I'm a believer.
I'm a believer. Yes, that's right. You heard me. I'm a believer in science. WAIT! Don't go! Hear what I have to say!
Please! I'm a believer in science, because I honestly don't understand it. I am ignorant. I admit it. I didn't put in
enough effort in high school, and after receiving a middling education, with apathetic teachers, in a ridiculously elitist
school, where rich kids were cool and I was not, I simply couldn't be bothered to apply myself. That changed later in life.
First i became a reborn christian. That's right. I have no shame. I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I even tried to
convince my friends. The point I am making though, is that I was a believer because I didn't have the mental maturity yet
to admit that I hadn't made the effort to try and understand the world around me. And yet, now as a middle aged man, I find myself again becoming a believer. Why you may ask?(understandably so, once bitten, twice shy - you know what I mean)
Well, the answer is simple: after researching the pros and cons, the for and against, and reading, reading and more
reading, I finally understood that the entire sum of science is too great for any one human to understand. This is surely
self-evident to even the most hardcore quantum physicist. Now I consider myself a reasonable human being, as most of us do,
but it is surely obvious to most of you by now that I don't fully understand science. Therefore, I am a believer in
science. I have put my trust and faith in something I cannot truly ever grasp. That requires an act of will based on very
little evidence (in this case the evidence being my limited understanding of science. Truly, it is limited. I had to re-
teach myself calculus before I could start to understand physics, which honestly I still don't understand.) Surely there
can be no better definition of the word faith?
So, yes. I put my faith in science. After all, at least science can be proven. I was a christian, but after living in other
areas of the world I finally understand where christianity falls short. There are just too many different ways to interpret
the same message. Now, any good christian will tell you: You can't pick and choose what you believe. Either you believe all
of the bible, or you believe none of it. And that's the crux right there, isn't it? Do you really believe that Jesus walked
on water? Well, I'm sorry if this offends you, but I can't. Because you see, that is just not possible. Do you really
believe that all of those millions of people who existed before Jesus was born, and never heard of the god of Abraham went
to hell? Simply for being in the wrong place or time? What kind of loving God would do that? Also, after excruciatingly
boring reading I discovered several other clues that the bible is just the biggest hoax of all time. Key examples that
spring to mind being that, for example the bible gives Heaven physical dimensions and describes the general area of heaven
in detail, giving height, width and length notations, which would put the general area of heaven as several thousand
hectares. If all the people who died and went to heaven that are mentioned in the bible were put in that same area there
wouldn't be much elbow room. This is just one example.
Now just a small request. Can we please have less of the religious versus atheist blog wars on news24? Honestly, i don't
live in South africa and when I want to read about my country I am ashamed to see how many intolerant, bigotted, tiny-
minded, ignorant and belligerent pseudo-intellectuals my country has produced. I am not talking about religious people
alone. I have seen just as much hatred-filled poisonous vitriol spewed from the mouths of the so-called "free-thinkers" as
I have from the religious fanatics. This being said, perhaps the religious minority might want to consider why it is that
they are so unpopular amongst the more academically-minded (given that being academically-minded people are more likely to
read books that disagree with theism, or in fact any book which might actually teach them something other than THE book).
More often than not it is because the people who refuse to give in to peer pressure and conform to some religious "ideal"
or "social norm" are usually villified by the same people who claim to support love-thy-neighbour (unless they are gay, or
buddhist, or atheist). When I go on news24 the most read section is usually filled with evolution denials, or rants. Come
on people! Evolution does not disprove the existence of God (although it makes a pretty good case against the god of the
bible)! Neither does the refusal to believe without evidence make someone less than you. Rather, it shows that they are
sane human beings with a functional sense of reason and logic, and a skeptical approach, which is the base attitude
required for all scientific knowledge! It is healthy and totally, unquestionably the only way for human beings to live!
Anything else is species suicide! If you believe that God is all powerful you must also believe that the world will end in
armageddon. This is what is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe it to be true, you force it to occur, since
you believe it is inevitable, which makes it inevitable barring some kind of alien intervention, which seems unlikely (and
the true believers would immediately claim that any alien must be a demon, since God "apparently" made man in his own
image).
I, for one, do not wish for the species to kill itself, which, as I mentioned before is the only logical outcome of
organised religion. I would like us to proliferate and leave this planet and spread our lives amongst the other planets out
there. Imagine that all people might choose which planet or society they might live in. That would be real freedom, instead
of fighting over a rock in Meccah. So lets not kill ourselves. A good way to start might be to get rid of the greatest
evils we have perpetrated upon ourselves such as Nationalism, Religion, Cultural division and Bigotry. There is not a
single human being alive that you are not related to (This is genetically verifiable, so I am told). let us not focus on
what divides us, but rather on what brings us together as people. This is where and when we decide if the legacy of
apartheid haunts us forever, or if we can forgive, and decide to live together. With the current rate of our scientific
developement we could eradicate poverty and hunger within a generation. With those major problems out of the way we can
focus on ending disease and providing quality education. These are not tree-hugging hippy ideals. They are solid facts,
that you can research for yourself. I know, because I did (despite my lumpy education). The first step is to tear down all
governments and replace them with automated systems that work. This is only going to be achieved with science and no
religion has ever tried to even offer these as worthy goals. Unfortunately with all of these special interest groups trying
to divide us, we cannot unite to truly free ourselves. As long as you see "them" and "us" there can never be true unity.
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