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Extraordinary Claims => Religion General Discussion => Topic started by: The Whit on August 13, 2013, 01:51:51 PM

Title: Identity Theft
Post by: The Whit on August 13, 2013, 01:51:51 PM
No, I'm not talking about stealing credit card and SS numbers and going nuts on ebay.  What I'm talking about here is religion, specifically the major 3.  It's what makes believers so willing to get offended about anyone questioning their religion and so willing to close their eyes to the facts.  

Some time last year I was reflecting on my journey to atheism, how I came to that decision, and how--as a relatively intelligent human being--it had taken me so damn long to figure it out.  I stumbled upon this video by DarkMatter2525 (if you haven't checked out his channel I'd highly recommend it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8ZMMuu7MU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8ZMMuu7MU)

It's a good video but I don't think it's exactly right.  The reason why theists get so offended when you question their religion is because they feel you are attacking them directly.  However, this is not because they ARE god, but because they cannot separate their own identity from their religion.  This is because religions steal the identity of the believer and brainwash them into accepting an identity that does not make sense without their religion.  So, an attack on their religion is an attack on their religious identity, and ultimately it is perceived as an attack on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6XFyfO2Qao (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6XFyfO2Qao)

It's what makes religious child indoctrination so atrocious in my view.  It takes those who have not yet forged their own identity and gives them one that is despicable.  They are told that they deserve hell, they are sinners, broken, lost, and blind without god.  Religion CREATES an identity crisis in it's believers and then supposes to be the cure.

This is why people get so uptight when you question their religion, because they feel naked without it.  When they look at themselves without religion they see what their religion has taught them to see--namely, someone with no morals, happiness, family, or community.  They do not differentiate between them and their religion.  If they did, they'd see exactly how ridiculous it sounds.  It's how I became an atheist.

Some time in around March of 2012 I was really getting into economics.  I studied the housing crash of 2007-08 and the bailouts that followed.  I found that the two main theories were Keynesian and Austrian economics.  I had been leaning Austrian but after a while of getting my toes wet on the subject, I decided to set all of my preconceived notions aside and do some real, unbiased research.  I decided that I would listen only to the facts and reason.  For 2-3 weeks I scoured everything I could find on the subject.  I read articles, looked at countless graphs, watched videos, and questioned everything.  At the end, my suspicions were confirmed.

However, that would not be the case with the next subject; religion.  While surfing youtube for videos on economics an episode of The Atheist Experience came up in the suggestion column.  I thought I'd had enough of economics for the time and decided to switch subjects.  

At first, I was setting out on a crusade to prove that I was right.  Jesus is the savior of the world and anyone who doesn't think that just doesn't know Jesus.  I quickly found out that not only did most of these atheists know Jesus, they knew him better than I did.  At some point I convinced myself to go about research on this topic in the same way I had economics.  I put away my beliefs and looked at the facts, and this time I found that I had been wrong.  

After about 2 weeks I had seen enough to seriously doubt the existence of god and after another week I accepted reality.  I stood in my garage late at night having a cigarette and looked up through the ceiling at "heaven" and said, "there is no god."  You know what happened?  Nothing.  I wasn't struck dead on the spot, and the next two weeks at work went just as horribly as they always had.  Literally everything went on as if nothing had changed.  This only confirmed my position.  If there was no god, then why would some jackass in a garage in some rinky-dink town in the middle of nowhere declaring that there is no god change anything?   :-k

But it was ONLY when I was able to set aside my personal stake in my religion that I realized how absurd it was.  I probably had a much easier time of this because I wasn't very devout in practice.  Mostly because I was too lazy to get up at 7 AM on a Sunday to go try to stay awake through some boring sermon whilst milking a hangover.  

If you look at all three of the major religions the biggest thing they have in common is that (besides them all praying to the same god) all of them steal the identity of their believers and replace it with an identity that, without that religion, is undesirable.  In order to get people to question their religion, you have to give them an identity that is independent of their religion.  I think that is the hardest part.  It can't be making the bible look ridiculous, because it fucking is.  The only book that is more obviously bullshit is the book of mormon.