by Paul Schingle

Created on: March 19, 2009

Before I get too heavily into this, I'd like to define the specific "God" that I refuse to believe in. What I cannot fathom believing in, given everything I know, is a God who is a separate entity somewhere in the sky who says, "I'm going to put an earthquake here and an outbreak of e coli virus there." In other words, I refuse to believe in the God of Moses and Abraham and (later, supposedly) Jesus and Muhammad. The God of the Bible and (later, supposedly) the Koran is one of the most transparent myths imaginable that is, oddly, accepted by such a large percentage of people worldwide.

The best part is when Christians, Jews and Muslims take a look at Greek, Roman or Norse mythology and tell you how ridiculous those stories are. I won't quibble with that. Old World myths are stories to explain things that, before science, couldn't be explained. They are silly, if entertaining. The difference between me and the monotheist is, I realize how silly the biblical stories are, as well. God made the earth in 6 24-hour days? God went out of his way to point out the tree of knowledge to Adam, just to tell him not to touch its fruit? That's like leaving the keys in a certain spot and telling your 15-year-old not to take the car. (Sorry, mom, that was me).

The point is when biblical stories were first told, they were oversimplified explanations as to why things are the way they are in the world. Biblical stories are no more (and granted, no less) credible than their Greek, Roman or Norse counterparts. The Bible, for whatever reason, has gotten more universal acclaim and acceptance. I don't know why that is. Perhaps it's gotten better PR over the last two thousand years. Essentially, though, the myths in the Bible are nothing more than folk tales, passsed down from generation to generation, that somebody finally got to writing down. They have no more claim to being "fact" than Greek mythology-period.

Now, given what we know in the area of science, we can give reasonable, logical and (to a certain extent) provable explanations to the origin of life, the way human life has evolved and other daily phenomena (the tides, earth's revolution around the sun, etc.). Creationist/believers will say things like, "Well, evolution is only a theory and can't be proved." That is true, at least to a small degree. Where it's wrong is, when people say "can't be proved." Evolution, as yet, has not been proved-at least not beyond doubt. But, to say it can't be proven is wrong. It may well become irrefutable fact as we learn more through actual science. And, even if one can't say that evolution is fact, it is sure a hell of a lot more plausbile than the whole Adam & Eve, Noah's ark, ridiculous set of folk tales known as the Bible.

Now, if someone wants to claim that there is some sort of higher consciousness that we all can aspire to-in the same vein as Buddhism, I may be willing to listen. But, as soon as I'm hearing about a "creator/God" up in the sky, I really don't want to hear it. It is beyond logical sense and, in my eyes, is no more ridiculous than any other mytholgy.

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