2 posts tagged “jesus”

Well... At the risk of being ridiculed all to hell by my friends and enemies here at Newsvine, I am going to do it yet again!! Yes, I have once again changed my mind about one of the most fundamental questions of mankind. This time I believe for good. Let me just come out and say it. I am NOT a Christian!! I really have not been a Christian since my late teen years. I have always known deep down inside of me, down deep where true knowledge resides, that Christianity and all other organized religions are bullshit. But the pull of the religion of one's youth is a very powerful draw. Sometimes it's like a black hole sucking me back in and so there have been a few times in my life, up till now at the age of 35, where I have fallen back into old ways of thinking. I'm not sure if anyone can truly understand this phenomenon unless they too were raised in a religious family.

I was raised in the Southern Baptist tradition and have chronicled this in other articles I have written. When your entire family is telling you that you are wrong, and that your eternal soul is in jeopardy, no matter how much you know in your heart it just isn't true, there are times in life that you begin to wonder, especially at those times when your life doesn't seem to be proceeding exactly according to plan. You start to wonder if maybe they are right after all? Maybe if I could just learn to have faith, if I could just learn to accept what they have accepted so easily, maybe if I too could just learn to believe, then maybe I too could find happiness and peace.

So there have been a few times in my life when I have tried this. And sometimes it does seem to work. For about a minute. Sometimes I have been able to lie even to myself, to convince myself, "yea, you can do this, you can believe this crazy shit if you just try hard enough."

So, in this last go round, my girlfriend and I started going to this local contemporary, seeker-friendly mega-church, and we actually liked it. They didn't preach hellfire and brimstone and the music was great! Contemporary music played by a terrific contemporary band.

Then I started to write articles here and to argue with Atheists, but what I was really doing was trying to convince myself. That's what I always do here on Newsvine, I am more having a conversation with myself than I am with anyone else. I am more trying to convince myself than I am anyone else.

But after awhile I had to ask myself, "What the hell, exactly, is it that you are doing? Why are you lying?" And I realized that this is what I was in fact doing. I was lying!! Lying more to myself than to anyone else and a person can only lie to themselves but for so long. A person can lie to others all they want, lying to oneself does not work out so well, if a person wishes to remain sane. And true to oneself!!

To hell with it all!!

I have told myself that from now on, I am going to remain true to myself and to no one else, not to anyone in my family, only me!! I know what I believe in my heart is true for me, and I don't have to convince myself of anyone else's truth.

Shakespeare said, "This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

And so I felt the need to write this article to try to explain myself and to apologize to anyone and everyone who I have come into contact with over the past few months in the context of Christian belief. Most notably Iarnuocon and Adam. I am NOT a Christian, have never been, I only fooled myself into believing that I could be. I can't. I have tried and I can't lie to myself any longer. It's one of the worst things a person can do in this life.

I am still trying to figure out exactly what it is that I DO believe, in the wake of my absence of faith and I will write more about it in the future. I have an insatiable need, an insatiable desire to know the truth, not the tired ol' dogmas of the past.

The following is excerpted from a recent email conversation I had with an Aunt of mine, who is still very religious to this day, although not a Southern Baptist, she is a member of the Church of God, a church who teaches that one must speak in tongues in order to be saved, even though she personally has never spoken in tongues. These are my excerpted words to her over the past few days:

Wow, for someone who says people shouldn't discuss politics or religion, you went right ahead and did so anyway. ha ha. I never agreed with people who said that anyway. I don't know why people get so hung up about religion and politics. They act as if their beliefs are so cherished that to even discuss it is somehow dangerous. People are scared, I believe, they are afraid to talk about these things because their beliefs ARE so cherished and they are afraid of upsetting the apple cart so to speak, afraid that their cherished beliefs might need some fine tuning after all.
I love discussing these things and am on several different websites online where I do just that, with complete strangers. I love it!!
I NEVER said though that I know everything or that I have answers to anything. I don't know anything, actually, even when it comes to religion, that's why I call myself an Agnostic. I'm neither a believer nor an Atheist. I just don't know. I do know though that a lot of things I was taught to believe as a child are, without a doubt, not true. I can't prove it to you though, and I know that you do still believe in a lot of those things. I just know in my heart and soul that God is real, but the God I was raised to believe in is no more real than Santa Clause. But you knew that about me anyway, you and I have discussed these things years ago.
I don't know why people have a hard time talking about these things without getting upset or getting their feelings hurt. Especially family. I should be able to talk about these things with family, but in actual fact, there is no one in my family I can talk to about these things. Everyone in the family, on both sides, has their minds made up about these things already and what they believe is literally Gospel. It's hard to talk to family about my doubts when they are all obviously concerned for the destiny of my soul. I could show you some things I have written, maybe you and I could actually talk about these things without getting angry with each other.
Gene and I have been discussing religion a bit, and I just still can not understand how a person can go through life, essentially believing everything he was taught as a child, about God, Jesus and the Bible, and yet live the life he is living. I'm not saying he is a bad person, not at all, I'm just saying he is not living a Christian life, but he believes every word of the Bible, therefore he must know that according to his belief system, he is going to hell, unless he repents. To me, to live your life in such a way that you "know" is sending you to hell...well.. that is the definition of insanity to me. Me... I don't believe in hell, and he just thinks that is hilarious, he can't wrap his mind around how somebody could not believe in hell, yet the life he is living, he is going there just the same as I am, for my unbelief. So what exactly makes someone like him a better person than me? If we both died today, is God gonna look more favorably on him because he believes and I don't? I don't get it. That's why I'm agnostic.
Anyway, I said all of that because you got me thinking when you said that I don't know the answers either. You're right, I don't, but doesn't it seem that the ones that are so sure they DO know the answers are the very ones who are screwing up this world so badly?
You say you don't get me. Not too many people do. Do you know how lonely it is, knowing that not a single person in my entire family understands me? The ONLY person who I think does understand is Jackie(my girlfriend). Her beliefs and mine are pretty much in sync. She wasn't raised in a religious household though.I almost feel as if I was raised in a cult of sorts, raised in a bubble. You asked me why I can't be grateful for what I have and why do I dwell on things that do not matter? Donna, if what you say is true that I'm going to hell for my beliefs, then it DOES matter. It matters a great deal, don't you see? I AM grateful for everything that I have, most especially my kids and for Jackie, because in the way of material possessions I don't have much. But that doesn't preclude me from thinking about spiritual questions. I am a very spiritual person, I just do not believe the way you believe, and believe me, I don't get you either, I don't get Gene, I don't get my Mom, I don't get anyone in my family, as they don't get me. I think about existential questions all the time, you ask me why, and my answer is that I have no other choice, that is how I was built, it is who I am. I could no longer stop asking these questions than you could stop believing in Jesus. What if I asked you why can't you just be grateful for what you have, why do you have to go to church and believe in Jesus, someone who lived and died over 2000 years ago? I am a very spiritual person, sometimes I think I'm more spiritual than a lot of Christians I know. Gene claims to believe in God and Jesus, yet I don't think he has given his beliefs more than a cursory glance, he has never asked questions. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you believe the way you do? Maybe for you, it doesn't matter. For me, the truth matters a great deal. I can't just believe in something because it makes me feel good, I have to know the truth. For you, believing in Jesus makes you feel good and it makes you feel better about where you are going when you die. I don't care about feeling better, I care about the truth. And I have asked myself a LOT of questions over the years.
