Sigmund Freud was a strong opponent. In his 1928 book, Future of an Illusion, he called religion "the universal neurosis of humanity." He also called religious ideas "illusion, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest and most insistent wishes of mankind."
He was also suffering from strong delusions. Sex played a part in every part of human life to the point of “absurdity”.
Still and all he was right.
A 1986 survey published by the American Journal of Psychiatry found that 95 percent of psychologists and the majority of psychiatrists acknowledge that they are atheist or agnostic, compared to the 90 percent of the general public who do believe in God.
Intellectuals seem to have all of the answers. They must do – their superior intelligence would obviously provide insight into all of the problems of the world including the problem of origins. If you believe that you're kidding yourself. The Mensa Society was started by intellectuals in the obvious belief that they would be able to get together and come up with the answers to the world's problems. Not one good solution has yet come forth. Why? Because intellectuals generally don't agree amongst themselves. It was found that when people of average intellect were asked to solve problems they reached consensus in far greater proportion than intellectuals. Intellectuals have a greater ego problem to overcome. Interesting that this group that can't usually agree find agreement on this issue!! It's also true that a far greater proportion of those that take up psychiatry and psychology have personal problems that they hope to find answers to in their chosen profession. Could this be the reason why they reject the existence of God – as you also do Barry?
Gosh! Are you suggesting that God has
let these people down?
It's pretty obvious to the undeluded that there is no God.
If people are evil it is because God has chosen to make them evil (Rom 1:24-28)
The writer of this piece of dishonesty fails to acknowledge that the previous verses show that these people spoken of here are those that have chosen to live in such a way that they have become hardened in evil. It has nothing to do with God choosing to make them evil. Get fair dinkum mate!! You are deliberately lying, but I suppose you won't print this fact without distorting it in some way.
You are ignoring the fact that God chose to make them that way in the first place.
and caused them to disobey him (Rom 11:32).
This has nothing to do with God causing anyone to disobey, but rather has accepted the fact that they were disobedient with the understanding that He offers mercy to all. Read it again Pal.
You read the part where Jesus claims that all things are possible for God.
If they do not understand God's message it is because he has made their minds dull (Rom 11:8)
Again dishonesty: This isn't a reference to mankind in general, but to a number of the Jewish people of Isaiah's day. There is a principle whereby those of us that refuse to see truth become hardened in the foolishness of deceit. Here the prophet Isaiah is quoted from the Old Testament. He warns them of this fact.
God, for whom all things are possible, has given up on them?
and caused them to be stubborn (Rom 9:18)
Yes, the principle stated above is one established by God but it is a good one. The Bible merely points out that if we harden ourselves to continue to do wrong, it will take deep root in our lives so that we become stubborn and unable to change or even want to change. It is written in poetic language but this is the meaning and the principle here. We have to weigh up scripture against scripture rather than plunge into an emotional state because of one single passage.
Why would God treat us that way?
God prevents the Gospel from being preached in certain areas (Act 16:6-7)
I can't believe you're serious!! God had better things for these people to do at that particular time. Later the Gospel was preached in that area and God blessed it in a much better way than if they'd gone in then. Come on – where's your integrity? You're being unscrupulous in your misuse of the scriptures.
Read your Bible! God doesn't need time to do things.
and he fixes long before it will happen when a person will be born and when he or she will die (Act 17:26)
So???
That's pure evil!
Those who were going to be saved were chosen by God before the beginning of time (ii Tim 1:9 Eph 1:11)
ii Tim 1:9 Simply says that he saved us and chose us to live a holy life. The”us” referred to there applies to all who will choose to respond. The Gospel in that passage is for all who will listen, not for only those He chose to respond. Please read the whole of the passages and in fact the whole of the Bible and get a true perspective. The Gospel (Good News) is meant to be preached to all people on the Earth. Don't pretend you don't know this fact Barry.
Don't you pretend that God is not evil and corrupt.
Eph 1:11 The predestination is to all those who choose to become Christians. See Verse 4 and see that we are predestined in Him (Jesus Christ). In other words God, who has fore-knowledge and therefore knew which of us would choose Christ also predestined those who would do so to become adopted as His children. Not such a problem. The Bible always promises that “Whosoever will may come.”
