There are many ways, my friends, but there is
only one verity and verity knows not of belief,
regardless of the path you choose. What path
is the path to verity as an absolute, not as a
subjective belief or faith thing? The only path
to verity as an absolute is a path of search,
not a path of '[insert favorite imaginary being
here] did it, all bets are off'.

Verity, god or no god, is anywhere but the
middle.

Humans created 'em, made 'em up, -or- they
exist and humans witnessed 'em -or- they exist,
humans made 'em up, and the human made-up
stuff, some of it, maybe, mates to verity through
sheer coincidence or god contact, kind of sort
of (let's not have faith in all the god-killing
stuff, OK?).

If you play around in the middle and try to
leave everyone to a god or no god, let's not
ponder it position, when you think about it
carefully, when you realize the middle is not
verity, if you respect verity, you must decide,
left or right, up or down, god or no god ...
for there is no verity in the middle, my friends,
there's simply feigned support for a middle
which cannot, in fact, exist as a location mating
to reality.

Now, many agnostics and Christian doubters
claim to be in the middle and they're a lot more
likely to be able to hang there than someone who
unequivocally believes in God, but the problem
in that middle ground is that God either is or isn't
and the middle ain't verity. It may be comfy, but
it ain't verity.

Allah, Zeus, Odin, Shiva, Fud, Horus, Dionysus,
Osirus, Hercules, the little invisible pink furry
friend, the christian god and all other imaginary
beings either exist (each one, you decide pertaining
to each) or don't exist. If one, why one over the
others? If the god of your culture, why not the
godlike super being(s) of other cultures? Where's
the verity in the imaginary being crowd?

Where's the search for verity in the imaginary
being crowd? Nowhere to be found, at least not
amongst folks who cling to the imaginary being
which almost always matches the imaginary being
of the country or culture or family or friends
of the person following an imaginary being. In
other words, someone reading the quran they
spotted on a web site, converting to Islam,
hanging with the same christian friends or
christian family or Mormon friends or culture
they were raised in ... extremely rare - why?

'Cause faiths don't exist as verity, they exist
as social/cultural/family vehicles of delusion/
cohesion/conformance/adherence to authority
and dictates of behavior/custom/support, with
verity treated as a manipulatable object of
faith, not as an absolute apart from faith.

Pretend and make believe and 'follow the leader'
are at play there, not doubt and investigation and
research and open minded search for verity
wherever it may lead (well, folks going down
that path more often than not become disbelievers
or agnostics or 'closet disbelievers' who may
pretend to be 'of faith' for reasons iterated
above).

- - -

Where was the 'to be' christian God 4,100 years
ago? Not yet invented by humans or just biding
his time whilst humans all over the planet were
having one helluva time spinning up gods of
every flavor you can imagine. Funny how the
christian God 'to be' that finally popped out
looks so similar to the other gods of the fertile
crescent area, with hate, killing, slaughter,
worship, sacrifice, death for innumerable
behaviors being the modus operandi of the
day.

Seems all so 'human-created', doesn't it?

Thousands of years later ... Catholicism arrives ...

With some good ol' son of god myths, resurrection
myths, and all sorts of other myths based, once
again, on the myths circulating through the area
in which the human writers of the myths existed
(my, that christian bible sure is full of the
*appearance* of human construction free of
super beings, isn't it?) ...

Speaking of myths, this being a really scary one ...

Catholics have been hell-prone since the start
of their faith. Not too long ago, the pope says
hell isn't a place, basically rejecting close
to 1700 years of Catholic dogma, kind of sort
of maybe. My friends, it's all 'make believe',
it's whatever humans want to say it is and you
know it's as easily used for anti-humanism as
it is for pro-humanism.

Reference:
  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/
documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_28071999_en.html

The middle while the inquisitors are doing their
busy work? No.

The middle while Jim Jones poisons his parishioners?
No.

The middle while children are threatened with hell
and damnation? No.