I just think religion is largely a function of geography, there are lots of other religions in this world besides Christianity and they can't all be wrong, they can't all be right either. I think they are ALL wrong, every one of them. As far as Gene saying he believes and thinks he has time, well the Bible also says that the devil himself believes. Faith without works is dead. That's why I said living life the way he is, the way you say you have in the past, the way we all have, is the definition of insanity, basically playing Russian Roulette with your soul. If I believed the way you guys do, I could NEVER live anything other than a Christian life, to live otherwise makes no sense, I would be afraid to go to sleep every nite, for fear I would die and go to hell. But there is no such thing as heaven and hell, it's all make believe.
I am not trying to persuade you from your beliefs, at all!! Not one bit. I am just trying to get you to understand where I am coming from, why I believe the way I do. Christians are so ego-centric about their religion, that they come off as superior about their beliefs, as if their beliefs are better, or the only right way. No one in the family feels the least bit of gumption about proselytizing their beliefs, I get emails all the time from different family members telling me about Jesus and how much he supposedly loves me, wanting me to hear the good news, so why should I feel ashamed for letting my beliefs be known? I have lived in the dark for far too long. And I am no longer ashamed of who I am and who I am not.
People talk about the Gospel, about the good news of Jesus Christ. To me, I have never understood what the good news is. What is the good news? That I am going to hell because I don't believe any of it? What exactly is the good news? That most of the world is going to hell because they are of a different religion? I don't get it.
You act as if these matters don't matter. That we shouldn't worry about them. They DO matter. Look at the last 8 years if you don't think they matter. That's exactly what those in power want us to do, not think about these things too much, so they can go on and rape our country and the world as they have been doing. They don't want us to think, don't you see? And the Church doesn't want us to think either. But I think, and to ask me why would be like to ask me why I breathe, because I have to. It's who I am and I can't help it.
But I am not trying to persuade you away from your beliefs at all. I have thought about that in regards to my Mother, I asked myself what if my Mom told me tomorrow that she too was no longer a Christian, how would I feel? And for some reason, I think, I would be sad, not because I think she would be going to hell or because she would be wrong, but because being a Christian is who she is, it's who you are, and to lose something that large about yourself is a tragedy. Trust me, I know what it's like to lose your religion, I lost mine a long time ago. It can be terrifying but it's also liberating. I don't have to worry about the destiny of my soul any more, about heaven and hell. I can now just let you guys worry about that for me.
I don't need anyone in the family to believe the way I do, I just need at least someone to "get me", to understand where I'm coming from. I was born with an analytical brain, I think too much, but I can't help it, it's in my genes, it comes from my father. I just can't see how God could or would send me to hell for using the brain he supposedly gave me. It's interesting to note, that the vast majority of all the greatest minds who ever lived were Atheists, people like Einstein, Mark Twain, I could go on and on. Dad asked me one time what kind of garbage I was reading to make me think these things, and I said, "Oh, just people like Einstein, you know, the smartest man who ever lived, and Mark Twain, the most respected man who ever lived, who wrote Huckleberry Finn." I don't read a bunch of New Age mumbo jumbo, or Atheist handbooks, I read the greatest minds who have ever lived, the ones we were told to read when we were in high school and college. Why is it that most of 'em were Atheists, yet I'm the crazy one in the family? I have come to the conclusion that the more educated a person becomes the less religious they necessarily become. But like I said, I still do believe in God, just not the way you believe in him, I can't believe in a God who rewards and punishes based on something which a person can't help anyway, their belief. I have asked this before and I'll ask you now, if Jesus died on the cross for my sins, why do I have to believe it? What does my belief or lack thereof have to do with it? I don't get it. It makes no sense to me at all. Is his love not large enough to encompass those of us who just can not find it in them to believe? Belief is not a conscious choice.
I told Gene that I'm a good person, that I love my kids and Jackie and my family and that I work hard to give them a good life, I don't drink to excess, I don't party, I don't do anything bad at all for which I'm trying to justify my life through a lack of belief. I'm a good person and I can't see how or why God would punish me for simply not believing in him, if he does in fact exist. Gene said that not being a Christian doesn't mean I'm a bad person, it just means I'm going to hell. Well thanks, is what I thought. You guys say these things so nonchalantly, I don't even think you realize what it is you are saying. So in your religion, a lot of good people are going to hell. Sorry, I just can not buy that.

