What kind of fools are we? Why do we let ourselves be fooled? There are a number of words: conned, ripped off, scammed, tricked, deceived, hoodwinked, bamboozled, and more, which give an idea of what I’m talking about. A simple word for it is scam, basically a promise of something to the scammed, which the scammer never really delivers. In the case of Bernie Madoff, his scam began in the 1960’s. Not a bad run. He made millions, but he got found out, just as most scammers do, eventually. There are many books out there about getting fooled, but I haven’t heard or seen anything that takes on or tries to explain the biggest scam in history. I think of it as the perfect scam, because once scammed, these folks don’t want to learn the truth. As well, a big part of this scam is the way we humans think, and how our minds work, and when. The scam is that humans (a certain group of them) are blessed with (the promise of) eternity and more. They believe they are blessed with an eternal soul, or whatever, so that after they die they are recomposed into their mortal form so they may be with their Dad, forever! Delusion abounds.
BUT, why must we care? We must care, because these “believers”, for centuries now, have been praying for the end to come, Judgement Day, the End. That is what they have been and are still being promised, salvation and resurrection! “Tomorrow for sure”, that is what they are hoping for! The end of the world is the ending of their story, and the glory of God. But, just like the Adam and Eve story, it is a set-up. And, it is a set-up that involves everyone because they believe their God created and rules everything and everyone! The whole earth is the victim, as the promise of the end is constantly renewed. The animosity between the three players can only continue, because they each believe that their version is the true word of their God. As Hitchens has eloquently pointed out, there will be no peace in the Middle East because the party of God has put a veto on it by promising the Holy Land to each of the parties involved. We see “the never ending story” of attempts to bring it about. It is like two bombs, time ticking away, awaiting the critical mass to light the fuse! This promise of salvation and eternal afterlife, at its core the delusion of resurrection. The early Christians deluded themselves and each other that they would live in Jesus. The scam worked and the cult of Jesus survived. If only Armenia and the Roman Empire hadn’t made Christianity their state religion, where might humanity be?
So in order to get rid of God, it is necessary to educate people, especially the children, about science and common sense. Every living thing will die someday, for humans the current limit is about 120 years, give or take a few.
When a person realizes that there is but one life, each moment is more precious than the one before. If it’s a good life, you are lucky, if not,… not so much. That’s how it is, it’s just a life, one of zillions, and hopefully more to come. So please tell your children the truth. What happens after death? We don’t know, can never know, and the mystery remains. We know we will die, but if we live life like there will always be a another tomorrow, you can’t really appreciate the value of the one, the only one, you will ever have, today. GROG
One Life Not Two 