Tag: Religion

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Atheist Summer Camp

Hey kids! It’s time once again for your folks to begin planning for summer! Sure, we haven’t even hit Spring and the Days of Unleavened Bread yet, but you know reservations can take the best spots and the money has to be set aside for a week of fun at camp!

While it is true that a number of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia sects have summer camps, it’s high time you and your parents reconsidered their programs and look for alternatives, given that the Founder, Herbert Armstrong, was a failed false prophet who did terrible things to his own children. Camp Orr, Minnesota doesn’t exist any more and there’s no Garner Ted Armstrong to stop by and visit with the young… sters (thank G… Oh, never mind).

I know what you’re thinking. You probably are suspicious. And why not, when you have someone like Tim Hawkins making fun of Atheist Summer Camp:

Very funny.

There are tens of millions of atheists in the United States — the number has doubled in the past few decades (assuredly, partly thanks to Herbert Armstrong: When people began waking up to what a fraud he was, starting to do some research, think for themselves and finding that he was just full of it, many saw that his supposed ‘proofs’ were so much sloppy research promoting lies — and finding no compelling reason to believe, left the fold). No one should be surprised that there is a separation of church and summer camp. There is a wave of atheist summer camps, offering a god free alternative to the traditional religious summer camps:

It’s a relief for the campers to spend time with kids like themselves. Note that Chandler Gary didn’t have any atheist friends near where he lived and he’d like to hang out with some — he’d like to go to a friend’s place and not have to listen to prayer before eating (the Armstrongists are famous for asking God to remove poison from the food: Just think, atheist moms don’t put poison in the food for their children, so don’t have to ask God to take it out and not putting poison in the food saves a lot of time, not to mention money and trips to emergency). Notice too, he’s actually been bullied by his Christian friends. Wait! What? Is that what Christianity is all about? Did Jesus command to bully your enemy unbelievers? It was nice for the kids to be able to attend camp where they weren’t limited, bullied or hurt. Socrates Cafe sounds interesting. Camp Counselor: The best way to become an atheist is to study the Bible (Amen to that!). The children think that people find comfort in God because of the unknown (we all know the truth — Armstrongists believe because of what they think they know about the future [which isn’t going to turn out the way they think], which means that they believe in God because of the (wrong) known). It’s really hard to take responsibility for yourself and much easier to just let someone Else come in and make things better. At least the atheist kids can admit they don’t know.

You can look at the activities at Camp Quest: You will find the standard stuff, like:

  • Archery
  • Campfires
  • Canoeing/Kayaking
  • Climbing
  • Crafts
  • Dance
  • Drama
  • Field Trips
  • Games
  • High and Low Ropes Challenge Courses
  • Hiking
  • Horseback Riding
  • Overnight Sleepout
  • Photography
  • Singing & Songwriting
  • Sports
  • Swimming

Of more interest are the intellectual pursuits:

Educational

  • Astronomy
  • Biology & Evolution
  • Critical Thinking
  • Ecology & Environmental Science
  • Ethics
  • Famous Freethinkers/Humanist Heroes
  • Fossil Hunting
  • Invisible Unicorn Challenge
  • Philosophy
  • Science Experiments
  • World Religions

One item stands out more that any other — an activity which was never and will never be pursued by the Armstrongists: Ethics. Anyway, they are devoid of it, so would be totally incapable of teaching it.

Parents can never know where this can lead. Long ago, Carl Sagan took a teenager ‘under his wing’ so to speak. He was very nice to the young man and helped him with his understanding with science. Decades later, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson honored his mentor by rebooting Cosmos.

Not all of us at the Painful Truth are atheists (in spite of what the Exit and Support Network may say), so we aren’t necessarily advocating Atheist Summer Camp, but on the other hand, we absolutely oppose Armstrongist summer camps for obvious reasons.

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Breaking The Spell: Religion As A Natural Phenomenon

Philosopher Daniel Dennett writes in a book titled Religion As A Natural Phenomenon, a tiny parasite called the Lancet Fluke has captured the brain of an ant, and forced it to climb the tallest blade of grass. The ant gains  nothing from this, but the Fluke profits by using the ant to get itself into the stomach of a sheep or cow to reproduce itself. The cow eats the grass, and the Fluke produces another generation.  Of course the ant has no reproductive machinery, and perhaps that is the reason the Fluke can use it so easily. Perhaps there is a kind of “ecstasy of the cells” in the ant when they discover they have a driven purpose of reproduction, even if not their own. Other parasites infect fish and mice for similar reasons. Dennett writes:

 “Does anything like this ever happen to human beings?….We often find human beings setting aside their personal interests, their health,  their chances to have children and  devoting their entire lives to furthering the interests of an idea that has lodged in their brains.”
 Dennett proposes a connection and writes:
 “The word of God is a seed, and the sower of the seed is Christ. These seeds take roots in individual human beings, it seems, and get those human beings to spread them, far and wide (and in return the human hosts gets eternal life…)”.
 Certainly this eternal life cannot be proven, so there is no actual biological profit as far as anyone can tell. But something is definitely reproduced, and it grows and changes in time.
 In spite of the fact there is no proof for such sacrifice, millions of people will sacrifice their lives for an idea with no guarantee of any kind of personal reward. There is a kind of ecstasy associated with this kind of faith, and the individual will quite willingly sacrifice himself along with millions of others, even if that individual is not certain s/he will receive a reward for doing so.
 Are we acting out of free will in such situations? If the ant could have a concept of free will, would it not conclude that it was freely acting as it climbed the tallest and juiciest blade of grass? Is it possible that the ant might feel a kid of joyous celebratory effect as it waited to be eaten?
 Eric Hoffer and Erich Fromm have written that the individual joins a mass movement because it allows him/her to escape a miserable, lonely existence.  It is, as Fromm wrote, “escape from freedom”.
 Humans desire to transcend, and they can’t transcend if they’re not part of something more wonderful than themselves. Nazi Germany shows us that individuals, even decent individuals, can lower themselves to the most horrible atrocities simply because their countrymen are also doing it.
 Christianity takes it for granted that the word must be spread, as does Islam. This who do not accept and repent are fodder forever burning hell. The drive becomes so powerful that, as Jesus said, those who kill you will think they’re doing God a service.
 The atheist will look at the idea of christianity and scoff, as well he should, because christians gain a proselytizing zeal that often borders on fanaticism, again, similar to Islam.
 Christians do not see it as an infection of a parasitized brain, but rather a duty, a God-given prime directive to make others like themselves. They consciously accept the “parasite” without question. Even worse, they will argue that their “mission” is righteous and holy and is of God.
 
