Friday, February 4, 2011

Of This I Am Tired

This is too good to miss.


Of This I Am Tired Posted by: SLDrone ( )
Date: January 28, 2011 10:04AM
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,97679

Of This I Am Tired

We live in a world rife with superstition and mysticism. True thought and reason is so often replaced with the magic and folklore which makes up our world religions. Irrational dogma and doctrine is unexamined, unrefuted, and uncorrected. The thinking has been done by those with undisputed direct conduits to a higher power. God's thoughts are not our thoughts, how could we hope to understand or challenge? Compartmentalization becomes the byword as intelligence, research and honest thinking is set on it's head. Then public policy and the very social laws which govern our lives are forged by those who would rather decide the truth first and refute all evidence to the contrary as heresy. Who needs a president, a prime minister or a monarch when all we really need is for Granny Clampet to go back in the possum patch and whip us up a potion to solve our social ailments. As Sagan has so eloquently taught us, we live in a world haunted by demons, the Gods that fill the gaps of our understanding. Of that I am tired.

So we find otherwise intelligent thinking people defending and supporting superstitions. Often holding up as evidence the profound works of FARMS. If ever there was the antithesis of intellectual discovery it is this organization follows carefully the edicts of Boyd Packer in knowing the truth first, and then promoting only the evidence to support that inerrant truth. All the while these FARMS "intellects", most of whom are on the payroll of a great self serving purveyor of superstition and metaphysical doctrine, ignore the obvious evidence to the contrary, or spin it into un unrecognizable conflagration of nonsense. Of that I am tired.

But when all the sophistry and dogmatic reasoning is stripped away, the truth will emerge in the minds of those willing to think critically and challenge the pompous authority of those that claim to know all truth. Let the honest evidence rise and the chips fall where truth places them, unhindered by irrational thought the gems of truth prevail. The most likely hypothesis when supported by the evidence is the most likely answer to the questions that trouble our thoughts. Did God place a perfect man and woman in a garden he'd prepared for them some mere 6,000 years ago with a convoluted plan that they should error and in that error condemn all mankind if not for the savior He would provide or did mankind evolve to it's current and vaunted state? Honest inquiry will lead to honest and unhindered evidence, a rational mind can devise a most likely theory or the evidence can be compartmentalized and rationalized to fit an irrational presumption. Of that I am tired.


Did a small band of Hebrew travelers some 2,600 years ago grow into a population of millions on the American Continent. Did they evolve quickly into to separate and distinct races, contending with one another in wars and armed with steel swords, chariots and horses whilst refreshing themselves with wheat and grapes? Did these factions fight a massive battle in a place called Cumorah where millions died leaving their battle instruments behind as a testament that they gave their lives defending their God, their families and their religion? Or perhaps this too is a fable spun in the mind of a charismatic opportunist. Certainly the archaeological evidence will lead and honest researcher to the truth. Irrational belief passed of as unyielding faith seems the antithesis of truth.

Did a prophet called Abraham pen the truth as revealed to him by God, and though a Hebrew prophet writing in Egyptian hieroglyphics, then somehow conspire to hide his truths in the sarcophagus of a minor functionary of the Egyptian kingdom who lived some millennium later, to be discovered by a prophet some millennia later? Or did a religious charlatan just make that up? Again, honest review of the evidence will lead to the most likely truth of the matter.

Did a prophet called Joseph Smith really see the one true God and his Son and then restore the one true Church, or did he see angels, or a multitude of angels, or just hear a voice or see just God or just His son? Or did he just make that up and evolve his story over years into it's final and unquestionable version which we must accept as absolute truth in order to obtain spiritual salvation? Unbiased and thinking examination is again called for. Did this same prophet reveal the meaning of plates found in Kinderhook, or did his faithful and well meaning personal secretary just make that up and lie? What is the most likely answer? We can never know the truth of these things, but we can devise the most likely hypothesis and then act according to the most likely.

We live in a world of scientific illiteracy. Superstition and pseudo science reign supreme, the anecdotal mythology the engine of our demise. Religion is the antithesis of progress and is as preposterous today as it was millennia ago. The pope of today opposes the scientific research of the fetal stem cells, just as his predecessor opposed any fact refuting man and earth as the center of the universe. Scientific and honest progress is thwarted in that it dares to challenge to doctrine of the dishonest and uninterested. The clouds of an unseen and oft unfathomable god fill the minds of men, darkness gathers, ignorance roars with a deafening thunder, the demons awake. Of this I am tired.


Although this article refers, for the most part, to the mormon beliefs it applies to all religion. I so understand the author's stance as I too am frustrated with the way in which reason is cast aside for supernatural explanations of our existence.

Is there any hope for our society? for the voice of reason? I hope so.

6 comments:

Rick B said...

The author of the piece babbles on about everything he is tired about. Let me tell you, I am tired of people like this since everything they say is a flat out lie. Of this I am tired.

People like babble on about how they are tired of people claiming the Bible is true with out evidence. Yet I am tired of people who believe we evolved from creatures that got scratched and these scratches turned into limbs, and all these little mutations turned into good things. They have zero evidence, Of this I am tired.

I hear many atheists always talking about how God is cruel and mean and atheists start websites and blog devoted to this, Yet these same people do not start blogs and website and billboards speaking out against people like the Aryan nation. These same people do not cry out against how the Jews are treated by the surrounding nations that attack them.

You guys complain God treated the Jews unfairly, yet you keep silent over the nations treatment of the Jews, Of This I am tired. Once you guys start bringing up these issues, then I will take what you say a little more seriously.

