Wrong Rev, Non Believers Are Not Confused

Went to a funeral yesterday. My neighbour's brother died in a car accident. I met the him a few times at BBQs. He seemed quiet and nice. Struck down in his mid fifties. He got ripped off, he should have been on this planet longer.

The funeral service, unfortunately, was not about him very much, but was focused on Jesus and the afterlife.

The Rev told the crowd of 300 mourners that we were not there to mourn, but to embrace the fact that the deceased guy was now in heaven enjoying eternal bliss.

He might have been right about me, I wasn't really there to mourn, because I really didn't know the guy. But I wasn't there to celebrate nonsense either. I was there out of respect to my neighbour, and to support my wife who is good friends with the neighbour.

I found the "sermon" to border on the ridiculous. Rev mentioned non believers. He said that we are confused about life and death. I'm not confused at all. Science pretty well answers everything out there regarding life, and the idea of an afterlife simply makes no sense and has no evidence supporting it.

I really bit my lip, as I stood right in the back of the second room (big turnout), when Rev told everyone how we know Christianity is the right religion. Of course, it is because the Gospels tell us so. The same way it is the Gospels which tell us that there is eternal life. Rev used the story of Lazarus to make his point. I found it odd that he didn't know if the name of the sister that Jesus said "he is the resurrection" to was Mary or Martha. You'd figure he has used the example many times. It actually motivated me to look it up when I went home. Turns out that Lazarus had two sisters, one Martha and one Mary, but it was Martha who Jesus spoke with, according to the myth. I'm going to give Rev credit. I think he pretended not to know on purpose, to get his flock talking, and to get his non flock, like me, to look into it more. Or maybe he just didn't know.

So that is the Christian's evidence for life after death: A book written at least 200 years "after the fact." What I really giggled to myself about was when he said that Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life, proves the afterlife, and that Jesus could walk into this room right now if he wanted to.

Weird, that these people buy into a crock like this. Jesus apparently had the need to prove the afterlife just the one time, and ever since, doesn't seem to have the need, despite the growth of Islam, but more importantly the rise of the dreaded atheist population.

When you listen to stories from the bible from the perspective that they are children's fables for adults, it all makes too much sense.

The reality is that there is no more contemporary evidence for Jesus than there is for unicorns or Leprechauns. In fact, the earliest known Christian bible mentions nothing of a resurrection. The first believers in Jesus were Gnostic. He was a myth, so was Moses. When you die that is it. I'm OK with it. As time goes by, I'm more OK with it. Live your life to the fullest, it is your only one.

I did agree with Rev when making a point about forgiveness. Most of the things that we have anger over are trivial. Forget about it. But there are some things that are unforgivable (like terrorist acts), and even the Rev should acknowledge that, but he didn't, because it would hurt his narrative that pretty much whatever is done on earth is trivial because it is only a speck of time in relation to your eternal life, but you need to accept Jesus to ensure that life.

From the back of the service I could easily notice who was praying and who wasn't. I'd say that 1 out of 12 or 13 didn't bow their heads at times they were told to. Were they atheists or simply non religious? I don't know. They weren't likely to be Muslims or Jews, not in my neck of the woods. My wife, who is atheist (at least that is what she tells me) did bow her head, but she explained it was to not bring attention to herself. Makes no sense, because anyone who catches you is obviously not bowing their head and closing their eyes like a good little boy or girl is supposed to.

One last thing. Guys do think about sex at inappropriate. Near the end of the service, I had a vision of the Sopranos scene when Tony humps a Fundamentalist Christian at the work place over a desk. I don't know what prompted that, but a few hours later, we were all stunned by the news of the death of James Gandolfini. Was that some sort of sign? Now that would be confusing.