Left Behind

"You little baby-killing, liberal freak. Don't tell me about evolution. I know darn well that I didn't come from a monkey. I came from God."


This week I attended a professional leadership training, and at one of the meals I was sitting around a group of people who were talking about church and Christian authors. This made me feel uncomfortable, especially when they were talking about the "Left Behind" series by Tim LaHaye. In other conversations, a guy was telling me how he thought the United Nations was evil, and their comments about the Sierra Club, were negative, but at least respectful.

All this made me realize that when I chose to become a nonreligious progressive in 1997, I really isolated myself. I am particularly isolated from my super religious siblings and mother, and it's a sinking feeling when my sister gives Glenn Beck books as gifts to family members.

So, why DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF????

Because when I was a college student I started asking questions, and when you start questioning EVERYTHING, you can never, never turn back. In my 20s I became suspicious that my religion was completely made up, so I started doing research. The first thing I did was read the entire New Testament and nearly all of the Old Testament. At the time, I WANTED the Bible to win, and I was searching for the "magic bullet" or "smoking gun" that would prove to me that the Bible WAS REAL.

One of the most damning books I read was about the Dead Sea Scrolls, which convinced me that Jesus was a plagiarist. Now, if you are God descended from Heaven, I'd have to assume you are pretty damn smart and wouldn't need to steal from 200-year-old literature for your sermons. Yet, that's exactly what Jesus does with his Sermon on the Mount. This information is readily available and in the public domain. To me, that evidence right there is a death blow to Christianity.

However, it took me years to unravel the rest of the Biblical mythology. I finally found the clues I needed in 2003 when I stumbled upon the work of Acharya S. I now own most of her books, and have spent countless hours reading her website, articles, and blog. The essence of her work is that ALL religion evolved from ancient astrological worship. And yes, I believe the Zeitgeist movie is true, and a lot of information in the religious segment of the movie comes from Acharya's research.

In addition to religion, I've also studied evolution and astrology, which gives me an entirely different take on the world.

Ignorance is bliss ...

It would have been easier to go through life in lockstep with the masses, but now I have broken out and entered a new, and lonely world. I am different. I believe that ALL religion was created by men (sorry, not women) and that evolution explains the origins of life. I find evolution wonderful and fascinating, and I'm not going to attribute the miracle of nature to a God story. Rather, I will say that Earth is a one-in-a-billion wonder, and we are extremely lucky to live on this beautiful Planet, yet we are destroying it as fast as we can.

The debate ...

But herein lies the problem. It is difficult to have any discussion with religious conservatives who have such a vastly different worldview from my own. Unfortunately, rather than engaging in meaningful debate they simply get defensive, angry, and they DON'T LIKE YOU. For instance, many Christians get offended by evolution, saying, "My ancestors were NOT monkeys." Well, your ancestors are NOT monkeys — we simply have a common ancestor.

And left behind ....

The ones with the conservative religious worldview are the ones in the driver's seat, at least here in Georgia. I have massive philosophical differences with these folks. They are deeply offended that I support choice, and I am offended by their total unconcern for the environment. We have vastly different values and views. And as we've seen, the Left and the Right can't even work together on the most basic issues, like health care. It is sad, but I believe that once a person holds onto one mythology, such as religion, he or she is prone to hold onto many more. Their entire lives become a myth. As for me, I've spent my entire life trying to separate the Reality from the Myths. I wish more people would join me and do the same.