I saw a meme today that said:

“Atheists say that no one can prove the existence of God, and they’re right, but no one can disprove that God exists.”

I agree completely, but we shouldn’t limit exposure to science which is tasked with answering hard questions by using faith to try to explain the universe around us.

If it comes to supernatural things, like Jesus rising from the Dead, God sending plagues, that’s all essential bible lore. Using Genesis to explain the creation of the universe, and being unbending, unyielding in the face of so much scientific evidence to cling to old beliefs that are meant to be a moral guide, not a history or science lesson, is detrimental to the advancement of humanity.

For me, science is a long-term research project that has the ultimate goal of proving whether or not God truly exists. Each advancement through science to make our lives better, like running, clean water, breathable air, shelter from extreme environments (Arizona / North Dakota haha), medical advancements to prolong our lives and to make our lives better, each one of these things is real, is tangible, and as a society, an entire civilization even, we shouldn’t put our fingers in our ears and chant “I’M NOT LISTENING!” just because some real and tangible conflicts with a long-held faith. Especially a faith that has been passed down for at least fifteen hundred years or more.

It’s okay to admit that while your faith has always taught one thing, science has proved it to be wrong, or maybe not even wrong, just immaterial. Human beings have to keep growing, to keep moving forward, or we’ll begin a decline that will keep humanity from reaching its full potential, which is to be one with God, and in a sense, to prove the existence of God.

If God truly did create the universe, why wouldn’t it be something like the Big Bang? The physical laws of the universe that we know and can prove (and yes, there are many we can’t prove yet, or don’t even know about) show that the Big Bang theory is very accurate. But my question is, who out of people who are reasonably intelligent, would think that God made the universe like we make things?

I can’t picture a supreme being going to the Home Depot to get planetary nebulae, hydrogen gas, quasars, and bringing it all back to the universe and start putting it together like he was building a house.

I can, however, picture God deciding to create everything, and in his unfathomable intelligence (we can’t possibly have any concept of such a supreme being is made of, capable of, thinking of), he knew the way to set the universe in motion was to compress all known matter down to a singularity, a unit of matter so infinitely small that it might not even exist outside of the event itself, and release it all at once.

Why do God have to have created Adam, then Eve from a rib of Adam? It’s a great story, but it isn’t mean to be a scientific accounting of the beginnings of mankind. Science has already proven that human beings, modern human beings, existed long before such a thing as civilization and written language. There’s no room for argument here. Science has proven beyond a doubt that modern human beings existed more than 100,000 years ago.

But what if evolution is part of God’s plan? He created the universe and set it in motion in one huge explosion. Why wouldn’t he seed it with the components that would eventually come together and create life? I’ve never been able to understand the whole “Adam and Eve” thing because genealogically, it is an impossibility. Especially considering what we know of genetics these days.

But why is it such a stretch to believe that after God initiated the Big Bang, he didn’t meddle a little bit more and bind some molecules together and breathe life into them, and then let that life evolve over the billions of years that the universe has existed? Shouldn’t it be the goal of science to not only trace a path back to the Big Bang, looking for evidence of God’s existence, but to also trace a line back to the origins of life, whether on this planet, or across the vast numbers of galaxies in the known universe? I find it impossible to believe that out of the infinite number of stars in the universe, that Earth is the one and only place to harbor life. It’s a statistical impossibility based on the fact that we are starting to find other star systems that have planets that fall within the habitable zone in which to support life. Life as WE know it. Who’s to say some other life form might be perfectly fine living in the molten core of a planet, or migrating from asteroid to asteroid in the cold vacuum of space? It’s not science fiction. It’s science asking questions that are important to us as a species.

If God did seed life, then why do we Christians have such a hard time accepting the Theory of Evolution? The theory has had more than a million scientific papers written on the subject over the last 150 years, and science has proven that evolution is a reality that no amount of faith can deny (you can deny it, but that’s about as useful as denying that the sky looks blue to you).

The Theory of Evolution isn’t meant to attack Christianity (keep in mind what kind of person Darwin was… most Christians don’t know anything about him and would do well to educate themselves). The Theory of Evolution is to trace the origins of life, to watch how the various species of Earth evolve over time. If you don’t want to believe human beings are part of evolution, ask yourself why these days people living near the equator are very dark skinned, yet those living in the more northern and southern regions are very fair skinned. The answer is evolution, not a deity deciding some humans will be brown, some black, some white, etc.

Plants produce poisons to repel or attractants to entice bugs/animals. Birds develop colorful plumes and strange dances/rituals to attract mates. There is so much proof of evolution in the world that it makes me sad that some Christians are still stuck in their belief that the story of Adam and Eve is the only possible explanation. But to say that, is to make God into a simple being that is really nothing more than a supernatural human. And if God did such things as create the universe and seed it with life, there’s no possible way that God could be so simple that human beings could understand Him or His motives.

