God vs Batman: Making the argument
Read Time:3 Minute, 48 Second
“I want to talk to you about God.”
“Well I want to talk about Batman.”
“Are you kidding me? “
“Hey, you started it.”
I recently asked myself an interesting question: as an atheist do I even know enough about the other person’s religion to casually dismiss it? Since I abhor ignorance I had to consider this for a moment, and realized it may well be true.
I’m not, however, buying it as far as Christianity is concerned, I grew up in Western Europe and had to spend two hours a week for thirteen years in religious class at fucking school (yes we have that see how screwed we are) and unlike most believers in Christianity that I’ve met, I have actually read large parts of the bible.
The bible, for the record, is not filled with deep wisdom and tales of compassion but page upon page of family trees with people who supposedly lived for hundreds of years and really fantastic quotes like this:
If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
No, it doesn’t look any better if you put it back in context. That’s usually the part in which a believer will remind you that you have to read it the right way. And I completely agree, even if it’s not the way they may think. Yes, you do need to read it the right way, which is: not.
You see there are infinite numbers of delusional fantasies out there. While for some reason the people who do believe them are exempt from having to know the others or even their own, you as an atheist are obligated to know them all. Apparently the only way to be considered sane and believe in some sort of invisible friend is to know everything about every possible invisible friend, and being able to deconstruct each one. In addition you are supposed to be smart, witty and non-offensive to the people who do believe in them at the same time. It is, after all, never okay to imply that believing that this or that myth doesn’t exist is insane.
No amount of argument will change your friend’s minds and there is no reasoning with something inherently unreasonable. So you let it go, after all we all need our little ways to flee from the madness of our daily lives and the equally mad social conventions and weird rules of work.
I escape into books. Of course, I’m not going to demand you believe that the White Walkers from Game of Thrones are real and if you don’t explain to me [in excruciating detail] and with a lot of insider knowledge why you don’t, because that would be crazy. After all no one can know every fantasy out there.
The world is full of useful and important knowledge that we already don’t have time to absorb. Even if we would be talking about just a few books this would be a waste of time, but if you just look at how many sub-sects Christianity has you can dedicate your whole life to understanding religion and never be done. This is, mind you, what is expected of if you don’t want to be called ignorant. You see the problem is that for these people their particular delusion is real and thus deserves an equal amount of attention.
Of course you can’t say Christianity is the same as Buddhism (that is a nifty one by the way if you really need to believe in something) but you can say that the supernatural elements of both are fairy tales, even if you aren’t quite sure of what they are. You don’t need to buy random bullshit. It may make you the party pooper because you don’t bring your own creative and funny fantasy to the table but again you can always talk about Harry Potter, it has about the same merit and very likely fewer insane rules.
No one gets to make their very own fantasy required knowledge because they want to believe it is true. If they could Twilight fans would have the same right and then where would we be?
In the end you need to learn no more about God than about Batman. At least Batman has the more entertaining movies.
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Are you ready?
After 3
1, 2, 3
“D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Der BATMAN!!!!”
I considered merely saying ‘Bollocks’ but that would have been just boring
Besides, who wouldn’t shag Cat Woman????
I am less concerned about what the know it alls do and believe and more concerned about what I know and believe.
Hey Mike! Wake up! Your not in the religion class anymore. No one is force feeding you their version of thetruth anymore. It’s up to you to decide which dillusion you want to hang out in. I hate to tell you but, atheist are no more living in the real world that someo e who hears voices or sees UFO’s Fact is nothing more than fiction by consensus. One day it’s fiction like Jules Verne’s moon rocket and the next day it a fact. There are rockets on the moon.
So, my suggestion is rather than diminishing others dillusions you might consider sheding more light on the path they’re on. Who knows, you might find there is some truth there
What arrogant BS! Fact is not “fiction by consensus” but that which can be confirmed by independent observations and repeatable experiment.
You might consider allowing some light into your own unwarranted assumptions. That is, if truth and rational thinking are not too much for you.
Are you serious? Oh this will not go well for you here.
