Twisted Ideas Litter the Religious Front

What in God’s name is going on?

Some atheists and agnostics believe in God.  Many so-called religious people do not.  Those are the surprising results of the September 2014 Pew’s Religious Landscape survey. 

According to published results, six percent of atheists said they were “absolutely certain” that God exists.  Almost 18 percent of agnostics agreed with them.  Meanwhile, on the other side, most Reform Jews (the most liberal of the Jewish sects) and Unitarian Universalists don’t know if there’s a God or don’t believe in the existence of a deity.

God?

At the same time, despite exhortations by religious leaders, only about half of Catholics believe that God cares about them on a personal level. They were joined by members of such prominent Protestant sects as Presbyterian USA, American Baptist, and Anglican.  More than half of Orthodox Jews don’t believe in a personal God either.  Neither do Muslims.

Naturally, there are self-identifying agnostics and atheists who do.

Of course, the vast bulk of Americans believes there is a God, but the numbers are dwindling.  Overall, only 71 percent of those surveyed absolutely believe there is a God.  That has declined by 20 percentage points in a matter of a few decades.

The numbers correspond to the findings in the same survey about the Bible being the exact word of God.  Only 33 percent of Americans agree with the statement.  In contrast, 28 percent believe the Bible was written by humans.

Heaven sent?

In some conservative sects, like Jehovah Witnesses, almost as many (45 percent) believe the Bible is a human book as believe it is divine (48 percent).  Some 27 percent of Catholics reject the idea that the book came from God.  Overall, 44 percent of all Christians answered yes to the statement that the Bible was written by men and is not the word of God.

The Pew study also reflects what’s happening in the elections where people who think religion should have a bigger role to play in American life are pitted against those who disagree.  The Pew Study found that the less-religious are winning.

The Democratic Party, which is seen as the political group less bound to religion, got 47 percent of the vote – either people saw themselves as Democratic or leaned that way.  Republicans garnered 36 percent.

Whether or not the survey reflects what will happen after the upcoming election remains to be seen.

One thing is certain: Religion is losing its grip on Americans.  More than 72 percent of Americans

now think religion is drifting away from daily life.  That’s up 5 percent and represents the highest percentage ever recorded in the annual survey.

As a result, Americans are torn between wanting the morals and ethics touted by religion and the freedom of self-expression.  They can’t decide if they want their elected officials to be religious or not religious, whether or not churches should endorse candidates and a raft of related issues.

These kinds of differences reflect the slow fracturing of what had been a solid religious front, the groundswell that Republican leaders have largely kowtowed to.  The Moral Majority is fraying at the edges under the constant friction of increased knowledge about the universe, shared ideas across the religious spectrum and international communication.

Children who grew up believing in the absolute truth of their inherited religious beliefs are being confronted of the reality of biblical research, the multiplicity of religious beliefs and shifting societal attitudes.  Throw in the uncontrolled epidemic like Ebola, and even confident religious folks begin to doubt their beliefs.

In turn, the stranglehold religion has had on American life is slowly easing.  In time, it may completely disappear.  That has happened before elsewhere.

Judaism has been on the verge of disappearing several times in its history and was only saved because some ruler decided to attack the faith.  Then, Jews rallied to defend it.  Left alone, Jews – like all people – assimilate into the general population. 

Zoroastrian image from ancient Persia

At the same time, religions have an expiration date.  Prominent faiths only last so long before something else comes along to replace them.  The pagan faiths of the Romans and Greeks, for example, were dying about 2,000 years ago when Christian was founded.  Zoroastrian was once the principle faith of the Persian Empire.  Seen any Zoroastrians lately?

Today’s religions seem to be following the same path.

If self-proclaimed atheists can believe in God, then anything is possible.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

Killing for God

In a recent letter to the editor to the editor in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, a writer said that atheists are responsible for killing millions of people.  He cited China and Russia as examples.

Of course, being religious, he’s completely wrong.  That’s the guaranteed B-side of true faith.

He is right in one thing: Russia officially espoused atheism.  China still does, along with other countries that were not included in the letter.  However, the writer was wrong about that being the cause of deaths in their countries.  They were simply rejecting the Western religions.  They had their own gods. 