We should be faithful that God exists and that Jesus was sent to teach us important lessons about growing as not only a person, but as a society. A civilization. Jesus said a LOT about helping the weak, the poor, the unfortunate, justice for those who were denied, good stuff like that. Jesus did not ever once say that homosexuals and gay marriage is an abomination. Jesus said to turn the other cheek, to show others mercy so they would show mercy themselves. Jesus did not ever say anything about abortions or killing abortion doctors or making women second class citizens (or any race/culture into second class citizens).

Jesus said a lot of things, but he never said that he was teaching anyone science or history or math. He was teaching us a lesson in morality, ethics, compassion, kindness. He told us to temper ourselves, be good husbands and mothers and friends and community members. He was a bit of a socialist, to be honest. He wasn’t pro-business, pro-gun, pro-politician (the irony of politicians using God/Jesus as their rallying cry is so corrupt as to be sickening). He didn’t tell anyone to protest soldier funerals with picket signs saying awful things. He didn’t tell a parent to kick a gay child out of the house and disown him.

Science is a reality. Humanity needs to embrace it as an entire species so that we may better ourselves. There is much room for God within the world of science, but only as a moral guideline. Religion has no place in subjects such as biology, history, math, science, no subject other than religious studies. We need to make sure the public school system stays free of this so we do not color the views and educations of children that belong to families that are not of the same faith. It isn’t our place as Christians to proselytize to others who are not interested in hearing what we have to say about our views on God.

When I say “God has no place in public school” I don’t mean it as God has no place in your life, or your child’s life. If you jump to this conclusion immediately, it says a lot more about you than it does me or others who think like me. Religion is a personal thing, and it is also a public thing, but a public thing that is separate from matters such as education, government, etc.

Every time a Christian tries to get a law passed that denies someone the same basic human rights as everyone else, it causes more attrition within the religion. Young people don’t believe the old way of thinking. They’ve grown up with homosexuality being an accepted part of BIOLOGY, not an immoral choice. Those of you who cannot accept this, you are quickly becoming extinct, and it is sad, because good, warm-hearted Christians want you to not be so full of hate, and we want you to stop making us look foolish, which has the effect of causing more and more young persons, and even middle-aged persons, to leave the church, to leave the faith.

Every time a Christian fights to have Intelligent Design or Creationism instituted at a public school as if it were real science, it hurts not just Christianity for once again causing attrition and making us all look like we’re clutching to a dusty old tome written more than a thousand years ago, it hurts our children. YOUR children. Children need to be taught real and tangible subjects, of which science is a very important core discipline.

Things like gas diffusion and electricity have real, measurable components that are explained by science. Religion cannot explain why a star converts hydrogen into helium. Science can. Religion cannot explain how diseases are passed down through genetics. Science can. Religion cannot explain soil erosion, atmospheric disturbances, volcanoes, why airplanes fly, how to correct someone’s vision with lasers and scalpels. Science can.

Science cannot explain everything. If this is another immediate argument you jump to, it again says more about you than it does me. I believe in both the viability of the existence of a supreme creator, and in science. But science can nearly prove or explain in detail the how and why things work/are. If your only argument is that science cannot explain everything, and you think that is somehow a greater argument than hundreds of years of scientific research and advancement, you can see why religion is slowly shrinking, dying, and why people are leaving it behind and moving on to something that isn’t so rigid, so full of backwards beliefs that have absolutely no correlation in this world other than as moral lessons on how to be a better, kinder person.

Please, Christians, let’s stop burying our head in the sand and pretending that all of these ridiculous things we are trying to prove to others are only helping us bleed the faithful from our ranks that much faster.

Science and God can co-exist. God is your moral guide, and Jesus is his teacher and interpreter. Science is how the world around us is explained in concepts that we can understand, so that we may advance our species to whatever the next step is in the evolutionary path that God set us on.

He gave us enough of a push (free will) to find our own way back to him, but we’ll never achieve that goal by sitting around praying to him and by denying our future generations the quality education our species needs to advance to our full potential.

Now, a lot of times I describe myself as an atheist. Others, I’m agnostic. The truth is, I believe that science should be the tool that humans use to better ourselves so we can eventually prove the existence of God. Maybe open a wormhole or a portal to His realm. I call myself a “Christian” in the sense that I think Jesus was the kind of guy that said a lot of really exceptional things.

Just because I believe that Jesus Christ was a philosopher, teacher, and a moral guide, does not mean I actually believe that he was a real human being that was born in Israel and did all of the things in the Bible. I don’t believe that any more than I believe Earth is only 6,000 years old, or that anyone eating shellfish, or wearing two different kinds of cloth, etc, should be put to death.

