Religion, again.

I'm due a Christianity rant, so here we go.
In this rant I am targeting full-on Christians, who believe the Bible, this rant probably doesn't apply to the lackeys spouting their "I believe in God, but..." excuses.

There is a brilliant quote from Ben-Stiller-lookalike atheist Sam Harris. It reads:

“Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what so ever.”

It's true. And I'm afraid to say that in all likelihood (unless you're a "born again Christian"), the following is also true:

The only reason you believe in God, is because when you were a child, your parents, or other adults that you trusted told you that God existed, and told you things from the Bible.
It's the same reason you believed in Father Christmas.

(I remember believing in Father Christmas, I can't remember ever believing in God. I think it might be because there is actually a lot more practical evidence for the existence of Father Christmas, you see him most Winters hanging out in shopping centres)

When your parents told you Father Christmas doesn't exist, that it's just a silly story to protect your innocence. Well, Christians, I'm doing the same thing for you now.

Sorry. You cried when mummy told you Father Christmas wasn't real, and it'll hurt just as bad: God just isn't real.

Like Sam Harris says, in any other case, if someone asserts something you will ask for evidence. If I tell you I can fly, it's pretty reasonable for you to expect me send a couple of minutes suspended in mid-air to prove it.

But what's that you say? On the surface it doesn't matter if I can fly or not. Even if you believe me without evidence it's not doing you any harm to believe that I can fly.

So, how about I say: I can fly. Now worship me because of it.
Will you require evidence then?
I can fly. Now donate money to me.
Will you require evidence then?
I can fly. Now go to war and die because of it.
Will you require evidence then?

An argument I hear regularly from Christians is:
How did it all start then? If there is no God to create the universe, no divine architect, how did the universe go from not being, to being.

Well, let's start by saying I'm not a scientist. There are many theories. But in all probability, the answer right now is: we don't know.

That doesn't mean we won't ever know.
I'm willing to bet that there are a lot of people who, for example, would know if you asked them:

How does an electric guitar's sound come out of an amplifier. (Many people do know, but I bet there are a lot of people who don't).

Just because they don't know doesn't mean there isn't a scientific explanation. The fact that you don't know about amplifiers doesn't mean you can't ever know. And it's the same with science.

We haven't always known everything we know now. We'll probably never know everything. But that doesn't mean we should stop trying and just say: God did it.

God didn't do it. There is no God.