Why The Rapture Failed

Jesus misses his appointment again — just like he had been for the last 2,000 years.

— Xenocrates

I think we can safely say now that part of the world has entered into May 22nd, 2011 without incident that one of two things are true: 1) That either the Bible is inherently dangerous in how it appears to attract loons or 2) The Bible cannot be trusted as a fairly reliable source of information. Either way end of world prophecies will continue to be a source of great appeal.

Morality vs. Religion

“Morality and religion exist as mutually exclusive concepts as one does not automatically predicate the other.”

– Xenocrates

Taking an oath on the Bible is something of a conflict of interest – considering what’s written in it.

When asked about why religion is necessary, one of the common answers most people will probably tell you (even if they aren’t believers) is that religion provides a framework for moral behaviour. So allow me to permanently fix that problem by blowing this fatuous assumption out of the water once and for all.

The Truth About The Truth

“When people go in search of the truth, they tend to find whatever it is they’re looking for, whether it is the truth or not.”

– Xenocrates

Remember when Pluto was a planet? Now it isn’t. Remember when removing tonsils cured tonsillitis? Now we know better. Or what about when the moon was completely devoid of water? Recent discoveries show otherwise. All of these things were true once. So I’ve got to ask a really tough question of you:

What is truth?

The Anatomy of Belief

“Conflict over belief is as worthwhile as conflict over a favourite colour.”

– Xenocrates

There are many systems of belief in the world. Most beliefs are propagated by the innate compulsion of their subscribers to derive purpose from the world around them. As such, religion is effectively a moderate transmutation of mythology, philosophy and science. It attempts to be the silver bullet that is the catch-all solution for all of life’s problems. That’s why religion is the most conspicuous of all systems of belief. It attempts to explicitly fill the gaps science and philosophy do not. However, there are some dark, disturbing characteristics about religious belief that a lot of religious people are either unaware of or seem to ignore altogether. Growing up in an environment that catered to the far Christian right taught me a lot of highly valuable lessons about these characteristics. This post details the top ten most valuable lessons I’ve learned about religious cognition. Most of these I learned after intense debate and oftentimes, vicious confrontation:

Why People Believe in Garbage

“Belief is not a product of proof. Belief is a product of will.”

– Xenocrates

Rep. John McCain

John McCain is the next in the Republican party’s new line of epic 21st century FUBARs – as if George Bush wasn’t enough. The Republican party was once the pride and joy of America, producing great presidents like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But lately, they’ve not been doing so well. McCain started out with a REALLY great campaign that showed promise, depth and direction, beating out the Mormon (Romney) and the comedian (Huckabee) – who happened to be my pick for the Republicans. I almost rooted for McCain while Hillary Clinton was busy destroying the Democratic party. Then he started to make a series of really bad decisions that basically ruined his campaign. First came the debates – which while not bad, he isn’t regarded as winning due to his emotive propensities. Then came the dull speeches, the flip flops, the lies and his worst mistake of all, Sarah Palin. That’s when everything went to hell. She flubbed on several interviews, displayed jaw dropping ignorance, brought along the Troopergate scandal, undermined her own running mate, called the prophet a socialist, terrorist groupie, playing up to the ignorance of the Republitards. That left McCain to do damage control as his own racist, hick town groupies chanted “kill him”, “Terrorist” and “I don’t trust [that] Arab”. I mean, SERIOUSLY? How does ONE man mess up SO bad in SUCH a short space of time? None of that matters now. More importantly, why are so many people still supporting the Republican party given all this chaos? I examined the blind loyalty of educated Republicans and then looked back at all the garbage that people believe in and that’s when I discovered a correlation that explains why smart people can believe in such utter rubbish: