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This website has been founded on
Saturday, March 7, 2015. Last update: Monday, October 2, 2016 If you are a reasonist you are kindly invited to send your copy for this website to: reasonist@GodReason.com Visit also: 'kreatikon 2021' comments on my website https://www.kreatikon.nl/ |
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www.GodReason.com You got reason You got the power of the mind to think, understand, and form opinions and judgements logically. Summarized: |
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In the 21-th century, we are living in, the progresses of science are
accelerating. We have deep knowledge of how things in nature functions. Today we are living a
complete other world as during those centuries when the first words of
the first versions of the old testament were written. |
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This insight is bringing us the
very important question: Is there any reason to assume that any god exists? |
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From the thousands of gods in history only a few hundred (even more?) are left
today. When this is really true the next questions are arising
immediately: The aim of this website is to help you, whatever religion
you have, to think with reason about the world where you are living in. Let's start with some questions to
stimulate your sense
of reason. |
| New text / Will be translated soon
Een mens. Bij
de geboorte een totaal hulpeloos wezen. Zonder enige ervaring of kennis.
Verstaat de woorden van de mensen om hem of haar heen niet en heeft geen enkel
besef van de omgeving en de gebruiken en de wereldvisie van deze mensen. De
hersenen van dit kind zijn nog compleet maagdelijk. Voor deze net geboren baby
zou het niet uitmaken waar ook ter wereld hij zou opgroeien. Een kind dat
bijvoorbeeld zojuist in Mekka geboren is zou ook naar pleegouders in Tel Aviv of naar Rome overgebracht kunnen
worden. De consequentie zou kunnen zijn dat het kind in plaats van een islamitische
opvoeding een joodse of katholieke opvoeding zou krijgen. De omgeving bepaalt
dus in hoge mate de ontwikkeling van het kind. Het belangrijkste streven van de
opvoeding is dat het als kind en later als volwassen mens gelukkig is in zijn
omgeving. De opgroeiende mens ontwikkelt al vroeg in zijn leven een ik-gevoel.
Vaak zal een persoon zich op een wat hogere leeftijd kunnen gaan afvragen hoe
deze ik-beleving ontstaan is. Hij / zij kan zich gaan afvragen waarom 'ik' me
in mijn lichaam bevind. Hij vraagt zich af of deze ik-beleving eenmalig is of
dat hij al eens een ander leven in een ander lichaam gehad zou kunnen hebben.
Verder vraagt hij zich af of het eeuwige leven bestaat. Leef je op een of
andere manier door na je overlijden? Men
zou zich kunnen afvragen in hoeverre een mens verschilt van andere wezens op
deze aarde. Omdat mensenbaby's net als baby's van apen, honden, paarden, katten
en alle andere zoogdieren door hun
moeder met melk uit de borsten kunnen worden gevoed, is het logisch aan te
nemen dat de mens slechts weinig anders is dan de genoemde dieren. Veel mensen
hebben een hond of kat als huisdier en weten uit ervaring dat hun geliefde
huisdier ook iets als een persoonlijkheid heeft. Toch weten we of vinden het
logisch dat deze dieren na hun dood niet in een ander lichaam zullen terugkeren
of in hemel of hel zullen komen. Mensen die er langer intensief over nadenken
kunnen tot de conclusie komen dat de mens gewoon een diersoort is. Verder zou
daaruit geconcludeerd kunnen worden dat het lichaam dat je nu hebt bepaalt dat
je leeft en je daardoor een ik-gevoel hebt kunnen ontwikkelen. Als laatste
redenering kun je dan kunnen concluderen dat met jouw sterven ook het 'ik'
definitief zal verdwijnen. Het lijkt na verder redenen logisch dat dit leven jouw
enige zal zijn. Dus . . . geniet van het leven en probeer een steentje bij te
dragen aan een blijere mensheid. |
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Here are the questions: |
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Why do
you think that your God is the only real god? - Try to imagine that you were born in an other part of the world. Would you worship the same God? |
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Do you believe that the God of Islam (Allah), the God of the Christians and the God of the Jews (Adonai) are different Gods? You maybe believe that at least two of these gods are fake. - Please have a look at the fact that the holy books of Islam, Christianity and Jewish faith refer to the same prophets. Could it be that Allah, God and Adonai are all the same? |
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What is the reason that you believe in your god? |
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You certainly know that there were hundreds
to maybe thousands of Gods in history. What do you think what the origin of all
these Gods could be? - Think of people who lived two- to four-thousand years ago. Those humans had no knowledge of physics, biology and so on. How do you think they explained phenomenons like lightning, storm, flooding of land, fires, erupting volcano's etc. |
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According the holy books our Earth, the
Sun, the Moon and all the Stars are created by God some 6 to 7 Thousand years
ago. You possibly heared about the very large distances between the billions of stars in the billions of galaxies. The distances between galaxies are even a million times more. In a cloudless night and away from city lights we can see stars which light travelled for millions of years before it hits the light sensitive cells on the retina of your observing eye. -Try to think about what you would see when those stars were created as claimed by the holy books some 7000 years ago. Would you see those far distance stars? |
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During the last 2000 years the number of
gods has been reduced dramatically. People do not longer have separate gods to
help in case of thunderstorms, floodings by the sea or heavy rains, to help to have a good
harvest, to help in wars, etc. |
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If you are a christian you will probably worship Jesus and God.
