in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Northern Africa and Palestine/Israel.

3. Islam is a religion. A Muslim (roughly pronounced MOOSE-lihm) is someone who follows the religion. So you wouldn’t say someone follows Muslim or is an Islam, just as you wouldn’t say someone follows Christian or is a Christianity.

4. Shia Muslims are similar to Roman Catholics in Christianity. They have a strong clerical presence via Imams and promote the idea of going through them to practice the religion correctly. Sunni Muslims are more like Protestant Christians. They don’t really focus on Imams and believe in maintaining a more direct line to God than the Shia.

5. People from Iran are also known as Persians, and they are not Arabs.

6. Arabs are Semites. We’ve all heard the term anti-Semitism being used — often to describe Arabs. While antisemitism does specifically indicate hatred for Jews, the word “Semite” comes from the Bible and referred originally to anyone who spoke one of the Semitic Languages.

7. According to the Bible, Jews and Arabs are related [Genesis 25]. Jews descended from Abraham’s son Isaac, and Arabs descended from Abraham’s son Ishmael. So not only are both groups Semitic, but they’re also family.

8. Sunni Muslims make up most of the Muslim world (roughly 90%). ¹

9. The country with the world’s largest Muslim population is Indonesia. ²

10. The rift between the Shia and Sunni started right after Muhammad’s death and originally reduced to a power struggle regarding who was going to become the authoritative group for continuing the faith.
    
    The Shia believed Muhammad’s second cousin Ali should have taken over (the family/cleric model). The Sunni believed that the best person for the job should be chosen by the followers (the merit model) and that’s how the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, was appointed.
    
    Although the conflict began as a political struggle it now mostly considered a religious and class conflict, with political conflict emanating from those rifts.

Sunni vs. Shia | Arab vs. Non-Arab

Here’s how the various Middle Eastern countries break down in terms of Sunni vs. Shia and whether or not they are predominantly Arab. Keep in mind that these are generalizations; significant diversity exists in many of the countries listed.

• Iraq Mostly Shia (roughly 60%), but under Saddam the Shia were oppressed and the Sunni were in power despite being only 20% of the population. Arab.

• Iran Shia. NOT Arab.

• Palestine Sunni. Arab.

• Egypt Sunni. Arab.

• Saudi Arabia Sunni. Arab.

• Syria Sunni. Arab.

• Jordan Sunni. Arab.

• Gulf States Sunni. Arab.

Conclusion

What’s depressing is the fact that this only took me 30 minutes to write, and you 2 minutes to read. Yet most people in the West (and especially in the United States) lack even this cursory level of knowledge about the region.:

References

¹The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing - Religions

²The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing - Indonesia

Wikipedia | Sunni Muslims

Wikipedia | Shia Muslims

Wikipedia | Arabs