Christianity, Common Sense & The Escape Hatch
(Editorial Comment from the American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 04/16/10)
Christians of all stripes embrace faith as if it were a panacea, a common sense patch for the gaping holes in their dogma, a common sense screening through the dense dirt of contradictions and garbage that their bible dishes out. They use their common sense to fill in life’s gaps with the skydaddy and skybaby. What science has yet to discover and explain, the christian simply concludes by cherry picking passages from their drogue of biblical dung, connecting the dots to create an ink blot sketch that most closely mirrors their mind’s eye common sense solution. Simply put, “God did it” and that’s it. A God of the gaps. No matter the subject, the use of common sense, of faith (the two being interchangeable) is the crumbling foundation of their rhetoric and is easily undermined.
The building blocks of the universe have always existed. While this may be difficult to understand, consider that every molecule that makes up everything has, and always will, exist. As human beings, we assign a timescale to everything based upon our short lifespan. Most people have difficulty digesting time outside of our extremely brief existence. So to most, all material things appear to have a beginning and an end. But, what folks fail to realize is that these material things didn’t just appear out of nothing. The raw materials had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is from what Carl Sagan called “star stuff”. And, indeed, the car you drive, the food you eat, the water you drink, even you… all of it comes from “star stuff”, and this “star stuff” has been around for infinity.
But, most people can’t wrap their heads around the idea that everything comes from “star stuff”, and that the universe has always existed in some form or another for infinity. They can’t grasp the idea that everything will always exist, their common sense tied inextricably to their own timescale where it refuses to release their mind. It is here, amidst the self-imposed timed confines and restrictions of the illogical mind, that the christian religion imposes limits on time and space, reason and logic, and where it does its most heinous work.
I want to talk about infinity. There are many concepts of infinity, depending on which field of science or mathematics one chooses to explore. But, infinity is simple to explain on the surface and difficult to grasp. Simply put, infinity is no beginning and no end. Picture a line stretching beyond limits in any direction, never broken. Or, a circle, no beginning nor end. Pretty simple to understand on the surface. But it is here, on the surface, where the common sense of christianity, and religion in general, fail in their claims of a god. Imagine a line, an infinite line. Now, place a point anywhere along that line and call it the starting point of everything. Is the line still infinite? No. Everything that came before the point you just called the beginning, the start of everything, vanishes. It’s gone. In one fell swoop, you have managed to figuratively destroy the scientific concepts of infinity. So much for all the science and math that has so eloquently provided you with all the luxuries of life. They no longer exist in their current form because you have disposed of infinity. Don’t believe me? Use your computer and go to Wikipedia. Look up infinity. Read the section on computing. The fact is that without the mathematical concept of infinity, I wouldn’t be broadcasting, you wouldn’t be listening, and wiki wouldn’t be there for you to look up infinity.
Now, here’s the rub for all of this. When anyone posits a skydaddy as the beginning of everything, two things quickly become apparent. The first is that concept of infinity is destroyed. The second is that some very logical questions must be asked. If there must be a beginning and an end to everything, and a skydaddy created everything, then what created the skydaddy? We have a real dilemma here don’t we? Actually, logical, reasoned people don’t have a dilemma, religious folks do. But, they won’t go there. They won’t go there because they can’t. There are too many logical answers to these questions and the religious don’t want to think about them. They want to dive headlong into the dark, dank chasm of faith/common sense. Well… uh… uh… uh…? Welcome to the escape hatch. Welcome to the worthless den of faith / common sense.
Sometimes common sense is a good thing. Obviously common sense tells you to look both ways before crossing the street. And sure, it would be a good idea to ask questions before you jump to conclusions. Indeed, common sense does have its place in our lives. But, where it fails us is when it is applied in absence of facts and evidence. Science doesn’t give a rats ass about common sense. And, it will quickly dispose of any common sense conclusion that doesn’t stand up to the rigors of the scientific method. This is where faith/common sense woefully drops the ball. Consider this…
Common sense might tell you that a new car is manufactured by a car company. But,the new car that sits on a dealership lot wasn’t manufactured by a car company. It was assembled from “star stuff”! The car company took existing materials, materials that have been around forever (literally) and human beings synthesized them, rolled them, stamped them, molded them, modified them… all to produce a product that is truly as old as infinity. The car really isn’t new. In fact, the molecules that make up the universe (and everything beyond most likely) have been shaped and reshaped for infinity by the forces of nature. One cannot arrive at this sound and logical conclusion using the escape hatch of faith/common sense. And, it is faith/ common sense, that leads to extremely poor assumptions, conclusions that fail science, logic and reason. Still don’t believe me?
Imagine a loaded rifle and a sixteen pound bowling ball. The rifle is in one hand and the bowling ball in the other. Both are being held at the same height above the ground. The rifle is pointed down range, perfectly level with the flat open plain over which you are about to conduct this experiment. You take careful aim, finger on the trigger, ready to fire. Now, at the exact same moment you pull the trigger, you drop the bowling ball straight down. Which hits the ground first? The bowling ball or the rifle bullet? Your common sense might tell you that the bowling ball hits the ground first. If it did, then you are wrong. If your common sense told you that the bullet hit the ground first, you were wrong as well. The fact is that the bowling ball and the rifle bullet will hit the ground at the same time. It’s called physics, the laws of gravity. An object moving sideways or parallel to the Earth’s surface will fall at the same rate as one that is simply dropped. The equation for the distance the object travels before it hits the ground can be derived from the gravity equations for falling objects. An exception is if the object moves so fast or far that the curvature of the Earth comes into play during its fall to the ground. Cool huh? But, then again, if you’re a christian, you’d much rather trust your faith/common sense, over science. And no matter what evidence is brought to the table, your escape hatch, faith/common sense is close by.
“But RJ! God is supernatural!” Really? Well then, that makes your skydaddy unknowable does it not, outside the realm of human understanding right? But, wait a goddamn second! Don’t you claim to have a personal relationship with this entity? So, apparently you know the unknowable, and give it knowable human traits such as jealousy, vengeance, anger, love? Sounds pretty damn suspicious to me! But, then again, could it be that it is man who created the unknowable/knowable skydaddy thousands of years ago because man simply didn’t know or understand much about anything around him? Could it be that science, logic and reason have slowly revealed the unknowable as knowable over time and therefore have relegated any idea of the supernatural to the trash heap of human ignorance? “But RJ! God is infinite!” So, you’re stating that the skyking is infinite after claiming everything must have a beginning and an end? Let’s see… posit a point on the line of infinity, destroy the concept of infinity, and then claim infinity? How bold! Claim to know the unknowable and assign human knowable attributes to back it up, then, backhandedly dispose of the concept of infinity and then claim that the skydaddy is infinite? Excuse me while I shit my pants in gut wrenching laughter! Oh, that’s right… It’s the escape hatch. It’s called faith/common sense… a handy little “Get out of logic’s jail free” card. But, of course, that is the only way religion survives. And, this putrid excuse presents enlightened individuals with a way to easily undermine the mass delusion of religion. Logic, reason and science. They do not give pass to faith/common sense.
In the end, the only thing that stands between the progress of the human experience and the static tyranny of religious dominion is faith/common sense. It is self-induced blindness at the expense of human suffering, bigotry and hate. It is the escape hatch from reality when reality comes crashing through the door. And it’s all because of the archaic notion, born of ancient ignorant minds and nurtured by fear, that a skydaddy is responsible for everything. And, it is ultimately blind acceptance and tolerance of the escape hatch that threatens the very fabric of freedom, liberty, progress and enlightenment.
