Theological Views of a Militant Agnostic

I would like to take a moment and explain in a little more detail my veiws on God and religion. Religion when taken in moderation (much like any poison) can actually be quite healthy. The belief in a all powerful, benevolent being can often be enough to help get many people through points in their lives that might otherwise be too much to bear. But beyond taking religion in moderation, one has to take it in context. The religious scriptures of any religion should be looked at as a means for gaining spiritual insight and clearity; it should never be looked to as a historically accurate textbook on how life and the universe came to be. Adam was not literally made of dust; the entire face of the earth was never actually flooded--wiping out everything that was not on the ark; Jesus was not resurrected three days after dying on the cross. That intelligent men and women throughout history have believed that these events actually occurred is a testement to the power of human stupidity.

Faith makes blessed. Blessedness, however, does not make truth. No matter how intensly you believe in something, or how much it may benefit you to beleive it, there is and can never be any certainty that what you believe is true. This is especialy the case if what you beleive is based on some gut feeling (faith) rather than on emperical evidence. That said, God, if accepted at all, must be accepted on faith. There is a popular argument that God's existence can be proven by the complexity and the appearant design of nature. This argument however has been made obsolete by evolution. Evolution on the other hand proves only that God is not necessary, not that God does not exist. In the end, there is only one honest position concerning the question of God: "I don't know, and you don't either."

Now, with belief in God being based on nothing more than a gut feeling, and what God demands of us being nothing more than a gut feeling about a gut feeling, where does anyone get off trying to force their religion on others. Imposing your views of God on others amounts to religious fanatacism. It doesn't matter if your passing out phamplets about loving your neighbor or blowing up cafes in order to carry out God's commandment of destroying the infedels; trying to make converts (or eradicate those who disagree) is an infringment upon humanity. If you believe in God that is fine, but you have no right to impose that belief on others.

As concerns revelation, my veiws are far simpler than with other aspects of religion. Anybody who tells you they speak to God is either lying or they're schizophrenic.