Of course God knows how he made people, but not why.
If a person has faith and is thereby saved, their faith comes from God, not from any effort on their part (Eph 2:9-10)
This passage tells me that it is God's gracious gift of salvation that comes from God. We exercise the faith. Read a modern version in modern English and there is no doubt. 8 God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
Which is to say God plays cruel games with us. You may be destined for hell and there is nothing you can do about it.
One may ask "If a person can only do what God predetermines them to do, how can God hold them responsible for their actions?" The Bible has an answer for this question.
But one of you will say to me: "If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? For who can resist God's will?" But who are you, my friend, to answer God back? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it: "Why did you make me like this?" After all, the man who makes the pot has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from one lump of clay, one for special occasions and one for ordinary use. And the same is true of what God has done (Rom 9:19-22).
Yes Barry, this is a hard one to answer. But I hope that you never use such an excuse for doing wrong – for rape or murder or child-molestation.
Ha ha. You are the funny one. Christians use that as an excuse to beat people into submission.
You see, you do have the ability to exercise will-power.
We wouldn't need to if God cared for us.
And Paul the Apostle disabuses his readers of the notion that they are without fault in their attitude toward God. If the person (the clay) has become faulty of his own choice, it can only be used for a lesser purpose than God would have liked.
So much for all things being possible for God. Jesus must have lied.
Free will allows us to become whatever we desire.
Rubbish! You speak without thinking.
If this were not so there could not be free will and there could not exist human beings.
In that case you don't exist.
So apparently in Christianity a person's life and destiny are due purely to the whim of God and as mere humans we have no right to complain about what God has decided for us. The idea that we are all predetermined is quite consistent with the idea of an all knowing God but it makes nonsense of the concept of making an effort to do good or avoid evil.
Good on ya Barry. Glad you used the word “apparently”. We have seen that all of your fault-finding is only about “apparent” faults.
Obvious faults.
The Problem of Evil Perhaps the most potent argument against the existence of an all powerful, all loving God is the undeniable fact that there is so much pain and suffering in the world. If there is really a God of love who has unlimited power, why doesn't he put an end to all evil? Christians try to answer this question in several ways.
Firstly, they will say that evil is caused by man not God and that if only man would follow God's commandments there would be no pain, evil or suffering. However, while it is true that evils such as war, rape, murder and exploitation can be blamed on humans, they can hardly be blamed for the millions who die each year in earthquakes, floods, epidemics and accidents, all of which are natural; events.
The writer is too kind. If God is our creator he is responsable for all types of suffering.
Yes – the problems of evil and suffering are hard to understand if we believe in a loving God.
Not hard to understand, but unsolveable. All you are lseft with is to accept that there is no good God
No Christian can answer this question perfectly – in fact all of our answers are poor ones, especially in the eyes of some that are doing the suffering. Many believers have wrestled with and even agonised over this question. Your glib statements Barry, can't be adequately answered in such a forum as this. There are many good Christian publications that attempt to address this subject and often with common-sense suggestions. There are also many Christians who have suffered cheerfully trusting in God that there are reasons for that suffering and many people that have been blessed in their lives not by the suffering, but as a result of the suffering.
You are desperate. Face it. There is no good God no matter how much you wish otherwise.
In fact, according to the Bible, the germs that cause hideous diseases like TB, polio, cholera, leprosy etc. and all the misery, deformity and suffering to which they give rise, were created by God before he created man (Gen. 1:11-12).
Barry again misquotes. This passage only refers to herbs, fruit-trees grass and trees. I hope that any of you that foolishly believe his dishonest biblical quotes will check them up for yourselves. Also interesting that many modern diseases such as SARS are coming about only at this time in history. Could it be something to do with what we're doing to our environment?
I see you believe in evolution.