Re-read your last email to me, what you and Gene are basically saying to me is this:

"since you don't believe in the Bible, you are going to hell when you die, but hey, don't worry about it, it's all just stuff that doesn't matter anyway, why can't you just be grateful for what you have in life?" Do you not see how insane that statement is?!

You said you didn't know what it was I was searching for in life. I am searching for the Truth, whatever that is. I can't just believe things because I was raised to believe certain things, because I have been told to believe certain things. It's not how I am made internally. I have to KNOW things for myself. I am a seeker, I love knowledge, I love learning, always have. I love to read and read voraciously. I just read 3 books from the library in the past 2 weeks. I just finished "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway and rented the movie from netflix with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. I am almost done now with "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller, probably one of the funniest books I have ever read. The term catch-22 wasn't even in the American language until that book. I just love to learn, love to think about things. There was a time when I was an Atheist, but I'm not any longer. Just because I'm not a Christian doesn't mean I'm an Atheist. It is precisely because I DO believe in God and his infinite love that I can NOT believe that the Bible is his word. I just can not. I just can NOT believe that God would order his people, the Jews to annihilate men, women and children, to kill entire groups of people, simply because the land was supposedly their "promised land." No, I think people do those things and then they try to use religion to justify the terrible things they have done. That is what the Jews did and then tried to ascribe their genocidal behavior to God's imperative. Why more people can not see through these lies is beyond me. Just like it is precisely because i DO love this country of ours that I have to oppose our President and the terrible things he has done. I believe that we are all a part of God and that is the only thing Jesus was really trying to tell everyone. He said he was a Son of God, as we are all Sons of God, he also said, "These things you see me do, these and many more things like them will you also will do." He wasn't claiming to be anything that we are not, he wasn't demanding our worship, that was all lies put on Jesus' lips by the Church afterwards. Jesus preached peace and he preached against the religion of his day, he preached against false piety and he preached living a simple life, for all these reasons, he was killed, just as many people have been killed for their beliefs throughout the ages. I believe we are all "one" and the sooner more people realize that, the better off we will be. It is not rich vs poor, them vs us, republican vs democrat, it's all just us, and we are killing ourselves on this planet because of the things we believe and don't believe.
I believe that God is infinite love, where there is love, there can be no hate. There are only two basic emotions in all the world, love or hate, God is not hate, God is love. So I can not imagine him punishing me for eternity simply because I do not believe a particular myth or story about him. I once heard a story that all the religions are like people who have all had the chance to gaze upon God but every one was given a different part of God to gaze upon, some the feet, some the head, some his garment. Obviously this is metaphor. But what religions have done is that they all think their particular view of God they have been allowed to see, is the only true nature of God. Those who saw the feet, think the feet is all of God, those who saw his garments think they saw the totality of God as well, and we are all arguing fighting and dying, fighting over whose view of God is correct when we need to realize we ALL have been allowed to gaze upon God. I probably didn't tell the story too well, maybe you've actually heard it.
There is a comedian named Julia Sweeney who used to be on Saturday Night Live and I just love what she said, "It's not you God, it's me. It's because I take you so seriously that I can't believe in you." It sounds funny but I think it is a very profound statement. And I totally agree, It is precisely because I believe so much in God's love that I can not believe in the Bible. But anyway, I think if God exists, he loves me even if I don't believe in him. I think he feels compassion for me, I think that he understands me as no on earth does, and I don't think that if I die in my unbelief that he is going to punish me for all eternity.
In other words, I think God's love is unconditional, he doesn't place conditions on his love for us the way people do. It's not believe in me and then I will love you, no he loves us regardless. As I said, I think THAT was the good news of which Jesus preached. He said that we didn't need the church in order to talk to God, that we each were a part of God, his children and had access to him at any time or place. Obviously, this rankled the religious establishment and they killed him, as they killed many other people just like him. Did you know that Jesus was not even the only one to come along and claim to be the Messiah? In his day there were tons of people making that claim, each with their own set of disciples following them. he was also not the only person in history to be crucified. Crucifixion was the Roman form of execution back in those days, like the electric chair or the gas chamber today.
I don't really pray in the traditional sense I guess. I meditate a lot, not in the traditional sense of that word either, though. I don't sit in a trance and go "Om!!!" I just think a lot about things. When I come home from work I look up at the night sky and contemplate the stars and the universe. In this way, I talk to God every day. I don't think one has to kneel beside their bed to pray or pray in any traditional sense. My own inner conversation with myself is how I pray.
No, Donna it doesn't sound off the wall, what you suggested, (to pray) it's been suggested to me a hundred and one times. The thing is, I've already done it. Many many times!!! And I've read the Bible backwards and forwards too, been there, got the t-shirt!! ha ha And the answer that keeps coming back to me is that the Bible is NOT God's word!! That the Bible was written by fallible and sometimes even evil and capricious men. God tells me that Jesus was a real man who walked the earth, who preached a spirituality so novel for his day, that he was killed for it. God tells me that he is love, that he loves each and every one of us, with no conditions and no strings attached. He tells me that I am NOT going to hell. Hell was made up by evil and capricious men in order to keep people scared in order to keep them in line for the purposes of empire. Do you realize how rich the Catholic Church became over the centuries? They needed something to keep people scared, and when the concept of hell no longer worked, they resorted to torture and burning people at the stake. God asks me what his holy purpose would be in sending his own creation to a hell of everlasting torment? When I say, "Well, I've been told it's to satisfy your sense of justice, that you are a just God." He asks me why his justice could not just as easily be served by annihilating me, why would he have to subject me to everlasting torment? He says that Christianity makes a mockery of who he really is. When you really sit down and think about these things, you realize that none of it makes sense, and then you realize, it's all make believe. Yes, God exists, and we are all a part of him. To send any part of God to hell would be to send God himself to hell. It makes no sense.You would never do anything to harm your own child, I could NEVER hurt one of my children, no matter what they did, why do we then think God would or could do so?
And most of all, when I pray, God tells me to just relax, that everything is perfectly fine and as it should be. God tells me that I am NOT the product of my bad decisions over the years, that I am NOT my job, that I am NOT how much money I make or don't make, but that who I am is defined by how much I love. And that's it and that's all. The rest is just all make believe, fairy tales.