Maoist propaganda

In China, that deity was Mao Zedong, the long-time chairman of the Communist Party there.  He didn’t hand out little red books to promote literacy.  He didn’t post huge images of himself on walls to enhance the vista.  He was trying and succeeding in creating a cult with himself as the central focus of devotion.

His Great Leap Forward and other dismal efforts to boost the country led to the deaths of millions, but not a single convert to atheism.  The Chinese were forced to bow to Mao instead.

In Communist Russia, they had three gods: Karl Marx, the father; Vladimir Lenin, the son; and Stalin, the holy ghoul.  All three were properly worshiped.  Lenin was even embalmed and placed on display so the pious could reverently file by regularly.  The Five-Year-Plan that led to the starvation of millions there did not contain a single word about religion or the need not to believe in a god.

Both countries definitely punished those who maintained the old faiths.  They just wanted their new human gods substituted for Buddha and Jesus. 

Coins honoring the Divine Julius

They are not the only humans elevated to the heavens.  Alexander the Great tried that trick.  So did Julius Caesar, who was turned into a god by vote of the Roman Senate.  Ramses the Great of Egypt didn't build all those statues of himself to give artisans something to do when the Nile was flooding the landscape.   

More recently, Adolf Hitler got a memorable nickname, the Fuhrer, and set out on a murderous run.  He didn’t kill anyone to make them atheist.  He killed them because they weren’t Aryan.

Mussolini as a deity

Benita Mussolini in Italy became “El Duce.”  He, too, pretended to be a god, and thousands died while he maintained that false front.

Both Hitler and Mussolini were raised Catholic and reached accords with the Roman Catholic Church.  They didn't espouse atheism either.  Both evoked God regularly and insisted they were doing His work.  They just wanted the devotion of millions instead of it being given to the Vatican.

There's no requirement a megalomaniac trying to join the divine pantheon has to be Christian.  Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, both Muslim, did not hesitate to create cults around themselves, elevating their status far beyond those of mortal men.  Bashar al-Assad of Syria is doing that right now.

These men didn’t plaster their cities with their images as a way to improve the eyesight of their residents. 

The list could go on:  Just pick a dictator from any country yesterday or day.  None of them cared a whit about religion, regardless of the beliefs they learned as a child.  They wanted (and still do) power and money, the two top ego-driven aspects of any religion.

Taliban children

None of them launched a war to promote atheism.  Religion did: the 30 Years War killed until hundreds of thousands solely because of religious differences.  Then there were the Crusades, which are continuing with ISIS these days in northern Iraq. There is virtually no end to the number of religion-fuel murderous binges.

Muslim fighters

Those folks, like the Taliban in Afghanistan, want to force their faith on others.  No atheist ever tried that, but then, modern Muslims have plenty of history to draw on: the Muslim forces that swept across the Mediterranean world in the 7^th century after the death of the Prophet Muhammad were trying to impose their religious beliefs.

No atheist army has ever existed or ever imitated that blood-thirsty approach to faith.

 

In fact, no atheist ever has killed anyone in the name of no god.  On the other hand, virtually every major religion has killed on behalf of its deity.

Instead, atheists have been killed, harassed, prevented from holding office and, obviously maligned in print for simply refusing to accept the stories of an invisible deity who may or may not have a son, may or may not have sent prophetic messengers and may or may not have anything to do with humans.

The author of the letter preferred to perpetuate a fairy tale about atheists, an approach which, considering the stories told about his invisible deity, fits perfectly into his wheelhouse.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

Believers False Claims Undermine Arguments

The fine line between history and belief isn’t much of a barrier to believers.  For them, any claim is justified whether the facts match or not.

Take for example claims made in a recent email I received from one of the students attending my ongoing history seminars.  It purports to show that the U.S. is in Iraq for religious reasons.  The unknown author came up with 20 reasons, citing both the Bible and the Islamic religious text, the Koran.

Let’s take each reason in turn.

1. The Garden of Eden was in Iraq .   

Actually, no one knows where the Garden of Eden was.  The Bible reports that the famous garden was “east of Eden,” using the city as a landmark.  Eden is a Sumerian word meaning “fertile plain,” and is not a reference to a community anyway.  The site could have been anywhere from modern Saudi Arabia through to Iran.

2. Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq, was the cradle of civilization.

Wrong again.  Mesopotamia means the land between two rivers.  It could today refer to parts of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey.

3. Noah built the ark in Iraq.

Maybe.  The Bible doesn’t say where Noah was living.  Pick a country, any country.

Tower of Babel today.

4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq.

No, the tower of Babel was, not surprisingly, in Babylon. Today, ancient Babylon is located inside the Iraqi border, about 50 miles from Baghdad.

5. Abraham was from Ur, which is in Southern Iraq.

No, Ur was then in Sumeria.  The Bible says the area was part of Chaldea, but Ur didn’t get settled by the Chaldeans until about 900 B.C.E., more than 1000 years after Abraham had to have been there.  Today, the ruins of Ur, called Tall al Muqayyar, are in Iraq.

6. Isaac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor, which is in Iraq.

Nahor is actually a person’s name in the Bible.  As a city, it was in southern Turkey. 

7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq.

No, he would have met her in what is now southern Turkey. 

8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which is in Iraq.

Ruins of Nineveh

The prophet was sent to the capital of Assyria, which included some of modern Iraq.  The ruins of Nineveh, the capital, are in Iraq.

9. Assyria, which is in Iraq, conquered the ten tribes of Israel.  At the height of its power, Assyria stretched from Egypt back to Iran and included what is now Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and southern Turkey.

10. Amos cried out in Iraq.

The little-known prophet of the 8^th century BCE must have had a loud voice.  He lived and preached in ancient Israel, what is now basically the northern half of modern Israel.

What's left of Babylon

11 Babylon, which is in Iraq , destroyed Jerusalem.

That’s true in a sense: Babylon included what is now Iraq.  Babylon conquered Judah in 597 BCE and returned about a decade later to put down a revolt and take the residents away.

12. Daniel was in the lion's den in Iraq.

He supposedly was flung in the den at the behest of Nebuchadnezzar, who would have lived in Babylon.  However, his country was not Iraq, but, like Assyria, covered most of the Middle East.

Four in a furnace

13. The three Hebrew children were in the fire in Iraq (Jesus had been in Iraq also as the fourth person in the Fiery Furnace!).  

Really? Jesus was in Iraq.  How did the Gospel authors miss that salient point? The trio tossed into the fiery furnace are described as men.  They are then joined by one who the Bible says the king thought looked like a “son of gods.”    

14. Belshazzar, the King of Babylon, saw the "writing on the wall" in Iraq.

Belshazzar is a real person, but never king.  Although the Bible says he was the son of Nebuchadnezzar, his father was actually Nabonidus, who ruled a few years after Nebuchadnezzar died.  Belshazzar occasionally ran the government while his father was away, but disappears in extant documents a decade before Babylon was conquered by the Persians.  He may have been in Babylon when the writing appeared, but the only reference to the event is in the Bible, which doesn’t pinpoint a location. The actual words are Aramaic, a common language then.

Nebuchadnezzar

15. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq.

As noted earlier, Nebuchadnezzar did conquer Judea and exiled the Jews back to his homeland. 

16. Ezekiel preached in Iraq.

Based on the biblical account, this is true.  He preached in Babylon, speaking to the exiled Jews in what is now Iraq.

17. The wise men were from Iraq.

The wise men – the Bible does not count them – came from Persia.  Iraq did not exist then.  Persia, too, was tiny then, having been already swallowed up by the Greeks.  Today, it’s called Iran.

Tradition gave us three wise men

18. Peter preached in Iraq

There’s nothing in the Bible to indicate that Peter preached anywhere, much less in a country that didn’t exist then.

 
19. The name Iraq means “country with deep roots.”

No, it doesn’t.  It has no meaning, but appears to be a corruption for a name given to an area of Sumeria. 

20.  This is from the Koran and is significant because the U.S. is symbolized by the eagle: (9:11 ) “For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle.”

Actually, the verse reads: "But if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, they are your brethren in faith; and we make the communications clear for a people who know."   No eagle, no connection to the West.

Making things up is the sincere believers' stock in trade.  However, there’s no justification for twisting the truth to mislead people.  

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1