Why am I not allowed to align my morals with the teachings of Jesus Christ without believing the ridiculous dogma that organized religion spouts (which is mostly hatred and division these days, which is why the new Pope is such a breath of fresh air). No one gave YOU exclusive access and control of Jesus (not according to Jesus, anyway, and I’m more apt to live by his teachings than listen to what you have to say).

I’m a Christian because I believe in compassion, kindness, equality, and justice, the same as Jesus did. I don’t have to believe that Noah created an ark and populated it with two of everything and rode out a worldwide flood. Science has proven this to be impossible, since there are literally millions of different species of animal, plant, and insect in the world, and back then, there were MORE species of these, since humans hadn’t started making them extinct yet.

I don’t believe that homosexuality is a sin, because science has proven it is biological. If you don’t want to believe science, talk to any homosexual, man or woman. Not a single one will tell you they ‘chose’ to be gay. It’s how their brain is wired. The same as transgender persons. Their brains are male and their bodies are female, or vice-versa. This is science, even though science hasn’t fully unlocked the why of it (the science of the brain is one of the most difficult disciplines there are because it is such a marvelously complex organic machine, and is the product of millions of years of evolution.

I don’t believe contraception is morally wrong, nor do I believe the ignorant nonsense that any woman who wants birth control is a slut and wants to have others pay for her to have sex without worry. This is the dumbest, most ignorant thing Christians can say these days, because women are leaving the church in numbers that are frightening. More to the point, it’s just the dumbest, most ignorant thing I’ve heard in a long time.

Which leads me to another point. Women are equals to men. They may not be as strong as we are, but that doesn’t make them any less equal in terms of brains and ability to learn skills. Women made a huge number of the war machines we used to win WW2. They can design and build microprocessors. They are doctors, lawyers, astronauts, soldiers. So why is it okay for men to spread their seed freely and women still have to pretend to be only put on this earth to serve a man’s desires and to carry a baby?

Women don’t want to sleep with 1,000 different partners any more than men do. There are a few who might, but there are the same or more number of men who do as well. Women want to know that they can make choices and do what THEY want to do that doesn’t harm anyone, and they don’t want to take the chance of having an unwanted pregnancy. This doesn’t make a woman a whore. This makes a woman extremely intelligent and informed about her choices. She has just as much right to find pleasure in sexual release with whomever she wishes as men do. When Christians deny this, Christians harm Christianity.

I’m a Christian. I’m just not the cookie-cutter Christian that you are, or that you see on TV. I’m a modern Christian. I believe the teachings of Jesus are a good moral foundation to base my own on. Since Jesus never said a single word about homosexuality, and I know for a fact that it is biological (since I’m blood related to at least four gay/lesbian/bisexual persons and have been around literally thousands and not a single one has claimed it a choice, which correlates the proof that science is beginning to show that says it is indeed biological, or why else would over 1500 mammal species alone exhibit signs of homosexuality???), I choose to distance myself from you and support LGBT persons and their fight for civil rights.

I believe in racial, gender, sexual equality. I reserve my hate for ignorant bigots, and while Jesus said to not hate, I am human, and therefore I sin. I want Christians to start showing they are truly deserving of a close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Because if Jesus came back to Earth right now, would he really send you up to heaven? Be honest. Think of the sins you’ve committed, and the sins you commit daily even though you know you are willfully sinning.

Are they the kind of sins that Jesus might overlook, like you stole bread to feed your family? I’m pretty sure using racial epithets and being greedy and looking down your nose at those in poverty are not things Jesus would approve of. He doesn’t seem like that kind of guy based on what was written about him in a book that is sort of the baseline of Christianity.

Next time you want to point your finger at an atheist, remember that an atheist typically knows more about your religion than you do, because an atheist is curious and willing to open his or her mind to new possibilities. Atheists are just as morally righteous, and in most cases I’ve experienced, far more morally centered than Christians. Atheists don’t have an old, dusty book telling them archaic laws that must be passed, except not quite all of them, and only in situations where it helps… see, I’m already confused.

Atheists learn that treating others good feels good, and in return they get treated good. They don’t need a god or a bible to tell them to be nice to others and share with those less fortunate. Atheists can be evil, but so can Christians. Atheists are no different than Christians other than atheists are willing to listen to both sides of an argument and use logic, knowledge, and information to make a choice as to which to believe. Christians are too narrow-minded, too closed off, too brainwashed to even consider the possibility that there might be a different way of doing/thinking something, or that a belief has been proven wrong.

For the sake of Christianity, and for the sake of humanity, please, Christians, stop being ignorant and unwilling to join the modern world. You’re not only hurting your own children, you’re hurting mine too, indeed all of humanity’s children.