Another way Christians will try to explain away evil is to say that it is God's punishment for those who do not follow his commandments. However this implies that terrible things happen only to bad people, which is certainly not true. We often hear of painful sicknesses or disasters befalling good people including good Christians, and likewise we often hear of really bad people who seem to have nothing but good fortune and success. So it cannot be said that suffering and evil are God's way of punishing sinners.
Again the writer is too kind. If people are bad it is because God made them that way.
Like many of Barry's statements, this is a half-truth. Yes some Christians might say such things, but the thoughtful majority don't agree. Jesus himself when it was suggested that certain people that were killed in an unfortunate accident were suffering for sin, assured them that those people were no worse than any other persons. He showed by this that he wasn't interested in condemnation, but rather, truth and mercy.
So you accept there is no good God. See? Not so hard to accept.
Next, Christians will say that God allows evil to exist in the world because he wants to give us the freedom to choose good over evil and thereby earn salvation. Evil, they will say, exists to test us. At first this seems to be a good explanation. If a man sees someone being beaten up by a bully he has a choice between turning away (doing wrong) or deciding to help the victim (doing right). If he decides to help then he has been tested and found good. However, as we have seen before, an all knowing God must already know what choices a person will make so what is the point of testing us? Also, even if suffering and evil exist in the world to test us, couldn't an all loving God think of a less cruel and less painful way to do this? It seems unloving and unfair to allow pain to be inflicted on one person so that another person can have the opportunity to choose between good and evil.
This supposes Barry, that you know all the answers. You believe that your finite mind can encompass all that can be known about the Almighty Person that created you and what is right and wrong. I don't think so. Tell me how it is possible for us to be human beings with personalities and free-will and not have that freedom to choose good over evil or vice versa? To exist as free beings we must have the power to choose. The alternative is that we be robots. How then can we have such things as love, joy, goodness, gentleness honesty, faithfulness etc?
That supposes you know all the answers. You believe that God is limited to what you can work out.
No – we don't earn salvation by being good as you suggest (which shows that you have never really looked at the Gospel honestly), but remember that the free gift of God is salvation to all that want it and accept it by faith. That's where faith comes in Barry.
Faith is believing when there is no reason to believe. So, by invoking faith you are admitting that you don't believe.
Testing is not so God can see if we will be good or not, but rather to create a butterfly out of a chrysalis.
God is so pathetic.
This world is not the goal, be-all-and-end-all of life no matter what you may like to think Barry.
It is for us. We only get this one existence no matter what people have told you. You didn't fall for the scare tacticts that God is gunna get you after you die? That's pathetic. Grow up.
This life is the forge with which God produces perfected people from ordinary people. Notice I didn't say perfect people.
Such a pathetic God you believe in.
Yes it is unfair that you Barry can choose to be hateful toward others. Your language toward Christians in these pages indicate that you spread unhelpful discomfort toward those believers you meet in the flesh. You make the choice to do so. Therefore you are inflicting unpleasantness on others. This too is unfair but it is your choice. Yes, I'm sure that some misguided immature Christians do the same to you. This too is unfair and not what God would want.
So Jesus lied when he claimed that all things are possible for God? Naughty Jesus!
Some Christians will try to free God from responsibility for evil by saying that it is not created by God but by the Devil. This may be true but again if God is so loving why doesn't he simply prevent the Devil from doing this? In any case, who created the Devil in the first place? Surely it was God.
Good point Barry. I too have struggled with this one. But I come back to the fact that any intelligent being created by God must have free-will.
So you have decide to limit the unlimited God.
This applies to the devil as well as to humans. God won't prevent any person no matter who from doing his own thing. This is a bit of a bummer but we have to take the responsibility for our own choices.
I don't see God taking responsibility for that choice.
However we have His assurance that all will be sorted out at the end of time as we know it and those that were unfairly harmed will be somehow recompensed out of all proportion to what they have suffered. We're told by the Bible “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.
You expect me to believe that? You are pathetic.
By this stage the Christian will start to get a bit desperate, shifting the argument from logic to pragmatism. He will say that even though there is suffering in the world we can use it as an opportunity to develop courage and patience. This is undoubtedly true but it still does not explain why an all loving God allows babies to die of cancer, innocent bystanders to be killed in accidents, and leprosy victims to suffer deformity and pain. In fact the existence of so much unnecessary pain, misery and evil in the world is very strong evidence that there is no all loving all powerful God.
