“Belief in a Cruel God makes a Cruel Man” Thomas Paine

Most Americans would be surprised to know that several of our Founding Fathers were Deists, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson prominent among them. It was during my journey away from Religion, specifically Jehovah’s Witnesses that I discovered that I had become a Deist.

I am in the process of writing a book about that journey from Jehovah’s Witness to reasonableness and about religion in general.

I was doing some extensive research on the relationship between Religion and the United States Government. Of special interest to me were the beliefs of the founding fathers and the writing of the Constitution.

 I was researching Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and others and was surprised to learn that Payne and Jefferson were both Deists. I had honestly never heard the term and when I did some research on Deism, I realized that I had, in fact become one. Very basically, a Deist believes in God but not religion. What Jefferson and others wrote, particularly Thomas Payne way back at the founding of our country, seemed reasonable to me, it was logical.

While Jefferson was quite the diplomat, Payne spared no one is his fiery denunciation of religion and the suffering it caused mankind. Particularly the above quote, “Belief in a Cruel God makes a Cruel Man”.

This stuck a cord deep within me. It seems a reoccurring religious theme is that while the loving, merciful, kind, benevolent God we worship is tenderly caring for us, protecting us and has a great everlasting reward waiting for us, he is at the same time going to kill and/or punish in a most brutal and cruel way those that do not agree with our particular brand of Religion.

The Bible speaks of great global carnage, and each Christian Group claims immunity from this while taking great satisfaction in the fact that opposing groups, who are not real Christians at all, will be those at the painful end of God’s wrath.

For example, the Bible at Revelation 14:20 it says: “And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress as high up as the bridles of the horses, for a distance of a thousand six hundred furlongs.”

This would require the blood of several hundred million humans. The Bible is full of examples of “righteous” slaughter of the unrepentant unbeliever. Reading, these examples of God’s unmerciful wrath and execution of unbelievers, it easy to see why Thomas Payne would conclude “Belief in a Cruel God makes a Cruel Man”. The Spanish Inquisitors and the Holy Army’s of the Catholic Church during the crusades could easily see themselves as God’s  executioners, his Holy implement of destruction. How else could otherwise normal men torture and brutally murder the innocent. I am sure there were a few psychos in the group who actually enjoyed their work, but this mayhem was in general carried out by the common man.

Interestingly, most people today do not take up arms and kill “unbelievers”. I say most, but sadly there are too many instances of religious intolerance resulting in the killing or maiming of innocents. We call these “radicals”. Radical Muslims, Radical Christians, these not the mainstream.

Are you a radical? It’s likely you don’t think of yourself as such. You have your beliefs, but you certainly would not take up arms against one who believed differently? Is that so? Well do you believe that God is going to send unbelievers to Hell to burn and suffer for eternity? Does this sound reasonable?

Most “Christians” do not consider themselves “radical”, and yet they believe this very thing. If you do not believe as they do, you will burn in Hell.

Let’s do some math. Pick the most vicious, murderous human being you can think of. Let’s use Adolf Hitler. Hitler was mainly responsible for World War Two, in which it is estimated, 50 million people died. If there ever was a candidate for Hell, It would have to be Adolf. Let’s say we give Hitler 3 years in hell for every death he caused, or 150 Million years! Maybe that’s not enough, let’s give him 10 years, or 500 Million years burning in Hell, suffering at the hands of Satan. He deserves every second. Why stop there? Lets give him a Trillion years, or a thousand Million years of agony!

But that’s still not eternity. According to the Hellfire doctrine, all sinners will burn in Hell for eternity. That is way more than 1 Trillion years. Do you think at some point Hitler will have suffered enough to compensate for what he did? Is 1 Trillion years enough?

Do you think Hitler is suffering alone? By definition, a lot, if not the majority of people who died in WW2 went to Hell. So conceivably, many who Hitler killed in concentration camps could be right next to Him, suffering for eternity. Hey. Jews weren’t Christian! They didn’t believe in Jesus. Are they anywhere as evil as he is?

Let’s bring it closer to home. Your neighbor, who you’ve known for years, does not believe as you. In fact he doesn’t even attend church. You’ve watched each others kid’s grow up, lent each other yard tools, swam in each others pool, but he and his whole family are going to Hell. They’ll be right there with Adolf and all the other non believers.

Every Sunday, your preacher says so and you believe it. In your case, was Thomas Payne correct: “Belief in a Cruel God makes a Cruel Man”? Do you believe your neighbor, who works hard, never breaks the laws, takes care of his family is going to Hell, right along with Hitler?

