Excerpt #74 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
Some claim that particular writings are “the inerrant and infallible word of God.”
Who can make such a claim?!
What “god?”
The god of one of the monotheistic religions?
Or one of the many gods of the polytheistic religions?
What about major belief systems like Buddhism and Taoism that have no gods?
Are their “truths” trumped by the “inerrant and infallible word” of some other god?
Is it any wonder why we have religions fighting with each other?
“My intellect tells me that individual mystical experiences, even if I have them myself, are subjective delusions that are purely material in nature, the product of electrochemical processes in the brain. Furthermore, I think the evidence for this is overwhelming.
“Changes in the physical characteristics of the body while undergoing so-called mystical experience can be measured with ordinary scientific apparatus. This fact strongly implies that the phenomenon is physical in nature, like all other forms of mental activity. Brain scans can locate the specific areas of the brain where certain thoughts and emotions are centered. If mystical experiences and other thinking processes were immaterial, why would they have any effect on scientific instruments?
“Not a single piece of evidence beyond unscientific, subjective personal testimony indicates other than that thinking is material. People under meditation discover no insights about the universe that can be tested against observations. They show no power to violate the laws of physics, such as levitating or performing superhuman feats. The claims for such have been thoroughly debunked by critical analyses of data.” – Physicist Victor Stenger
A church that challenged the authority of the Internal Revenue Service was seized by the government to satisfy a $6 million tax debt.
Federal marshals wheeled the former pastor out on a gurney as he prayed in protest.
“I pray for you that God will forgive you!” shouted the former pastor. “Welcome to communism, America!”
WHEN OUR EMOTIONS ENGAGE, OUR REASON DISENGAGES.
The move peacefully ended a 91-day vigil that drew the attention of constitutional scholars and right-wing militia members.
Five church members, including the pastor, were inside when 85 federal marshals arrived, supported by 70 city of Indianapolis police officers.
“This is just a building, but we worshipped God in that building.
This should never have happened,” said a woman member of the congregation.
The dispute began when the Baptist Temple stopped withholding federal income and Social Security taxes from employee paychecks.
The former pastor said his unregistered New Testament Church was governed only by God’s law and was not subject to taxation.
The following pastor, the former pastor’s son, said: “I think it is amazing that the Bush administration, that claims to be so Christian, has just trampled a church. They are certainly not a friend of Christ, and they’re certainly not doing the right thing.”
I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only His nonexistence could excuse Him. – Albert Einstein, letter to Edgar Meyer, January 2, 1915