I live in a real world quite well, for being an atheist, thank you very much. I don’t need the fear of an invisible sky daddy watching everything I do to keep me on the straight and narrow path I walk, so I will be assured a place in a mythical sky mansion. There are way too many trying to force feed religion down our throats, or do you just not pay attention is a question needs answering. As far as anyone shedding light on someone else’s path, isn’t that kind of up to the person to walk their own path, however they see fit, and not go on and on about it.
Johann….I don’t write everything here, so don’t tell me to “wake-up.” Take the time to read the author’s name and address your comment accordingly. As to Jesus and the gang? Myths. Nonsense. Craziness. Crap. Like Chris, the author of the post, I was force fed that insanity for years and years, then I grew up.
Awwww, look at you Mike, doing your professorial thing teaching the masses about reading things properly trying to be a good guy. It’s hard when you have idiots in your midst, that don’t care bout readin, ritin, or rithmetics 😉
You may be addressing the wrong person here. But I’ll see if I can clear a few things up. First up, this was not about being force-fed anything but about the view that one is apparently not entitled to be an atheist without learning everything about every religion in in-depths detail first. Something that is never demanded of the followers of religions themselves. This was mostly provoked in reaction to an article in Salon called “Those ignorant atheists.”
This sort of attitude is something I find extremely confusing and it is has been repeated by you in the end of your own comment.”So, my suggestion is rather than diminishing others illusions you might consider shedding more light on the path they’re on. Who knows, you might find there is some truth there”
Again the expectation that to be entitled to not believing in a religion I must dedicate my life to learning about religions. Because the number of these is virtually endless.
Sadly we already seem to disagree on what a fact is and as such I doubt there even is common ground here. You are of course right that rockets on the moon were once fiction and are not truth. THe difference is that believing Jule Verne novels are true is still a delusions while accepting that humans were on the moon is a fact (unless you’re a conspiracy nut). If you had taken those books as gospel you’d also have to believe in a drill that goes to the middle of the earth and finds it full of dinosaurs.
Now I could discuss the merits of Jules Verne’s ideas for hours but that is exactly my point. This never ends. There is an infinite number of fantasies/religions and delusions. My intend is not to attack those who chose to believe in their favorite one here. It’s only to say that no one has any right to demand I study theirs. Or even all of them. It has to be possible to live in a modern world without having to defend yourself for basing your worldview on the scientific principle instead of superstitions.
Good post here man, but I don’t give a shit what a silly god or his bangers say or think about me. If Batman was upset however…..
One big difference is, both pirate and ninjas did exist. Pirates still do, by the modern definition, at least. Ninjas do not.
Those claiming to be ninjas are simply using the term to advance their image and probably their finances.
You’re right about the ill informed or the arrogant throwing about the term when referring to their own martial arts skills James.
Being a Ninja is about the mind. I am a secret Ninja and we will once again own the night and rule the world.
Batman, GoT, snarky commentary on the buybull and Twilight. What is NOT to love about this post. I have not, nor will I, study the religious texts only to say I still don’t believe in them and I still know more about religion than many religious people do. Wait though. What is your stance on Pirates vs Ninjas, inquiring minds want to know.
I’m a pirates kind of guy. No fan of ninjas. Hard to believe 🙂
Hey, me too. In more than one conversation, where alcohol is usually involved, the whole pirates vs ninja controversy has come up with me and friends and it ends up being funny as hell.
Good quesiton, you should never trust anyone before you know their stance on ninjas. Obviously pirates lead due to having ships, wenches and talking a little bit like Yoda.
On the other hand ninjas can get some fantastic upgrades such as being turtles. Now if you’d ask me if a basic pirate is better than a Ninja Turtle I’d clearly have to say no.
You see the matter gets complicated rather quickly. In all fairness if we talk about improves ninjas we do have to allow upgrades for the pirates too. In this case I’ll say Airship Pirates.
Now we’re having a far harder match. One side armed with the nostalgia of childhood cartooons and the other with Steampunk style. I’d personaly still favor the pirates but I can see the merit of the other side. But as you may already see from that one example this debate could become very complicated very quickly if you consider all the options.
Well said sir. In order to have a full debate about this, you must be surrounded by friends and alcohol, yes the spirits guide your debate. It makes the debate funnier, really it does. Now the Ninja turtle thing, would that be the old turtles or this new remake they are doing? I see what you mean about all sides and it getting complicated.