 Are you a cruel person? Do you believe in a cruel God?   

A Wacky Baptist Shoots Himself in the Foot

In a recent post I had expressed my views about Walter Martin’s introduction and twisted use of the word “cult” into modern day religious discussion. In my view he bent the meaning of the word to apply to religions that disagreed with his particular brand. The term “got legs” and presently is in the religious vernacular.

I think it’s inaccurate and disingenuous. People will off handedly brand a religion they don’t like a “cult”. Particularly Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormon’s get that label. I fell that it distorts the issues and that Martins reasoning is biased and flawed. 

I got quite a few emails from readers who though that I was defending Jehovah’s Witnesses. As an ex-Witness and what they consider an apostate, I would be the last one to defend them. However, what’s fair is fair. There are enough problems with just the contradictions, edits and flip flops in the Watchtowers Society’s literature to hang them. No one has to resort to either making stuff up or presenting irrelevant points, easy to argue against. When you do that, you simply diminish your own credibility. 

A case in Point is Paul Blizzard, an ex-Jehovah’s Witness and now a Baptist Minister. Mr. Blizzard is virulently anti Jehovah’s Witness and has some basis for his feelings. You can read his story at: 

http://www.geocities.com/paulblizard/bio.html  and 

 http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2919/main2.html 

Mr. Blizzard, in his zeal “prove them wrong” and to “help Jehovah’s Witnesses get out” of this “cult” mind trap has published many things about the Witnesses.

For example in an article published in the Jacksonville Times Union, entitled “No windows for Jehovah’s Witnesses?” by PHILLIP MILANO on July 31, 2006, someone asked the question: “Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses churches have no windows?:”

Among the answers was one from Paul Blizzard: “Gaze out your portal and ponder that while we chat with ex-Jehovah’s Witness Paul Blizzard, now a Southern Baptist pastor in West Virginia and prominent critic of his former faith, which he likens to a cult.”

“They put no windows in because people have a tendency to look out the window rather than focus on the platform in front,” he said. “It’s just part of the mind control of The Watchtower [headquarters]: having members riveted toward the platform rather than having any distractions.”

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/st… 

My initial reaction was: “Huh??” It’s a small point, but it shows how full of crap Blizzard is. I have been in a hundred Kingdom Halls some with and without windows. Most Witnesses, ex or otherwise, will tell you that it likely never occurred to anyone that “no windows” was a mind control” device. I had trouble staying awake during these boring meetings, as someone drones on about a subject I could care less about , windows or not. In fact, many meetings are held at night and you can’t see much if anything outside the windows anyway.

It’s idiots like Blizzard that interject this type of nonsense in the mix, giving Witnesses ammunition to discount anything he says. I recall, as a Witness, when I would read critiques of the Witnesses. I’d usually come across some idiotic statement like the above and simply dismiss everything else the writer said as drivel. Admittedly, I was not being reasonable and should have and eventually did apply the same logic to the Watchtowers Literature. Blizzard is more often correct, but makes a clown out of himself with arguments like the “windows” one. May I also, point out that I despise all religion, including the Baptists, so I am not here defending Blizzards attacks on Witness theology. You cannot prove that God wrote the Bible or that Jesus ever existed, so ignoring his theological arguments, he does make some good points.  

It’s not reasonable to dismiss everything Blizzard says as nonsense. He was a Witness for a long time, at the headquarters in New York, so he has a unique perspective.  But in the battle he is in, for peoples minds, he shoots himself in the foot with the improvable “windows in kingdom Halls” thing.  

Look at it from the other side. Not everything the Watchtower says is wrong. For the membership to understand just how full of shit the Witnesses are, they have to be shown where the Witnesses screw up. Blizzard is not going to fortify his position or make any converts by making up stuff. There is no proof the Witness build Kingdom Halls without windows as a form of mind control. 

But the persistant Blizzard shoots himself in the foot. Go to the following link: 

http://www.geocities.com/paulblizard/jimmy.html 

Jehovah’s Witnesses filed with the United States Supreme Court, an Amicus Curiae or “friend of the court brief” in a case where the question of taxing religions was being decided. Jimmy Swagert Ministries was in a court battle with the Board of Equalization of the State of California. You are allowed to file an Amicua Curiae in any case where you feel you may be affected by the outcome and/or where you have relevant legal information, evidence or facts that the Court may consider. 

If the law in California was upheld, the 132,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in that state would each have to collect tax on any literature they “sold” in their door to door work and it would have proved very burdensome. If I was a Witness, I would have simply given it away.