Your church is teaching that if you accept Jesus as your saviour, then the
original sin will be taken away and your personal commited sins will be
forgiven. Then, when you are lucky you will earn eternal live in heaven.
If you do not accept Jesus you will have to suffer forever in hell. |
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Imagine that you reach an age of
65 years and you
unfortunately got the Alzheimer disease. First you are not able to recognise
your friends, than your children and at last you do not know anything about the
god you worshipped whole your life.
Some years later your day of
dieing comes. - Would you be afraid in this moment (because you don’t think about heaven or hell)? |
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certainly heard about the by Charles Darwin formulated 'scientific
theory of evolution by natural selection', developed in the
mid 19th century. He found out that each animal on earth is what it is,
because of the fact that it has parents which both survived the harsh
environment they were living in. This child animal will have slight
other properties as his/her parents have. When those new properties are
giving the child animal better chances to survive, it will be very
likely that this animal will mate with another animal to reproduce. A
new born animal that has got slightly worse properties has less chance
to live long and reproduce. The oldest found bones of human remainings
are 2,8 million years old (pre-human standing species are even more
than 3,5 million years old). When we assume that in average every
twenty year children are grown to adults and are getting children
themselves, then there have been 2.800.000 / 20 = 140.000 human generations before we were born!
So since that time the human race has been improved about 140.000 times. From
generation to generation the intelligence level (and the mass of the human
brain) increased. Only since the last 50 to 100 years most of the children in
the western world are educated in general. The well-being of the
people increased extraordinary through science and industrialisation. - What is to your opinion the most probable age of the universe? The by scientists measured value of about 14 billion years or the about 7000 years derived by the told stories in the available holy books? |
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| It is since many years normal that new
developed medicines are tested on animals like mice, rats, pigs and for instance
dogs. This is done to reduce the risk of getting unwanted side-effects when used on people. - Isn't it strange that medicines for human beings are tested on animals? Please think about the difference between animals and humans. ( . . . are people also 'just' animals after all? . . . ) |
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66 million years ago the dinosaurs were extinct by the
impact of an astroid near Mexico. So there is a time gap of about 62 to 63 millions
years between the last dinosaurs and the first human beings. - The holy books (Qur'an, Torah and Bible) are all reporting that on Noah's ark were also dinosaurs. Just think about it for a moment. |
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The holy books are reporting that god
created the whole universe including the sun, the moon, earth, the animals and
at last the human couple Adam and Eve. And that in only six days! - How could god manage it to create the stars? It takes 4 years travelling with the speed of light to reach the nearest star (Alpha Centauri). The others takes more than 1000 years up to more than a billion years (with the speed of light) to start the construction of the planets around all those stars. |
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When you believe in god, at least one
person must have told you about him. You were probably informed about him by
many people in school, church and from friend and family. They told you to have
faith in your god. You were also expected not to ask questions. You should
unconditionally believe. - Did those people also tell you that there are people you will meet during your life who wants to try to stop you believing in god? And that you in that case should not listen to those people and stay with your faith? Do you think that this instruction not to listen and thinking about arguments against faith is reasonable? |
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Are you religious because of free will?