Interested said...

@Rick

How is that most of the worlds people accept evolution as a given and it is only a few who still deny it? For belief in god I am in the minority but with evolution you and a handful of evangelicals still take the bible as literal truth. You are much too intelligent to continue to deny what is evidenced in so many ways.

One instance is close to my heart. I recently had a serious infection. I was given an antibiotic which got it under control but the infection "came back". In reality it was not gone. Some of the bacteria were resistent to the drug. I took another drug and got it under control but it came back again. In all I took 5 different antibiotics to completely rid my body of the infection. Bacteria is evolving all the time; becoming more and more resistant just as all life evolves. It hasn't stopped; we are still evolving. It is slow but scientist can demonstrate that it is happening.

I guess the one thing I need to say here is that I do understand how you think and feel. I did too at one time. I couldn't see how I could accept evolution and still believe in god. But I did, for a while and there is a huge mass of believer who understand that evolution is but it does not affect their belief in god.

Biblical scholars have long disagreed about much in the bible but most accept that the bible is allegory and parables and not to be taken literally.

I hope you will oneday delve into evolution and try to look at it logically. It makes sense on so many levels. That book I mentioned, written by Kenneth Miller, a believer, is a great place to start. PBS has so many online videos that break it down and show the evidences found and explain why and how. You are too smart to continue to look the other way Rick. Evolution is and the longer you deny it the longer you will remain on the perifery of intelligent knowledge.

Rick B said...

Just because a large group of people believe something does not make it true. I was driving home a while back and had NPR on. They were talking about some type of parasite that caterpillars either eat, or they somehow get into the caterpillars, then the caterpillars glow red, as a result of glowing red the birds will not eat them since they think it is deadly.

So how did these parasites think to themselves, if we evolve a way to make caterpillars glow red, then we will have food by eating the caterpillars, but birds wont eat us. You can find a link to the article here.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/worm-parasite-glow-red/

Then when looking this up, we found an article about some parasite that cannot live long on it's own, but can live long inside a cow. But it's so small a cow will not see it or eat it, so it infects ants and causes ants to climb up blades of grass and get eaten by cows. As a result the parasite used the ant to get into the cow and now has a place to live.

You mean this all simply came about by evolution? Plus like I said, evolution aside, I have said this before, All atheists that write blogs and website and books and billboards complain God is wicked and cruel.

You guys always need to go back thousands of years ago and complain you dont like how God supposedly treated people. You complain about people and their treatment when they lived thousands of years ago and are not alive today, but yet you dont say anything about the same people "The Jews" and how they are treated unfairly today by the foreign nations and these people Like Iran trying to kill them.

This tells me you guys are both hypocrites and you really dont care about How people were treated years ago, your problem is God.

Plus in the article the author says he tired of How believers act and things they do, yet as I stated before, it's the atheists that are really one sided.

You guys cry and complain about us wanting to have creation taught, yet you only want evolution taught.
How are you guys any different. Plus I have stated before, I might be alone here as a christian, But I have said, make it an all or nothing deal. Teach both sides or dont teach either. I never said teach ONLY creation.

I believe in being fair and teaching both sides. Plus you know as well as I do, If a teacher teaches creation or the Bible they will be fired, and they will only be fired for teaching those two things. They would not be treated that way if they said or taught anything else.

Teachers face the harshest punishment when it comes to the Bible.

Interested said...

You are right "Just because a large group of people believe something does not make it true."
I also heard the story on NPR and have read about those parasites in other places. It is more proof for evolution. Organisims evolve through adaptation and mutation to survive. It is never to the benefit of the organisim to kill the host.
"Studying parasite manipulations does offer the immediate fascination of the “gross and riveting,” Fenton acknowledges. But the parasite takeovers also give evolutionary biologists some extreme examples of evolution acting on the genes of one species, the parasite, as the genes change the body of a completely different species, the host."
You asked: You mean this all simply came about by evolution?
Yes!! and your reference says so.

Whether god is wicked and cruel has no bering on this conversation, but it is a fact that the bible tells some very cruel stories.

As for the Jews; I don't think they have any bering on this either. You bring it up often tell me what is your point? I don't really understand your seeming obessesions with the treatment of Jews.

Creation cannot be taught in schools because it is bassed on religion not science. Your guy Micheal Behe tried in court to show that it was science and was defeated smartly. Evolution ia science not religion. That is why I say you need to really study it. It is a good start to listen to NPR. They often have really good programs about science in all disciplines.

Teachers are not denied teaching stories from the bible as long as they teach it as literature. I often used bible stories in the library because there are some that have a great moral implications. What I did not do and could not do is teach it as truth.

Interested said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZdCxk0CnN4

I meant to put this on the previous comment.

Rick B said...

Why is it that people who teach evolution claim it is science, yet you have zero evidence for the Big bang. Even your people as you said to me, claim they simply believe that was how things came about but cannot prove it. They simply believe that is what happened and then simply say, we must go from the point that life was already here.

Then as I said before, Evolutionists teach mutations are what caused things to come about, so why is it the mutations all of a sudden stopped causing "good" things to happen, and now they are all bad?

As far as the Jews go, I keep asking because it is you atheists that bring up the Bible and mention how God is wicked and cruel. But it is stories of what happened to the Jews and how God dealt with His people.

So if your going to talk about God and how He did things with His people, Like who could enter the Temple, or Eye for Eye, or putting Children to death etc, then lets be fair about it and ask why you defend people that lived 1,000's of years ago, but now no longer defend those same people today.