In the door to door work, if you “placed” or sold 10 magazines and day, at $.20 each, that’s $2.00. 10 is a high number. You’d be lucky to “place” or sell maybe 2 or 4, on the average day, but for this example, say you placed 10, for $2.00. At 7% tax, that’s $.14 in tax you would have to forward to the State, not to mention getting a tax number, etc. What a pain in the ass. 

The Witnesses were trying to defeat the tax provision. They agreed with Swaggert on this point.

Blizzard blows this way out of proportion stating: 

“WHY did the Watchtower Society change its literature distribution program in 1990, eliminating set prices for literature items? JWs believe the Governing Body instituted a “simplified” arrangement. Few know the change really took place because Jimmy Swaggart lost his case in court. In a February 21, 1990 letter to congregations, the Society explained the new policy this way:”

“By adopting a od (sic) of literature distribution based completely on donation, Jehovah’s people are able to greatly simplify our Bible education work and separate ourselves from those who commercialize religion.” 

I was a Witness at this time and as I recall it was generally understood by the JW membership that there was a tax issue. If I thought it was hypocrisy, I’d be on it like a duck on a June bug, but it’s much ado about nothing. I remember the announcement that was read in 1990 and it mentioned the potential tax issue.  

My response is “So what?” I would love to see evidence of the Witnesses “hiding” the fact that they lost a court case. A search of their CD’s turns up no mention of this. If Blizzards point is that they downplay the loss, he’s correct. It seems though, he is maintaining that the Watchtower Society deliberately deceived the membership. I just don’t see that in this case. 

They didn’t say much about it, but they sure love to crow about winning in court. I know they have lost numerous cases, in quite a few countries and say little about it. These are all maters of public record, so it would be senseless for the Witnesses to deny loosing.  

As a side issue, to all you JW’s reading this, go to your trusty little Watchtower Library CD and see how many times this statement or a similar statement is made in the Watchtower:

“Wills and Trusts: Property or money may be bequeathed to Watch Tower by means of a legally executed will, or Watch Tower may be named as beneficiary of a trust agreement. A trust benefiting a religious organization may provide certain tax advantages.” 

This statement is made verbatim in the Watchtower, every year. I never said they weren’t money grubbers.

There are so many other issues where the Watchtower Society shows its hypocrisy and bending of the facts. They change major doctrine, make false prophesies concerning dates and events, the edit embarrassing quotes out of the literature and make wacky claims in earlier literature, like this one from The Truth Shall Make You Free (1943) pp.284-285, ch.XXii “THE TIME OF THE END”:

“The superficial appearance of our literal earth was greatly changed by the addition of the flood from the fallen water canopy, but upon this same earth another visible organization of ungodly men was built up. It dates particularly from the time of the founding of Nimrod’s kingdom at Babel, or Babylon, and it has spread over all the earth. This human, visible organization of religion, commerce and politics makes up the symbolic “earth”, and men think it will endure just as long as our earthly planet does. Our planet earth is surrounded by an invisible air mass, which is the “firmament” or expanse of atmosphere extending up about one hundred miles higher than man. In like manner the symbolic “earth” has invisible spirit powers in control of it, namely, the demons under Satan the Devil. This organization of wicked spirits with Satan as their prince is both higher than man and unseen to him. Hence that demon organization constitutes the “heavens” with relation to man’s present earthly organization. Man on earth can no more get rid of these demonic “heavens” than man can by airplane or rockets or other means get up above the air envelope which is about our earthly globe and in which man breathes. God alone can and will deliver humankind from such demon powers of control.”

So, man can’t go in space, via rockets. I have an original copy of “The Truth Shall Make You Free” and the above is an exact quote.

There is no doubt people have left the earth’s atmosphere in rocket ships and gone to the moon. Unless that was on a movie set somewhere, as some conspiracy theorists claim. 

So Paul Blizzard and others, who have legitimate facts and references proving that the Watchtower Society is full of shit, resort to half truths and incidents that have little meaning, while there are hundreds of quotes from their own literature showing, beyond a doubt that they are not God’s chosen religion.  

The problem here is that most Witness opposers, Blizzard included, have an opposing theology, which is based on the Bible, a cryptic collection of fairy tales that by its very nature insures that there will be as many interpretations of it as there are readers.  Thus, making no one’s Bible theology provable and again proving that Religion is a virus, inflicted upon humanity by groups like The Witnesses and the Baptists.

Every time a delusional Witness or Baptist like Blizzard opens their mouth, it only strengthens the case for Religions eradication.

A gravity joke: “I once dated a chick who was so fat, she had two other smaller women in orbit around her”