Satan Wrote the Bible

This is very important. I have found the truth and I will reveal it soon to the world. You who read this simple little blog will be the first to know what it is and my true identity. I use a pen name now because my real name is probably known to you. The most important thing I want to impart to you today is that when I reveal myself and the truth, you must follow me without question. You must have no other god. You must respect me and love me above all others. There will be little time when I reveal myself so be sure to keep my name on your lips and my goodness in your heart.

OK folks, how did that first paragraph strike you? If you liked it, then you are all set for Armageddon. It’ll be coming along soon as you probably already realize though the bad news is that it won’t come in your lifetime. If you think I’m an arrogant jerk and that you wouldn’t follow me across the street, then I agree with you. I wouldn’t follow that jerk either. If you also happen to believe in the God of the Bible, the God who sent down the Ten Commandments, you ought to take another look at the first three commandments (Exodus 20:3-7) because that God and the person depicted in the first paragraph are peas in a pod.

Actually the God Moses quoted is worse than my fake god. He said “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” Man, that’s harsh! If you so much as take his name in vain he will punish your children, your grandchildren and your great grandchildren. If that is the God you want to worship, good luck to you and to your children. If that is your God, you are probably already screwed. What are the odds that your father, your grandfather and your great grandfather never took the Lord’s name in vain?

There are many good thoughts in the Bible like not stealing and not killing (Commandments six and eight) and just because that ancient God is a jerk doesn’t mean one should abandon one’s religion. Most Jews, Christians and Muslims hold in their hearts a loving God. No reason to abandon that God but those who want to take the Bible as God’s word, should start using their mind. If you believe in a God as your creator, the one who gave you life, then use that life, the senses and mind that were given. You know that Satan did not, could not, give you life but that Satan could give you ideas passed on through others, others just like those who wrote the Bible.

Christopher Hitchens in his book god is not Great addresses impossible tasks put forward in the Bible.

“The order to ‘love thy neighbor’ is mild and yet stern: a reminder of one’s duty to others. The order to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ is too extreme and too strenuous to be obeyed, as is the hard-to-interpret instruction to love others ‘as I have loved you.’ Humans are not so constituted as to care for others as much as themselves; the thing simply cannot be done.” [p 213]

The obvious answer to that is: just because a thing can’t be done shouldn’t mean it is not worth striving toward, however, taking it as a command and feeling like a failure when falling short would be a mistake.

My answer is a bit different. I agree with Hitchens that we are not constituted to care for others as much as we care for ourselves. I firmly believe we should care for ourselves above all others. Here is the step that makes self-love work for me. To care for myself, I need to know myself. To know myself I need to think about what makes me happy and what makes me sad. I have found that it makes me happy to make others happy and that if I make another sad, it makes me sad. So there you have it. If I make you smile, if I give you something nice to think about, if I give you a fond memory; it is purely selfish on my part.

PS: I recommend god is not Great for more evidence that Satan wrote the Bible, though, to be sure, Mr. Hitchens does not believe in Satan any more than I do.

After satisfactorily proving his own existence Descartes  went on to try to prove God’s.

I recognize that it would be impossible for me to exist with the kind of nature I have–that is, having within me the idea of God–were it not the case that God really existed. By ‘God’ I mean the very being the idea of whom is within me, that is, the possessor of all the perfections which I cannot grasp, but can somehow reach in my thought, who is subject to no defects whatsoever. [Meditation III, paragraph 38]

Descartes says that his existence includes the perception of a perfect God and that the perception was not learned but came directly from God. When God made Descartes he programmed him with a belief in a perfect being. I accept his perception that his understanding of God was implanted in his existence. How could I possible challenge it? If he were alive, we could discuss the difference in our perceptions. However, it is unlikely that either of us would be changed. Anyway, he’s dead.

I believe that my knowledge and understanding of God comes from things that have shaped me since my birth. I joined a church, went to Sunday school, listened to sermons, read the Bible, read many books that expressed ideas concerning God and have listened to many people express their understanding of God. I classify the experiences in the previous sentence as second-hand or coming from others of my species in this perception that I recognize as my life. I have also experienced blazingly colorful sunsets, towering mountains, the ocean’s roar and power, the tinkling sound of a rill in a brook, a baby’s grip, the smoothness of a thigh, and the explosion of flavor released by a vine-ripened tomato. I classify these experiences as first-hand and not coming from others of my species. To which should I give more credence in my search for an understanding of a god?

Is there a God and, if so, what is the nature of God? I exist and I perceive this thing that I call my life and everything contained in it. I don’t know anything beyond that. I don’t perceive through first-hand knowledge anything beyond that. The notions of things outside my perception that I call my life come from others–notions of life after death, reincarnation, heaven, hell, a supreme being watching over me.

One of those notions is the big bang theory of how the universe came to be. That is based on scientists’ perception as they study the universe that everything in the universe is moving away from everything else at a rapid speed. They determine this by the color of light they can see and an understanding that the color is a wave and that changing the wave length will change the light. Light moving away from the perceiver will be different from light moving toward the perceiver because the wave lengths are elongated or compressed respectively. I have not directly observed this phenomenon but I am willing to accept it from the things I have read. All the scientists know is what they are observing, the color of the light coming through space. They believe the color indicates that everything in space is moving away from us. From that they have formed the theory that the universe is exploding.

Our sun was a bit in the explosion. It got spinning around and some chunks were thrown off forming our solar system. Our planet cooled down and as it cooled life came into being. Single celled life that evolved into life as we know it on Earth today.

If you buy that, as to how we came to be, you are still left with how did the material form that was involved in the big bang? I am not aware of any scientific theory answering that question. It is an interesting question to ponder and questioning the big bang theory and evolution are also worthwhile stimulus for thought. However, it seems unlikely that I will ever, within this life, come to an assurance of how the world came into being. Even if science came to a reasonable answer…  Well, I can’t imagine such a thing so I can’t finish that sentence. I like the ancient explanation that the world rides on the back of a giant elephant and the elephant stand on the back of a giant turtle. When asked what the turtle stands on the subject was changed.

Rather than search for something for the turtle to stand on or anything in between I am content to credit “God”. What is God? My creator. What am I? A thinking being that perceives what I call my life which includes everything within my perception. Please don’t add any frills or extras to “my creator”. I have no notion what kind of an entity “my creator” might be—if I was created in its image, if it is a committee, a blob, a vapor or something totally inconceivable.