And there ends what I told my Aunt the past few days. I wish I could tell this to more of my family members but most of them don't understand.

In closing I am going to leave you with a poem I have come across that speaks to me more than anything in the Bible. I love this poem, written in the 1920's. It's called The Desiderata:

Desiderata

-- written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s --

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

I wrote this little piece yesterday, as a joke, to my cousin. We have been having a religious debate through email, him still believing in God and Jesus, as we were taught to believe as children, me, the dissenter. I wanted to break Christian belief down into it's constituent parts, to show him how utterly ridiculous it all sounds. The following is my attempt at that.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. You look around us and you see things,and these things must have been created because everything must have a cause therefore there is a God, but wait... If everything must have a cause, where did God come from? What is the cause of God? Oh, you say, Christians get to change the rules as they go along. God doesn't have a cause, he has existed forever and ever, amen!! He has been in existence since eternity. So.... before he created the universe, what was God doing for all of that eternity? Watching re-runs of Three's Company?! Seriously, if God existed forever and ever what was he doing for all that time? Well time did not exist yet, you say, God just was and guess what, God is perfect, all knowing and all powerful, but poor ol' God got bored and decided to create some company, first some animals and then man and then since man was bored too and wanted some nookie he created woman for him, by putting Adam to sleep and taking out one of his ribs whereby he fashioned a woman out of it. Then he breathed the breath of life into her and she was alive. Sound ridiculous enough yet to you? Wait it gets better...

God put them in paradise, the Garden of Eden, and told them that they could eat of whatever fruit of whatever tree they wanted, at this time I guess they were vegetarians, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they must not touch, lest they shall surely die. They were walking around all naked and shit, all happy until one day the devil... oh yea, let's back up just a bit. Before God created the universe he had created the angels to keep him company. I guess they were not very good company. The devil, who was one of the highest angels and named Lucifer, the angel of light, thought he was better than God and so he staged a rebellion along with 1/3 of the other angels, and they fought a war with God. Satan, the devil, Beelzebub, whatever you want to call him was banished from heaven.

