What If It's Just Not True ?

Ok, so it's angry controversy time.

What if god doesn't exist, and Jesus was just some guy ?

After watching some of the stuff that David Blaine does, turning water into wine or walking on water just doesn't seem that impressive.

But, of course, the real question is: What if, seriously, god just DOESN'T EXIST !!!

Think of the things that have been done due to religious belief--wars, executions, torture, not to mention billions of people that have lived their lives a certain way because they just believed that they were headed somewhere that simply doesn't exist ?

For the most part, the world is the way it is because of belief in one god or another (or different ways of worshipping the same god--but I won't even get started on that one).

I guess that what bothers me the most is that belief in god is legitimized only by the fact that so many people believe (in case you can't tell, I'm not one of them). If a billion people believed in unicorns or dragons does that mean that they must exist ? Of course not. There are plenty of stories written in the past about those creatures.

I just can't wrap my head around that fact that people can still blindly believe in something based on a book written thousands of years ago by PEOPLE--it's not like the Bible descended from the heavens on tablets of some material that to this day can't be identified--it is a collection of stories written by people, the motives of which can never be known. Period.

Many people that believe in god are often the same people who ridicule others for believing in aliens or ESP--uhh...at least those seem possible, however unlikely.

Ok, I'm done offending 80% of the world's population now.

Got to thinking--uh oh...

Well, I was reading a little blurb today talking about the difference between kids growing up today vs in the past--you know, the usual discussion about outdoors and friends vs TV and video games--and something jumped out at me.

The people who are inventing, developing, and advancing all of these wonders of technology ARE the kids who grew up in the old system.

Getting out, being free to make their own mistakes, doing what (and when and where) they wanted likely led to these people being creative, inventive, and well-rounded enough to see the big picture. Now, they are capable of creating things (whether it be a great technological advance, a brilliant movie, or whatever) that, perhaps the next generation will for the most part be incapable of.

Just look at the drivel coming out of the music, film, and TV industry--lacking in imagination, not to mention the missing perfectionism--or perhaps better stated as finesse--that is characteristic of a worldly, well-rounded mind.

With the age of virtual tourism (rather than getting out and experiencing it) and all static nature of life in general for the average person (especially young people), are we headed for a sort of modern-day Dark Ages ?

The Dark Ages were characterized by lack of artistic and imaginative activity--sure, there were still advancements, but mostly they were advancements in areas like military technology--very little original thought, just a lot of making what already existed more effective (the slogan for 3M is ringing in my head right now--"we don't make a lot of the things you use, we make a lot of the things you use better").

With what I see happening in the arts and sciences today, it seems we are headed for a period of time where very little that is new is created--just a lot of rehashing of old ideas or making what we have more sophisticated (or, in the case of the arts, much less so).

It would appear to me that this is a direct function of the fact that most kids growing up today are taught things in a very factual manner, and along with that goes the phenomenon of TV and video games where the ideas are fed to the user rather than being explored by the user. Even the early days of computers required thought (Basic, and then DOS, required problem solving just to run the freakin' things), but now everything is dumbed down--point, click, doesn't work, call support.

Obviously I don't know what the future holds, but it would occur to me that what I've stated above seems likely.