Not so much evidence as proof.
I've touched on most of these things already Barry, but what about the goodness, integrity, graciousness, mercy and love in the world? If pain and suffering is strong evidence that there is no loving God then the presence of the many multiplied countless good things that most of us take for granted such as good health, children, a perfect summer's day, etc, is evidence that there is a good God.
Are all Christians that stupid? The goodness doesn't cancel the evil.
I have known a few people that have suffered, but I have known many many times more that don't suffer but take this life and good things for granted and refuse to be thankful for them. Does this apply to you Barry? The truth is that there are those that suffer and many, many countless others that don't.
You callous bastard.
The twisted nature of man likes to dwell on the negatives in order to blame God but at the same time most of these people refuse to do anything to alleviate the poverty and suffering in the world. I expect that you have committed your pay-packet to help the suffering millions Barry?
What are you talking about? I thought you said that God is good.
THE SELFISHNESS OF CHRISTIANITY
(The Phenomenon of
"Auto Self hypnosis" Explained)
Humans are basically 'good' and it is in the nature of all
animals to work towards the progress and betterment of their own
species; but that natural quality in humans due to religion has
been diverted and contaminated. And that, is the root of things
such as crime and other deeds against fellow human beings. There
is no 'evil' except that which humans have created for
themselves. With such concepts within our minds, we take them
with us to bed and dream upon them until they become 'real' to
us.
The shame of this is that we are totally unaware of all of this and that we ignorantly subject our own children and their progeny to this, producing a never ending cycle which is ever increasing in severity. Children are being born into a society that has been prefabricated to produce more and more persons who exist in a state of hypnotic trance for most of their lives. What a waste and a long term danger to humanity itself. That is why we say that those who created Christianity committed the greatest of all crimes against humanity.
RELIGION: SOCIETY'S OPPRESSOR
Historically, religion has been the cause of countless wars, horrendous torture, and murder, and today, these heinous acts still take place in other countries. While Americans no longer fear such religious brutality, there are many other concerns with religion. Dr. Eli S. Chesen says, "Rigid, confined, and stereotyped religious thinking patterns can be directly contributory to emotional instability. Here it takes the form of a health hazard in a psychiatric sense". The repression of feelings, such as anger, pride, and pleasure, and the repression of natural desires, such as sex, or the guilt of having these feelings or desires, may lead to depression, sexual disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, or psychosis. Worse yet, it can lead to child molesting, rape, murder, and other violent acts.
What can I say?
You have nothing to say because you know it's true.
Where did you get these totally biased trashy pieces of garbage Barry? Surely you must have dug around in some strange places for them? You must be desperate. I agree that there are no evils except those we create for ourselves, and there is no end to the lengths that we will go to create newer and worse evils. But this is entirely consistent with the Bible. There can be no evil if no one commits evil. The Bible tells us though, that evil has always existed along with mankind who always choose to do evil in some way or another.
That can only be because God made us that way.
To say that you or anyone else has not done wrong is to be untruthful – and Barry, please don't blame the evil that you choose to do on your Christianity. You don't believe in Christ.
Yes there are some half-truths again. Yes I agree that we are usually unaware of our faults and hidden evils. Again the Bible tells us that “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” So this writer has only recently stumbled upon a truth that has been taught in the Bible for thousands of years.
That there is no good God?
No, I can't agree that religion has caused countless wars etc etc. Men who use religion as an excuse for their own desires are guilty of these things. Repression can lead to the things claimed – sure, but true Christianity isn't about repression but about freedom in Christ. All Christians are not to blame for what those do who claim to be Christian. The Bible tells us to take a wife and be satisfied with her. Any other teaching is wrong and not Christian.
Christianity is pathetic and it makes pathetic people. You are a child that needs to grow up. There is a world out there you have never seen. You agonise over why God does (not do) something rather than accept that there is no God.
Get a life!
Thanks for the guestbook entry and may
you find reality one day.