And boy was he jealous of these humans God had created. So one day, the devil, in the disguise of a snake tempts Eve, because you know what dumb ass whores all women are, to eat the forbidden fruit telling her that God knows that the day you eat of it you won't die but your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Shit, nigga,  that sounded good to her, so she ate and that was some good shit and she told Adam to eat it, because you know it's always the woman tempting man to do evil shit, women are so evil, and Adam too did eat. Their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked, Apparently they did not know that before and they thought that there was now something bad about being naked, even though God put them in the garden like that, and so they fashioned fig leaves to cover their nakedness. God came a looking for them one day, even though he is omniscient, and saw they were hiding and were clothed. God was fuming mad, even though he is all knowing and must have known before hand what would happpen with his little experiment.This must mean God was just playing some kind of cruel hoax on the first couple, since he knew what they would do, in essence they had no choice in the matter. So God gets fuming mad and banishes them from the garden and makes the woman have painful childbirths from now and that's why childbirth is so painful now. Not because such a big baby has to come out of such a small hole, oh no, that's not it, it's because Adam and Even ate an apple. Oh, also God wasn't satisfied to just be mad at Adam and Eve, oh no, he was now mad at every human being who would ever live, it's called original sin, we are supposedly born in sin, no matter how good we are in life, we are still sinful because of Adam and Eve. how convenient for the church, "it doesn't matter how good you are, you still need us for salvation, niggas."

sound stupid enough yet? Wait it gets even better.

So apparently, even though God is all knowing and perfect, Satan was able to get one over on him by successfully tempting his children.

The rest of the Old Testament goes by, a bunch of crazy ass stories ensue. David slays a giant, for no other reason than that he was a giant, and well everyone knows you have to slay giants. Daniel survives being tossed into a lion's Den. Shadrach Meshach and Abednego survive being tossed into a fiery furnace and Jonah survives 3 days inside the belly of a whale. Sounds like bullshit to me. And you actually believe this shit? but wait, it gets even better.

God had a plan, see. And he had a son too, and a Holy Ghost. Holy shit!!! it is God's plan that he would send his son, since mankind had become so bad because of what Adam and Eve did, oh yea I even forgot to mention the flood, which you believe even though there is NO scientific proof that a worldwide flood ever occured. I also left out Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt by parting the Red Sea.

Anyway, God sent his son to be born of a virgin, and to preach and heal people and shit like that, but he would make the establishment so mad they would want to kill him, they would want to kill God, not knowing he was God, not believing he was God himself. "hold up, niggas,  wait a minute, I'm God." So God/Jesus dies on a cross, and 3 days later he rises from the dead. And the key to all of salvation is now, not that you should be a good person and refrain from doing bad, no, now God no longer gives a shit if your bad or good, he's not even keeping a list or checking it twice any more, now all you have to do is to believe this cockamamie story. No matter how hard it might be for you to believe this shit, that's what you must do to be saved. If not, oh yea, did I mention hell? A pit of everlasting fire? Torture for all of eternity? but God is love, right? So many contradictions!!! Just believe, nigga. That's all you have to do. Just click your heels 3 times and say I think I can, I think I can. Just believe, that's it. That's it? but that's really hard for some of us to do, some of us have rational brains, brains supposedly given to us by God and when we use that brain we come to the conclusion that this whole story is some crazy ass twisted bullshit, but if you don't believe it, to hell with you, literally.

So the church springs up after Jesus goes back to heaven and the church's job is to torture and kill anyone who doesn't believe, so they can go to hell faster, I guess, so they can't warp other people's minds and make them do crazy shit, like actually think for themselves and shit. Hey, God kills people, sends them to hell, so of course that is the purpose of the church right? Many crusades were fought, in which millions of innocent men women and children were all murdered, all because they believed a different bullshit story. Then came the inquisition, people were starting to get minds of their own, but the church still had control over everything, and they couldn't have people thinking for themselves, the Church had gotten rich off the backs of these people, what would happen to their riches if all these people left the church? It would be chaos, something must be done and it was. the Inquisition in which new and splendid methods of torture were invented by the Church all to get people to admit that they were not believing all this crazy ass bullshit, once they admitted to it, if they were not dead yet, then they were burned at the stake. They actually burned millions and millions of innocent women at the stake, accusing them of being witches. do you believe in witches? Well the church sure did.

then the age of enlightenment comes upon the world, the age of science and people questioning dumb ass beliefs, finally the church had no sway over people and were not killing people any more for believing different bullshit stories or no story at all. People started to get educated, started reading books other than the bible, books that had been banned by the church. People were getting wise to the game, many became Atheists, others still believed in God just not in any organized religions.