 At this point, I have to go back to the old standby scriptures, Matthew 24:23, Romans 8:7, and Isaiah 55:8. If the natural mind is enmity against God, and cannot be subject to God, and if God’s thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways, then it stands to reason that our desire to convert the masses to “one way” cannot be a drive that is Biblical approved, and is the reason Jesus told us not to believe any of them. It is as much a disease of parasites as the Lancet Fluke that captures the ant’s  brain. The only difference is that humans breed the disease within themselves from their own desires to transcend.
 “From whence come wars and fighting’s among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have no, ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain…(James 4:1-2)”.
 The “self” disease, however, is not something we can simply  correct by developing laws that are righteous, because the most stringent and enforced laws are themselves subject to corruption. The disease is within ourselves, but we are a collection of uncounted parasites that inhabit our  bodies and use our bodies for their own reproduction as surely as the Lancet Fluke uses the ant’s brain. We are a culmination of all those germs and bacteria that accumulated to create “me” and “you”. There is no separation from this drive. It is innate and basic to everything we do.
 And all that is subject to genes, whose main purpose is to replicate themselves from generation to generation while seeking to minimize and control change. So, the “lusts that war in our members” are drives that come from the combined needs of billions of microorganisms that use our  bodies to reproduce themselves. At the conscious level, we seek to extend communities of those like ourselves, to extend our own reproductive success statistically, with genes selecting those most like themselves, as E.O. Wilson pointed out in his  concept of sociobiology. Given n o perceived kinship, we tend o act selfishly, to preserve our own interests at the costs of others. Given a kindred family, we see it more successful to our own genes by preserving those genes most like our own. It should be no surprise, then, that we seek to “convert” others to “brothers in  Christ” or in Islam, and eliminate them if they do not believe.
  Christianity and Islam are purely biological processes that parasitize our brains and use us to control environments so that the genes replicate with as little change as possible, and the idea of heaven as the reward of the “saved” allows for total sacrifice of self for the good of heaven, even if it destroys the world in the process.
-Ralph Haulk

 

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Just How Can We Trust Them?

 

How do you place your trust in men who seem to never do what is right?

by

Adrian 

Trust: noun

1. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.

2. confident expectation of something; hope.

3. confidence in the certainty of future payment for property or goods received; credit: to sell merchandise on trust.

4. a person on whom or thing on which one relies: God is my trust.

5. the condition of one to whom something has been entrusted.

Good question. How do you place your trust in men who seem to never do what is right? Men who serve the interest of themselves first and the interests of the member last?

Adrian from Australia wrote with these questions in mind.

    •        In a my 3rd church service members were instructed to burn booklets published by the wcoa. 1975(72?) in prophesy was one of these. What type organization burns records of their teachings to cover their traces?
    •        The organization claimed to be inspired and led by an infallible God, but had policies on makeup and birthdays that constantly changed from one policy that was the opposite of the other. A contradiction indeed.
    •        The religion claimed the just shall live by faith, but then contradictorily claimed to be able to prove there is a god.
    •        The religion published books like the proof of the bible that was later withdrawn because of errors.
    •        The church claimed that everything was inspired by the ministers who promoted members to leadership roles only to find out later that the member claimed a false baptism.
    •         GTA was disfellowshiped, but was given around  $200000/yr in 1970’s money and  tithe payers money paid for this.
    •         The church claimed to be the church of brotherly love. My wife often said to me that if that’s what the church people are like then she didn’t want to be a part of the 1000 year reign with them. I agreed. I wondered how come my own family who I was told to reject as worldly, were always kind to us despite us not giving birthday presents to them and having Christmas etc. Despite the bible saying that if you see your brother in need and you do nothing about it how can God’s love dwell in a person. My physical family always helped us materially, church members didn’t ever.  Of course I forgot about all that free advice about how bad you were from members,  but I don’t think that qualifies as helpful. The bible says by their fruit you shall know them. It bothered me that they claimed to have brotherly love.
    •        Wearing second hand clothes from opportunity shops because the church took our money, and then being told by the ministry you are not blessed because you don’t have the material possession that they have.
    •        Being told to pay third tithe despite making yourself  the key candidate for financial assistance.
    •        Reading scriptures in Galatians,  Colossians for example, rereading Armstrong’s  teachings of these verses and trying to convince myself what he said made sense. Never saying  anything  because you would be told you weren’t converted if you questioned anything.
    •        If you didn’t understand (blindly) everything then you weren’t converted.
    •        How members would rush to open the minister’s car door the rudely treat other members with disdain.
    •        That this is only the beginning of my list and there is so much more…that really bothers me.