HEAVEN IS EVIL CONCEPT ALSO

In the event you are not a fan of Greta Christina and would miss her latest blog on heaven being evil, just as the concept of hell is evil, I want to refer you all to it: http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/03/19/social-control-why-heaven-is-evil/.

I came to the conclusion long ago that the concept of heaven and hell was a ridiculous mythological delusion. It's taken much longer to realize that they are destructive delusions for a variety of reasons.

Rather than pontificate further, I urge you to read this fine post and the multitude of inciteful comments that accompany it.

WARP WHAT?

I enjoy Edwin Kagin and his "Blasphemous Blogging" site. He comes up with some really good stuff.

Here's a snipet of what he just posted on Easter: "If Jesus rose from the dead, and if he went to Heaven, and if Heaven is outside the known universe, and if the laws of nature invented by god apply to god, then Jesus could not travel faster than the speed of light. If he left for Heaven two thousand years ago, he isn’t there yet, and won’t be there for some time. Therefore, we really need not concern ourselves at this point about his return to earth. Presumably he will return sometime after he gets there."

Since the universe has been around for more than 13 billion years and we can't be sure we've peered back in time long enough to see the edge of it yet, I'm guessing the sun will have exhausted itself and will have long ago expanded to incinerate the earth before that trip is anywhere near over -- just the one-way leg of it.

Now, theories about "warp drive" do exist, but, c'mon. Just how much can space be warped? Maybe we could get smart enough to develop wormholes, but they are also only theoretical -- and probably limited in scope. They might or might not be possible and/or practical.

I know. God can supposedly do anything. According to the northern europeans, so could Thor. According to the Greeks, Zeus could too. Substitude the mythology of your choice. It's equal opportunity mythological nonsense time.

All the mythologies, including those about Yahweh and the rest of the Elohim were built around the world and heavens known to the illiterate bronze age goat herders and camel jockeys of that time who had no inkling of the vastness of the cosmos we've only come to understand in some of its vastness during the last century. We still have a lot to discover and begin to fathom!

Poor Jesus. He can't be out of this galaxy yet! And, if he's limited to communicating by the speed of light, he can't even bug dad as to why he aint there yet.

Hmmmm. Now, how about all those prayers people are so confident God, Jesus, saints, etc. hear? Those saints left some time after Jesus did, so they haven't even caught up to him yet.

WHERE IS "UP THERE?"

From little children on, most of us were assured there was a great supernatural being called "god" somewhere "up there" controlling and dictating everything.  The concept is rather universal in the Western World.  It has become such a set part of our thinking that even atheists like myself find our minds reverting to the concept that was drummed into us early on in our lives when we aren't on guard.

This illusion has held sway in the world from ancient times.  The Greeks envisioned it all as a pantheon of gods and goddesses (a divine family) residing invisibly on Mount Olympus.  Other nations and tribes had equally fanciful ideas about deities inhabiting holy parts of the earth and the heavens and showing up as planets, constellations, etc.  It was not too hard to imagine these things prior to our modern technological and scientifically advanced age.

We tend to imagine souls floating off into the ether and continuing to surround us unseen.  I still find the thought comforting, but it is most likely a complete illusion.  It's probably just the last vestige of my former superstitions still trying to assert themselves in my mind.

As I asked in a previous blog, just where is "up there?"  Certainly not Mount Olympus, nor any of the planets and celestial bodies we now know about and have studied ever more thoroughly.

Go to Google or some other search engine and type in "maps of the cosmos."  You will be amazed at what you find.  Surrounding us in every direction, more than thirteen billion light years in all directions, is an "up there" that is totally unfathomable.   Among all the galaxies, stars, nebulae, black holes, etc., there is no "up there" one can point to as the abode of any fantastic being like "god."  The vastness and the distances boggle the mind.  Billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars and attendant planets and  multitudeness wonders yet to be discovered.

The "faith slaves," are absolutely convinced that some magnificent, super-intelligent and utterly omnipotent anthropomorphized being created it all, but they never try to explain where such a being could have originated, or where, exactly, he resides.  Of course, he has to look like us because we are the pinnacle of earthly creation.  We have to be a mirror of the source.

It wasn't too long ago that people thought lightning was Thor (or some other god) hurling his hammer.  We now know better, but many people will still think someone struck by lightning was being punished by god.  We still view diseases and natural disasters as instruments of punishment wielded by "god." 

Superstition survives intact in this enlightened modern age. 

We aren't that far removed from our superstition-ridden ancestors.