There's some crucial things I don't really understand; I don't understand the Earth's inner workings all that well, I don't understand the specific actions certain people and types thereof make at given times, and some elements of socializing I don't get, such as "tack" and the three ideas one should avoid talking about (religion, politics and sex, three of the most interesting things, IMO, BTW)...
But I do understand that an object in rest will remain that way until put into motion, and an object in motion will stay that way until stopped. And I have every reason to believe that "object" includes brain cells. Brain cells are what make us do what we do, and think what we say and don't say; the things we do/say/think are called "choices" because there's about a million and a half ways to do everything one can do. You can drive a car with your head and one hand; you can drive a car with your head and two hands; you can drive a car with sticks; what kind of stick? Gosh, how many kinds of sticks are there? How many ways could I be typing what I'm saying?
The Good Book, as they call it, has a lot of wisdom and insight and all that. But the very first installment of it ("Genesis"), in its early pages, nullifies any claims of it being a "non-fiction" book in the honest sense of the term "non-fiction". Most, if not all, NF books have lies in them. Many of those lies are intentional, many are not. I think The Bible - Genesis through Revelations - IS a good book; as mankind goes on turning its back from it and not replacing it with just as authoratative (sp??) religious text, and sometimes/usually not replacing it at all, I can see the evidence that mankind, for the most part, is not smart enough to live Good without "God". People can be smart enough, but they need their brain to be exercised, which doesn't happen very often with numerous upon numerous HOURS EACH DAY of television and stockpiles of fast food and junk food and "health" food that isn't healthy...but are the claims that each and every human being that has ever lived is either going to Hell or Heaven? Sure, if people like Hitler were the only ones that went to Hell, what would be the harm in that idea? But that's not what The Bible teaches. it does everything but say flat out - and maybe it does say flat out somewhere in the thousands of pages of writing - that 99% of people WILL GO to Hell. Ok, maybe 99% is a heavy over-estimate, but maybe it's not...99% figure is based on not only the growing number of atheists and agnostics, but the fact that ONE of the two - be it the Catholics or the Protestants, both of 'em swear it's the other one - has a fictionalized Bible, meaning its a lot of the same stuff but with different stuff added in/taken out/revised...and then of course, the Jews, that's a lot of people, the Muslims, and everyone who reads The Bible but doesn't "get it" or whatever...
This idea would be scary enough to turn myself away from Jesus/God/The Bible...but the fact that it's supported by this fantasy-laden concept of "free will", as if we HAVE the way and mean to weed out bad influences and carefully choose one vs. whatever-other...We don't. Mankind, given enough good influence, can choose to remove their own influences. But if mankind has ever had that kind of good enough influence, it's been a loooooooooong time. And I really don't know of any way we can go back to that way of doing things. Maybe the U.S.A. can become a "tyrannical" gov't and have our Child Services take children away from their Evil-Willed Non-believer-influencors, but...I don't even think that would do any good. Who'se going to fund/support this tyranny? So far, gov't seems to be going for a universal scientific religion, a new way for all to believe without seeming "old fashioned"/"superstitious", which would be great if someone could go on TV and rally for it without the threat of censorship or lynching - another sign that most Christians aren't "real" Christians.
I don't wish The Bible'd never been written. My Mom somewhat let her stubbornness rest a bit and gave into the idea of Christianity, after years of resisting it, and now she not only has hope of a better future but some "Real" friends as well, who support her ideas. My sister and I talked about giving a f*** about religion and "meaning" and whatnot, and she freely admitted that she is, in fact, spiritual in nature, and that she cannot rest easy without having an idea of what it's all about, so to speak. But neither of those things apply to me, for I do fine by myself most of the time, and have family that I rely on to let me socialize with, and I guess I'm just "thick-headed"(?) when it comes to whatever my spirit, if i have one, is telling me.
Of note, however, is the piling number of "evidence" to suggest God of The Bible is real and The Bible tells no lies...most of these things are somewhat convincing, although they can be debunked, although not easily by people who wish to believe, evidence or no evidence, and, really, it's not even easy for someone like me. Superstition is easier to dabble in than cold-turkey reality. It's easy to get your heartrate up slightly at the mention of "13" or "Fri,13" or "The Boogeyman" or whatever tease fancies the internal rat racing on the wheel, at least for me. It seems like, if movies are ANY indication whatsoever of what crazy things people do/say/think in real life, that a lot of people tend to get caught up in small details and not look at the big picture or keep their eye on the ball so to speak. My mom tells me "God puts gas in the car". I think "why would she say that if she was absolutely sure she didn't forget how much gas was in the car or mis-read the meter or the meter mis-displayed the information...?", but, the answer to that IS pretty simple, for me, who knows my Mom fairly well. And the fact of the matter is, as I have illustrated here, the root concepts of The Bible, particularly the beginning and the end, just don't match the the kind of history that a All Knowing and All Powerful God - with Mercy to boot(!) - would have any part in.