}}} aside - a lot of anti-humanism occurs free
of faith, of course - not blind to it, am I, but of
note, keep in mind the preponderance of blind
faith in the cultures of the past and the difficulty
in disassociating anti-human acts from the
followers of faith - it's simply a matter of fact,
while faith isn't causal in most death, it's also
a poor modality for preventing harm to human-
kind, especially at times when church-state
entities existed during the middle ages {{{

I understand the efforts of those who try to play
the God card as co-equal to the no god card, with
verity a lesser concern than 'whatever' being the
pragmatic approach to the wide array of views on
the topic and the impossibility of faith-followers
to make a strong case for one super-being over
another (or for any super-being, as far as that
goes).

However, the no god card is quite a horse of a
different color, as it were, dealing with a natural
world in a natural way, with the only decision
left being how we, humans, want to live out our
lives.

Most agree we want to live in peace and love
and harmony.

Opinions vary widely regarding open-minded
search for verity as a preeminent and desired
activity for humankind to be involved in.

Opinions vary widely on matters of faith and
how to deal with the incredible momentum of
the myth machines that have built up over the
last 4,000 years of human history.

Silence won't do anything as far as that momentum.
The only way to slow that baby down is to speak
up, in my view.

Humankind will never be free until we're free of
the delusion of faith in non-existent things. It's
as simple as that. Fantasies can be fun. Treating
fantasies as realities, that's extremely dangerous,
and that, my friends, is exactly what persons of
faith are into.

We have a choice. Christians have chosen slavery
to a God, dismissing whatever downsides that
entails, and pretending that the God Christians
follow is a God of love.

I've chosen search for verity, a verity which inspires
humankind to reach for the best we can be in a
natural world. I'm pro-human, pro-love, and
pro-freedom with a grounding in FREELOVER
principles listed, in my sig.

Why fight the feeling of oneness with a natural
world?

Why not let go, let your natural god-free self flow
from your inner being. Let the essence of all you
can be, in a natural god-free world of wonder,
come forth and surround us with inner love for
your fellow beings (and no, don't touch those
guilt-trips whereby you've been brainwashed into
believing god denial is sin; deny god and you'll
become evil? heck, that's a self-fulfilling anti-human
dogma if I've ever heard one) ...

-or not- ... just a pitch for freedom from faith,
there, but I'm fully aware most Christians hold
tightly to that Christian God as if their very lives
depended on it, with verity of much less interest
than that promised ticket to immortality that
Christians have been brainwashed into believing
is theirs ONLY if they follow the christian god
(with fear of hell also at play, there).

Peace and ponder the promise of freedom from
faith inspired hate, freedom from myth/belief
taught as reality, and freedom from faith taught
as desirable when, in fact, it's purely human-
created material, socially/culturally reinforced,
perpetuated in large part by brainwashing of
innocent children.

For an understanding of the way many feel
regarding a god faith pushed at them from birth,
a god they discovered doesn't exist, check out
the following. This, of course, doesn't apply to
me, well, OK, to be honest, I have felt this way
at times, but I'm over it now, mostly,

<HELL>,

perhaps

<BURN DIE FOREVER>,

no impact on me, that

<LOVE SILENCE DEATH TORMENT THE
SILENCE THE EMPTINESS THE VOID
THE THREATS THE DELUSION THE
PRETENTIOUSNESS THE LIES>

god trip from birth, well OK, I can relate to
those who aren't one with the god thing ...

<FLASHBACKS ... fade to black>

... try to empathize with innocent children
and the potential damage faith can cause ...
  http://prohuman.net/social_legal/no_to_faith.htm

But, I'm over that now, I'm one with the mundane
world of "let's all pretend - pretentiousness is
in, baby" ... well, not really one with it, more
like being forced to deal with it, searching for
a much better way, a more pro-human way for
us to live out our one and only *sure* shot at
life.

- - -

On a lighter note, a view of how some children
deal with the faith thing ...

"Losing My Religion"
http://www.suck.com/daily/99/06/30/ [link no longer active]