Not Another Word on Gay Marriage Until They Execute an Adulterer

This comes from The Young Turks (I’ve moved the disclaimer to the top, because nobody actually wants anyone to execute adulterers, it’s just to make a point!):

PS — In case anyone is a maniacal literalist, please do not actually attempt to execute any adulterers or anyone else. Check yourself into a mental hospital instead because the seven headed dragon in Revelations could be out to get you.

The religious right picks and chooses which parts of the Bible they want to apply. And they choose based on which outsider group they would like to hate next. First, they emphasized slavery in the Bible when they wanted to hate black people. Now, they emphasize the parts condemning homosexuality so they can hate gay people.

They are completely and utterly disingenuous. They don’t mean a word of it. They don’t give a damn what the Bible says. They just want to use it as an instrument of hate.

The Bible says eating shellfish is an abomination. Yet there are no Red Lobster Amendments. The Bible says you shall not wear two different types of cloth at the same time. Yet there are no Propositions against cotton and wool combos.

…

The religious right pretends that the Bible says marriage is between one man and one woman. But that is a bald faced lie. Have any of these people ever read the Bible? The Bible is full of men taking on second wives, servants, prostitutes and concubines. And all the while, God heartily approves. How many wives did King David have? Eight? Twelve? Let alone his possibly gay lover, Jonathan.

Now the Bible says that a man shall not lie with another man. That is true. But it also says, in the same exact book, that adultery is an abomination. And the just punishment for this sin is execution. So, who will execute the first adulterer? Please step on up. May the one without any Biblical sin cast the first stone.

Here is a question no one can answer — and lucky for the right wing, the media never bothers to ask — why do you only focus on the part of the Bible against homosexuality but not on the part against adultery? … How come no religious figure in this country has mounted a campaign to take away the rights of adulterers? Let alone execute them.

I’ll tell you why. Because there are too many of them. Their followers are adulterers. They don’t make for good scapegoats. They are not an easy target to ostracize and focus your hatred on. Gays are perfect. They are a small enough percentage of the population and different enough from the rest of us to be able to get people to focus their negative, barbaric instincts on them. The Bible is only a tool for this tribal, ugly tactic.

But I am tired of hearing people saying that homosexuality is a sin in the Bible when they never quote the rest of the Bible (probably because a great majority of church goers have never independently read the Bible or they have built up a reservoir of excuses for the parts they find inconvenient). So, from now, I would like to tell the Rick Warrens of the world, you are perfectly allowed to say how much you would like to take gay people’s rights away from them based on the Bible so long as you agree to do one thing first — execute an adulterer.

If you can do that for me, then I’ll believe that you actually believe in the Bible literally and will accept your literal argument against homosexuality. Fair is fair. Step on up.

Reality Check

The universe functions according to the laws of nature. There’s no evidence for any supernatural phenomena, nor any need for supernatural phenomena to explain how the universe works.

Science can’t completely explain how the universe works, and maybe never will. But it’s only through science that we will get the real answers.

Earth is a small planet orbiting a typical star in an immensely large galaxy, which is part of an unimaginably huge universe. There are likely millions or billions of planets in the universe, the vast majority of which are completely incapable of supporting life. That still leaves an unknown, possibly huge number of planets capable of sustaining life. There is nothing special about Earth, besides having the perfect conditions for life to evolve (and of course, being where we live).

The only reason we exist at all is that we were extremely lucky to have evolved here.

Evolution is science, creationism is myth. There’s no real debate among scientists about the validity of evolution, only the details of how it works. The only ones who reject evolution are the creationists, and only because it conflicts with their religion. Just because you don’t understand science doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Creationism is willful ignorance. When you argue for teaching creationism in school, you are actively perpetuating your ignorance and misunderstanding of science on the next generation. (Denying the Holocaust or global warming, and 9/11 conspiracy theories are also willful ignorance.)

There’s nothing special about humans compared to other animals.

Humans have a built-in capacity for faith and morality. The fact that our brains can have religious experiences does not make them real.

We tend to believe what we’re taught by our parents, teachers, religious leaders and community. It becomes part of our world-view, and it’s difficult to change these beliefs. But that doesn’t mean these beliefs are true.

Most people belong to the religion they were raised in.

If you were born in a different place or time, it’s quite likely that you would believe in a different religion and god(s).

Most, if not all, cultures have had their own religion and god(s). In general, they are mutually exclusive, as in, they can’t all be right.

You may be totally convinced that your religion is the true one, but everyone else is just as convinced that theirs is true.

