Thu 17 Oct 91 21:00
By: John Kuhne
To: All
Re: Existence of God
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The following is a short essay on Christianity and the existence of God that I
have written.  On behalf of Mr. Simpson and others who said it would stimulate
a bit of debate I have uploaded it.

Please note that in an attempt to remove the pro-Christian bias that permiates
the English language the words God, Christian, Bible, et genus hoc omne are all
written in lower case.

                                      ***

God does not exist.  By refuting several christian beliefs it can
be clearly shown that god is merely an abstraction of the human
mind.  There are many reasons to believe in the non-existence of
god.  The most compelling arguments against god's existence are
the relationships between the universe and the earth, and the
earth and human beings.
        It must be mentioned before these three relationships are
analyzed that there are many separate christian orders, each with
their own rites and rituals.  Trying to nullify all the
theological rationalizations for god's existence would be a
daunting task, and would require several volumes to do
adequately.  Instead, the christian beliefs that the earth is
the centre and most important place situated in the universe,
the singularity of life's existence on earth, the belief that
human beings are moral and spiritual children of god and that
human beings are superior to animals are to be examined.  It is
hoped by refuting these beliefs, the validity of the remaining
arguments for the existence of god can also be questioned.
        The very size of the universe in comparison to the earth is
one relationship that questions the existence of god.  The
universe contains many galaxies.  Each galaxy is an amalgamation
of thousands of millions of stars, and around every star there is
the possibility of planets on which life, not unlike humans in
composition and intellect, may live.  The universe is great and
vast, unlike the small insignificant earth.  Compared to the
universe, the earth is like a small blade of grass, dwarfed by
the very field in which it sits.  It is hard to believe that
minuscule planet earth is the only place in the universe where
life exists.  Still harder to believe is that of the multitude of
worlds from which to choose, a supreme being would choose earth
as the place to centre all its affections.  Yet both of these
fantasies are upheld by christianity.  Nowhere in any ancient
religious chronicles are other worlds mentioned, or the actions
of distant races discussed.  It may sound petty belittling those
of past ages because of their ignorance, but these omissions
suggest that god never helped pen any christian documents.  The
knowledge and wisdom imparted in written texts can be easily
learned solely by human experience on earth.  All the fables,
histories and stories recorded need no god for assistance.  Their
lessons are of an earthly origin.  By neglecting to tell of
distant worlds and their inhabitants, and by making beliefs that
contradict their existence, god's authenticity can be questioned.
        Human beings' relationship to the earth and its creatures
also suggests that there is no god.  All true believers are told
that they have souls which separate them from animals which
exhibit none of the pious' lofty sentimentality.   No doubt the
devout believe this statement of their superiority, and cherish
the gift that god has given them -- what many fail to note is the
hypocrisy under which they live.  Few christians today take the
scripture's account of creation in a literal sense.  Instead,
they are quite content to mix religion and science, believing
that god created the earth from which homo sapiens were destined
to evolve into their present form in the image of god.
Unfortunately, religion and science are two totally different
paradigms, one built on faith, the other on observable, concrete
fact.  Mixing these two philosophies leads only to fallacies in
reasoning.  Thus, the belief that homo sapiens did evolve and yet
are still the children of god is invalid.  Worse yet, the
argument creates one large unremediable contradiction:  The
origin of the soul can not be accounted for.  If these earthly
mortals were to have evolved from the unspiritual, savage,
unmoral animals there could be no human soul, unless god
disturbed the evolutionary process and magically imparted it to
them.  Instead of this messy mix of religion and science it is
easier to believe in one of these paradigms or the other; the
religious explanation seems fanciful, and the majority of
christianity's followers, if pressed, would favour the more
believable evolutionary explanation.  The interaction between
human societies and their environments would also suggest that
humans are merely a highly-developed type of animal.  Like the
animals that are detested, human beings lie, steal, murder,
destroy, ruin and defile just as easily as other organisms do.
In actuality, the self-proclaimed children of god may actually be
worse in behaviour than the beasts which their religion despises.
Unlike any other creature's social groups, human societies must
be governed constantly so that individuals do not kill, maim,
rape, or torture one another.  Without laws, kindly, caring
christian society would dissolve into an anarchist mass of people
warring with each other over petty disputes.  The failure of
christianity to explain the origin of the soul, without making
fallacious statements, and that the behaviour of man is
essentially like that of any other animal, would suggest that
human beings are not the special creations of god.  These two
failings also suggest that there is no god.
        By refuting the christian beliefs that human beings and the
planet on which they reside are special, and in some way
isolated and distinct from both the universe and the animals
which surround them, the need for a god to explain human beings'
existence is unneeded.  God's influence is these matters is non-
existent, just like the supreme beings' existence itself.

                                        - John Frederick Kuhne
                                          September 1991