Sunday school made me an Atheist

Sunday school started me on the path to becoming an Atheist. There were two moments I remember in particular which I believe started me off in a different direction than the other kids I went to Sunday school with.

I remember how proud I was to go to Sunday school because it meant dressing up and wearing a little clip on bowtie that I got especially for Sunday school. I also remember I had major crush on my Sunday school teacher who probably wasn’t much more than a teenager at the time. Every Sunday we were read Bible stories from large picture books and then were given drawing from the story we could colour in, that were then pinned to the wall behind our table. When our parents came to pick us up we could show them what we had done.

One Sunday we read the story of the how God made the walls of Jericho fall so the Israelites could have the Holy Land that he had promised them. When the story was over and we were all now kneeling on our chairs impatient to get started on colouring the teacher asked if we had any question. The little girl who always sat across from and who always asked questions asked. “What happened to all the people in the city?”

“They were all destroyed.” The teacher said very seriously.

“And all the little children too?” The girl asked while she picked crayons out of the basket in the centre of the table.

After short pausethe teacher replied. “The important thing to remember about this story is the miracle that God performed that for the people of Israel that day.” She hadn’t answered the question but no one else around the table noticed except me. I couldn’t help wonder about the people of Jericho and if it was like the movies where Roman soldiers ran through villages setting fire to all the house and stabbing everyone with those short sword they carried.

Then we were given a pile of illustrations from the story to colour in. I found one of the Israelites charging into the city over the crumbled walls and the people running away from them. From the illustration Jericho was only a city of grown men. After I coloured in the clothes, the houses, and the sky I then put red on the swords and spears of the Isralites and drew red cuts on the faces and bodies of the people fleeing. I put a lot red on everyone. I was pretty pleased with what I thought was an adult view of the scene.

The pictures where collected and we went and got our boots and coats on. When I came back to our table mine was the only picture that wasn’t pinned to the wall that Sunday. I didn’t say anything. I went outside and waited for my mother on the steps and hoped she didn’t ask to see my work for the day. She didn’t.

There was another moment after that added to my skepticism but may I cover that next time.

I can’t help but feel that there’s something wrong with someone moral compass if they can look at an act of genocide and only see in it only as glorious miracle. But then maybe my sense of right and wrong is to simple to be believer. I've noticed the true believe is able to use a complex kind of reltivism when it come to deciding on right and wrong

Inquisition Denial

I saw recently were the Vatican has put out a report that the Inquisition wasn’t that bad. It was mostly bad press that made it look bad. How do you give good press to torture and burning people alive? I noticed this report came out after George Bush’s visit to the Vatican maybe his spin people got together with the Vatican’s spin people and gave them a few pointers.
(Nothing like a little rewriting of history to fit these times.)
I’ve always admired the incredible audacity the priest of the Inquisition used to rationalize burning people alive at the steak. They figured if they tied someone to steak and set them on fire it was then up to God whether the person died or lived. Since no one ever surirved being burned at the steak I guess they deserved it in God’s eyes including old Joan Of Arc.
Odd how God kept changing sides during that war first sending messages to Joan to inspire the French then going over to the English side and burning Joan to death at the steak for being a witch, for listing to him in the first place.
But the priest of the Inquisition were nothing special, through out history and right up to the present the holiest of men and women have been able to rationalize any act of violence to achieve God’s will. It appears the stronger the belief the easier to rationalize the act. From the Priest who gave aboslution to the Chilean soldiers as they threw people out of helicopters over the ocean in the 70’s to the Ayatollahs who guarantee a honoured place in heaven to the suicide bombers of today.
I know, you say, these people are just the fanatic fringe but when your on the outside looking in it's hard to tell just where the fringe begins.
So what about the evils of the godless, who we got, Stalin, Mao, and PolPot and their fanatic followers and all the evil done in their names. Yes there is evil there also. But maybe the truth is it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God, Mao, or the Great Pumpkin as long as the belief is strong enough in it’s own self-righteousness any evil is possible. And there's nothing more righteous then live up to the will of God.
What drives people, like me, about religion is the hypocrisy to talk peace while committing murder.