Around Christmastime, I read an article about Justin Beiber and how his mom didn't lie to him about silly things like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy so that he would absolutely believe her about Jesus. This disturbed me on so many levels. I'll start with the obvious - let's get this straight...she didn't lie to him about the inconsequential tall tales that he would find out were bunk anyway in a few years so that she could convince him that another, more destructive lie should be believed. Whether she believes it to be true herself matters not. It is a parents responsibility to be as open and honest with a child as they can, based on their current age and level of understanding. If my son asks me where rain comes from, I don't just make something up - I take the time to look it up, show him cloud formations, weather information based on scientific fact, to be sure to give him the right answer. Believing something to be true, whether it's the moon is made of cheese or that UFOs are real is clearly as irresponsible of an answer as telling a child there is a god out there that watches him and knows all when there is absolutely no evidence for that assertion. Why is it so hard to find out the real truth before you tell your child something about the reality that he or she must live in long after you are gone? Why is the thought that there is no god so frightening? It changes nothing in regard to how beautiful and awesome the universe is, how wonderful and full life can really be. In my opinion it makes it far more fantastic and pure without any superstitions or pre-suppositions, just in its randomness and vastness. I struggle with the fact that we as a species who have come so far in the field of science hang on to books from thousands of years ago, that have been translated time and again that show no real knowledge of the universe as we understand it today. Does this god know all? Then why do these books reveal only what ordinary men of the time knew? We need to wake up as a people, get these crazy, selfish, emotional ideas out of our heads – they hold us back; create divisions, wars, unnecessary suffering archaic dogmas. I cannot hide my contempt for religion but I feel some amount of pity for those that still follow it blindly because they do themselves the greatest disservice in relying on someone who is clearly just not there and never was instead of the wonderful, capable brain they have and the joy of discovering reason and logic in their own minds.
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