Better Than Faith is a resource for anyone questioning faith. Whether you are doubting your own faith or you just want to shine a light on religion and expose some of its dirty little secrets, you should find something here to help you.
We feel that where there are proselytizers trying to convert people to their religion, there should be a voice of reason to help those people make an informed and rational choice instead of potentially caving under the confusing mind games and bullying that many preachers use.
If you would like to join us, we would be glad to have you. If you want to start your own group, we wish you the best of luck, and we hope that our materials will help.
Religious people often ask where morals could possibly come from if there were no gods (or more often if their god wasn’t real). This video is not a complete explanation, but it should be enough to make more open-minded believers take another look at the issue of what morality is and where it comes from.
Maybe Jesus was the son of God. Oh, and he was God too. Maybe he did send himself to Earth with the intent of getting himself killed in order to satisfy his own blood lust, and this blood sacrifice of him to him somehow worked to make up for our sins and take the place of the endless animal sacrifices he demanded in the Old Testament.
Supposedly Jesus was perfect and sinless, and somehow the murder of someone completely innocent constitutes justice for every horrible thing that every other person would ever do, as long as they believe it. If they don’t believe, then they get what they all deserve, from the worst mass murderer to a kid who told one single lie. Unimaginable, unending torment in Hell.
| February 28, 2009 | ||
| 3:30 pm | to | 5:00 pm |
In addition to the table we will have at the Local to Global Teach-in at ASU this weekend, our friend Ezra Niesen will be conducting a workshop titled Planetary Biology and the Anti-Capitalist Revolution.
I’ll let him explain it to you:
Scientists have been hard at work studying global environmental unsustainability for 40 years, which includes the evolutionary origins of human psychology (www.clubofrome.org, www.clubofbudapest.org). The War on Terror, the war in Iraq, the greenhouse effect, the immigration crisis, and the energy crisis are all various effects of humanity’s over-exploitation of the environment. 15 years ago, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, a global revolution against America’s economic imperialism began, which no one ever talks about in the commercial media in America (chiapas.indymedia.org, www.indymedia.org). The scientists who discovered global unsustainability have been saying from the very beginning that if global environmental disaster in the 21st century is going to be prevented, radical social change is necessary. Now the War on Terror is being used to equate radical social change with terrorism. Now environmental activists are being accused of terrorism, including 8 organizers of the protests at the Republican National Convention last fall against the Republicans’ complete disregard for environmental science (rnc8.org). The biggest reason these problems aren’t getting solved is because so many powerful people are spreading so much disinformation about science to mislead the public. Even President Obama promised to violate the Laws of Thermodynamics in his inaugural address. This is a crash course on pivotal discoveries that have been made and how to reclaim the future by reclaiming the public education system. An accurate understanding of how the world works is the rightful property of everyone.
Oh, and did I mention that there will be punch and pie? Okay, maybe not punch and pie, but there will be some type of free food at the event, so come out and see us if you can. It will be fun, and most importantly educational!
Wow, I intended to give Christians a break and post video of someone who believed in something completely crazy and unrelated, and then I picked one and watched a few of his videos and realized that I had failed. He’s actually some kind of a Christian too, he just believes that the world is run by reptilian aliens and Free Masons on top of it.
At first I was tempted to believe that he was making a very long and elaborate joke, but the more I watched the more I realized that I actually see someone on a fairly regular basis who seems to share some of the same beliefs!
I’m going to have to look into this whole reptilian/Free Mason conspiracy thing in more detail, especially since this guy claims that 99% of businesses are run by one or the other, and I’d hate to think I was funding a global conspiracy to destroy us, but for now let’s just sit back and enjoy the crazy.
Today is Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the day to go crazy before Lent kicks in. For 40 days, starting tomorrow, we’re supposed to deprive ourselves and do penance for the debauchery that hits its peak today.
Traditionally people give up something for Lent. It may be something as minor as not eating ice cream, or something as major as fasting and self-flagellation for all 40 days.
I would like to suggest something even more radical. Rather than the relatively unhelpful sacrifices like starving or beating yourself, why not do the one thing that could most dramatically change your world view? Why not make the ultimate sacrifice and give up God?
Compared to a lifetime of belief, 40 days of unbelief should not ultimately be enough to make a dent in your faith. That is unless God doesn’t exist. Are you brave enough to find out?
| February 28, 2009 | ||
| 8:30 am | to | 6:00 pm |
| March 1, 2009 | ||
| 8:30 am | to | 6:00 pm |
Since 2001, Local to Global Justice has held annual community education events at ASU, and this year we will be participating.
By “community education” I mean that it is not a series of lectures all given by professors and professionals, it is an event where we can all learn from each other. There will be presentations by many people of different backgrounds, both the highly educated and laypeople, on many different subjects.
The theme for the teach-in this year is “Reclaim the Commons!” This includes everything from natural resources and spaces to “intellectual property” and creative expression.
Better Than Faith will have a table at the event, and we should be there all day Saturday and Sunday. We will be happy to talk to people about anything, so come out and see us!
Today saw an increase in the total activity of drama and exposure of evangelical preachers on Mill Ave that hasn’t been seen before. Some old people have returned, and some new people have made themselves noticeable. And there were some major disruptions caused by their presence because of friction with local businesses.
The night opened up with Brant and his blonde companion camped out at the Post Office without amplification, holding a sign talking to passersby; Jeremiah, Al, and other Way of the Master evangelical preachers set up in front of Borders; and Jonathan—around whom the most major drama erupted—decided to set up in an unorthodox place: at 6th and Mill Ave in front of the Hippie Gypsy. This is probably because there is little room kitty-corner from the Hippie Gypsy, Bruce the spray-paint artist had taken the Urban Outfitters corner, and Coffee Plantation security is well known for harassing people who set up there.
Brother Jed is an increasingly irrelevant campus evangelical prostylizer and he visited ASU campus today. The Mill Avenue Resistance and the ASU Secular Free Thought Society went out to meet him—they didn’t have to go far. The SFTS have a tent and table set up on the main mall in front of the Memorial Union where Jed preaches so they only had to venture out from their shade to see him.
And he didn’t impress.
Hell, the dark pit of sorrow, the prison of fire and brimstone where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. A place of eternal torment where an all-powerful and all-loving god sends most people to suffer terribly. Forever.
Wow, what a dreadful place! It’s worse than the witch’s candy house in Hansel and Grettle. Worse than Grendel’s foul lair. Worse than The Bog of Eternal Stench. Fortunately, it is just as fictional!
There are a few people in history who I would almost wish eternal torment on, but if you can imagine what eternity really means then it’s hard to justify. No one is capable of committing an offense terrible enough to justify an infinite punishment. That would require an infinite crime, and the only infinite crime would be sending someone to Hell. So if the Bible’s god were real, we know where he should go.
The rest of us, for ourselves and for the rest of the world around us, should try to live the best lives we can, but out of love, not out of fear of a nonexistent Hell.
Religious people are fond of telling us how great faith is, but what does it really do for us? Sure it provides a sense of comfort and security to believers, but can it make them do more?
How about Jihad, genocide, murder, crusades, lies, inquisitions, intolerance, Sharia, guilt, terrorism, infanticide, stoning, pogroms, war, fear, 9/11, bigotry, theocracy, slavery and hate? That is not nearly an exhaustive list, but these are just some of the terrible things that have been done through faith in various gods, and most of them are still happening today because of people’s religious beliefs.
Next time someone asks you how you can live without faith, why not ask them how we can all live with it?