Are you living in a country were it is easy to change to another religion? There are some countries like the Netherlands where it relatively easy to leave any church just writing one or two letters to end your registration. - Please think about the many countries in the world where you even could be sentenced to death when you openly testify that you don't ( anymore ) believe in the exisistance of God, Adonai, Allah or any divine ruler of the earth and the universe. Do you agree or do you think that it is reasonable that your religious leaders are allowed to punish you for this reason? |
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You know about the thousands of gods
which were worshipped by people since centuries. Of course you don't believe in the existance of 99,95% those gods. - Assume that you instead of not believing in 2500 gods use reason and decide not to believe in 2501 gods. This little step could transform you from a worshipping person into an atheist. Would it not be great to be sure that you don't have to be afraid of going to hell (or heaven). Just die when your time has come and than be away forever (like animals do). |
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What god(s) can do is really unbelievable. You were probably told more than once that god observes you all the time. It is claimed that god can even hear what you are thinking. You could even be punished very badly when you even think for instance of adultry. When you are praying, it really feels that god is hearing you. By praying you ask god to help you in difficult times, to help sick people to become healthy again, or just because you have wishes that you would like to come true. - Imagine that you are a father/mother of three children. All three are coming to you and all are asking you different things simultaniously. You probably will not manage it to follow more than one child at the same time. Then imagine you are in a big stadium in a city in your neighbourhood. 25.000 people in that stadium think that you are some kind of super-human who is able to fulfill any wish they have. They are told to pray loud and you will answer their prayers. Please think of the claims that religious leaders/organisations/priests assign to god. They claim all the things you are told so often during your life until now. Can you reasonably agree that god can communicate simultaniously with millions of faithfull people all over the globe; and also simultaniously checking the behaviour of billions of people so that he can judge them in the end? You also know about the vast dimensions of the universe where your god has to rule in the same manner as on earth. Does any god wants to manage the supervision of the human(like) behaviour of billions as is claimed by the holy books and the religious leaders now and in the past? Could it be that your brain gives you the impression that, while you are praying, you are in contact with god, but that after all you are just talking with yourself? |
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| Unless you are a religious
extremist you do not live according the laws of your holy book. In that case you are a moderate religious person. The holy books are filled with instructions that could not be accepted by the majority of todays (faithful) population. Moderate believers are very selective in what to do or not to do from what the holy book dictates. You as a moderate (if you are) would certainly not think of killing other human beings because they belong to another stream of religion. Extremists however, which have the same religion as you, believe every written word in their/your holy book. - Would you want to stay a member of an organisation where you as a silent moderate religious person tolerate that fellow members are planning to do extremely bad things to other human beings? Are you happy with a 'holy' book that gives rise to hate other fellow people? |
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| Religious movements give rise to
a 'we and they' attitude of their believers. 'We' are told that 'They' don't believe in the only real god, or 'They' don't worship god as they should. 'They' will never earn heaven as 'We' probably will. All people (and also all animals) on earth are the result of the same processes that made life as it is now. Humans wish to live in peace and to be able to raise their children in a peacefull world. - Could you agree with the reasoning that generally spoken religions are separating people? |
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| You probably know that god JHWH lead
a small group of people (Shasu nomads) to the land of Israel. It took a very long time with harsh situations and wars. The Shasu chose JHWH as their god. The told everybody they met about their god. - Don't you wonder why god JHWH (the god of the major religions) started his 'career' so humbly? Would you not expect that JHWH (with all his claimed powers) should have acted more prominent? |
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| When you are a religious believer,
than you will probably not believe that the animals and humans evaluated from
tiny sea creatures in billions of years to the species those are today. In that case you believe that god created all some 7000 years ago. You probably are told and being convinced that nature is so wonderfull that it could not have been developed by itself. So there MUST be a divine creator which designed nature and the whole universe as it is how we observe it today. - Please take some time to think how the god you worship could come into existance? Assume that it really happened that god came by some magic phenomenon in space (and time before the existance off the universe) to existance. From the holy books we know that his body must be somehow equal to the humans who would be created some 14 billion years later (if you believe in some cosmic happening that started the universe). The big question however is how god became all his divine powers which he used according to the holy books? Who were his creators? Had he a father and mother; or was the something else to start the existance of god? Why did he wait billions of years before he created the earth, the moon, the stars the animals and finally just two people according to the claims of the holy book? |
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| When you have studied your holy
book(s) then you almost certainly heard or read Exodus 19: 16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. - Can you imagine that scientists found out that this story happened around the year 1300 B.C.; that Mount Sinai was not a mountain but in reality a volcano that erupted in those biblical times; that the people at the foot of this volcano were Shasu cattle nomads which were very frightened when they observed the smoke and the fire coming from the 'mountain', the very loud noises coming from the trembling volcano. Can you also imagine that these Shasu nomads, which were worshipping JHWH the god of Abraham and knowing nothing about volcanos, thought that they were seeing JHWH himself decending in fire on the 'mountain'. Could you conclude that this superstition of the Shasu nomads implies that god JHWH, were you are maybe believing in, is in fact a volcano? |
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| When you or someone you love is very
sick or has been very unlucky, you will probably pray to your god and ask him in