The majority of people alive today believe completely that your religion is false, whichever religion that may be.

There’s no supernatural credibility in ancient religions, which we now call “mythology”.

You may also agree with me that there’s no supernatural credibility in other world religions, or in their holy texts.

The Old Testament is nothing but a 2,000-year-old book of campfire stories from a bronze-age tribe of nomads living in the desert.

The New Testament is marketing material promoting a new leader (who may or may not have existed), plagiarized from many earlier deities.

The Bible reflects the culture and superstitions of the people who wrote it. They had no understanding of how the universe works, hence any science that they actually got right is purely coincidental.

There is some positive morality in the Bible, the rest of it is an abomination.

Like all other holy texts, the Bible has no credibility in any of its supernatural claims, including God, Jesus, heaven, angels, hell and Satan.

You can’t use the Bible to prove anything about the existence of supernatural phenomena.

There is no more supernatural credibility in Christianity than any other religion.

Religion was created by man to help answer “the big questions”. It’s a human institution, and as such, is capable of both good and evil.

Religion is tribal. If the Israelites had lost just one of the many genocidal battles documented in the Old Testament, their particular god would have perished with them and we would be worshipping an entirely different god (or gods).

Being tribal, religion is divisive and perpetuates an “us-versus-them” mentality. It helps you believe that everyone who doesn’t believe exactly as you do is going to hell.

Hell is an entirely unacceptable concept. It’s an invention of cruel, primitive, vindictive minds to enforce “correct” behaviour by fear and guilt.

If hell is the only thing keeping you from sinning, that makes you a morally weak person.

It’s absurd and insulting (to you) to claim that the Bible is the only source of morality.

The “ethic of reciprocity” (known in Christianity as the Golden Rule) can be considered the modern basis for right and wrong, especially when slightly re-phrased, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, if you were in their situation“. It’s found in most world religions.

You don’t need to be a member of any religion to live your life according to the Golden Rule.

Your particular “morality” is a combination of nature and nurture, just like everyone else who has ever lived. The fact that you can quote scripture to back up your opinion means nothing as the Bible is so famously ambiguous that you can use it to validate any position.

On the other hand, your religious beliefs and rituals basically amount to “culture”. They’re a product of your environment, they’re self-perpetuating when you pass them on to the next generation and they don’t rely on the actual existence of God, since faith is a virtue in itself.

Looking at religion as “culture” actually helps make some sense of the insanity. All the rules, superstitions, rituals, taboos, bigotry, hatred, closed-mindedness, oppression, genocide and anything else that you want to attribute to religion is really just part of being a member of a tribe in a competitive, brutal world.Like it or not, I think this is a pretty good summary of reality. I’m sure you’ll be tempted to turn it around and give me “your version of reality”, but remember it’s based on superstition, ignorance and a 2,000-year-old book of campfire stories.

A gem from the people at Creation Science Evangelism

Ok, so I don’t want to give these whack-jobs any more visibility than they already have, but I’m hoping they might just hang themselves with this one. It’s from an essay called “Where Did Cain Find His Wife?”. Words fail me. I’m embarrassed to be of the same species as these people.

“However, there were no moral laws against children intermarrying until after the time of Moses. This was approximately 4,000 years ago and at least 2,000 years after the creation of mankind. Before that time sibling marriage was probably quite common. The Bible states that Adam and Eve had MANY sons and daughters. Jewish tradition suggested that they had 33 sons and 23 daughters! Cain merely married his sister.”

The Wisdom of the Holy Bible in One Verse

A lot of criticism of the Holy Bible has been written by the people at Evil Bible, the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible, Biblical Errancy and others. Not that I disagree with them, but I thought I’d look at it from a positive point of view – look for the timeless, universal and perhaps most importantly, understandable wisdom.

Here it is, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31, NIV)

Obviously this verse is known as the Golden Rule, and I think it gives you, in 11 words, a pretty good model for how to live your life. It applies just as well today as 2,000 years ago, and it should apply just as well or 2,000 years from now. It’s universal – it applies to white, black, Asian, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, heterosexual, homosexual, disabled and whatever other categories you care to put “others” in. And it’s easy to understand and easy to remember. No proverbs, no verses that can be interpreted to prove whatever you want to prove.

You can read more about what Wikipedia calls the “ethic of reciprocity“, as the “common principle for many religions”. They suggest appending “if you were them” as an attempt to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.

If you can look at your life and say that you’ve treated everyone with the honesty, respect, tolerance and forgiveness that you think you deserve, then I think you’ve led a pretty decent life.