your thoughts to help you or him/her. Many people of all times wondered how much effect praying has. Many people know by experience that is seems that some prayers had positive effects. Research projects have shown that no positive or negative effects can be observed. It shows that people which are ill and which are knowing that people are praying for them will not recover as frequently as people which do not know about the prayers for them. (Google e.g. The_STEP_project). - Do you when you are praying have the feeling that you are silently speaking words and experiencing a strong hope? Please try to observe your thoughts when you are praying the next time. Could it be that praying is not much more than talking to yourself and hoping that you or the beloved person you pray for will recover or find happiness soon? Aren't you just wasting time during praying? Wouldn't it be better to act physically (by going to that person; talking to her/him; doing a financial gift; helping a person; etc)? |
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Since biblical times JHWH has been chosen by several kings
as the compulsory god (it was not allowed to worship any other god). Known examples are David and Josiah. Governments have, from those days until today, favoured state-religions that are preaching that believers (born with the original sin) will be rewarded with eternal live in heaven and that non-believers will have to suffer forever in hell. - Can you imagine that governments like the situation that (in general poor) people are fearing death and that they want to earn a better life in heaven? Is it logical that these god-fearing people won't try to rebel against the bad situation he/she is living in? Can you realize that governments, the rich business and upper-class people, political and religious leaders, want to maintain this situation to retain power over the people and (+/-80%) of the money? Do you think it is logical that governments in the United States and Europe are pumping billions of Dollars and Euros in church organisations? Could you agree that freedom of religion also keeps god-fearing people from using reason in explaining the world as it is now? Please understand that this website DOES NOT want you to rebel against your government. The aim is to help you to understand the world you are living in by using reason. |
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As you know are different religions arguing about which
religion is the real one. - Do you think that the people on earth will ever honestly and without mental pressure agree on which religion is the real one? |
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The Shasu nomads chose JHWH (and later David) as their
only god (from maybe hundreds they had to choose from). - Don't you think that it is very strange to be able to choose a god only based on the name (not a face) of a god other people told about? Or have many people chosen JHWH because of the powers those other people told about? Was it because JHWH descended in fire and smoke on Sinai mountain? Or was it just because they were born as son or daughter of nomad parents? |
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As you know are all religions telling about many prophets that have lived.
Many of them are mentioned and accepted in all three major religions. - Do you think that the revelations these prophets had are all from the same god (remember there were thousands)? |
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| One day you will finally die. - You expect to live after death (in heaven)? Would it make a difference where you were born (what has probably detemined the religion you have)? Wouldn't it be logical and righteous that all living beings (also human beings) die with their body losing it functions (and also the electro-chemical information that was stored in your brain that determined your 'I'-sensation and all your knowledge, experiences and feelings of love, hate or faith)? |
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| Religious parents are teaching
their very young children about the god they are believing in. Young children are very curious about things happening around them. They want to know from you or their parents why things are as they are. Children want logical answers, so they can understand or at least feel that it is a honest answer. They like answers that are giving challenges for the brain. - Do you think that children are happy with answers like: 'God did that / It is the work of God'. Is it fair to children to give answers that cannot be proved? Would it give a you a good feeling when you are giving explainations acting in a way that it seems that you know everything about the subject; but in fact you do not know about at all? Would you in fact telling lies to the curious child? |
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| You probably know that
many opponents, including some religious leaders,
believe that stem cell research
raises the same moral issues as abortion. Many religious people think that embryonic cells and unborn children have soules. That's why, in their opinions, stem cell research must not be allowed. You know that stem cell research can lead to new methods to help very sick people to cure their disease (like Alzheimer, heart failure or any other sick organ). One embryonic cell can grow in a laboratory Petri dish. Researchers can split ONE single embryonic into two cells. After a short time each of these cells can be split again in two cells. The number of embryonic cells could therefore be multiplied as follows: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on. - Do you think that the first embryonic cell in this laboratory process has a soul? And do the other embryonic cells also have souls? Imagine that four of these embryonic cells are placed back in the uterus of the woman that delivered the first embryonic cell. This women could give birth after nine months to a quads (four identicle children). The rest of the available embryonic cells could be placed in the uteruses of other women. They all can give birth to children that are all absolutety identical to the quads of the first mother that delivered ONE original embryonic cell. Do you think that humans have souls? |
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You probably know that there is no reasonable evidence
that any god exists. - Think about the idea that that gods only exist in the imagination of people. Wouldn't it be fair to accept the argumentation of other humans that the non-existance of gods can be declared without evidence? |
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| Next topic to come: Why are not scientific cleared questions filled in by: "That
is Gods work" ? Next: Why are pets not going to the heaven (People often love their dog more than any human person.) Next: Are you telling that you know (what you have heard/read from the holy book) even when you don't know at all. Is it honest behavior? Or: Telling things you say you are sure of (without prove) where you in reality don't know about at all. Next: Godfearing people don't want
to hear arguments that could influence their faith. Religion is obviously a
'Conversation stopper' that blocks the brain of a believer to use reason as an
alternative. |
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Believe in the goodness of your fellow humans (and also of animals like your dog, cat, horse or other pets). They all, exactly like you, want to live in peace and happiness with their neighbours! |
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The way to change the world is to change people's minds. As more and more people
openly discuss the fact that "God", "Adonai" and "Allah" are completely
imaginary, the world becomes a better place. The people who believe in
"religion" look sillier and sillier. Eventually, religion becomes a fringe
activity that is meaningless. For further information visit God is imaginary Or visit: Why there is no god |
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| Written by Berno Leerkotte and published by NOTM Web Services, The Netherlands |