I once read that Elton John said organized religion should be outlawed. It figures that he would say something like that - his being gay and all. But the longer I live, the more I agree. This is my religious rant page, but let's start with me.

I consider myself to be a failed Christian. I was saved at a revival in my mid teens. But I drifted away from God after about a week. But it was a good week. Really, it was an excellent week. Then I went on with my life. High school, a stint in the Army, three and a half years of college and then came work. Followed by marriage. Then being a parent. Then being divorced. Then marriage again and being a parent again and again. My wife had always gone to church and she convinced me to go, too. I was happy going to church. I even joined the choir and since I had never been baptized, I was baptized. I really think he should have used more water though.

For fifteen years, everything was great, more or less. I read the Bible and went to church. But somewhere along the way, things began to unravel. I stopped reading the Bible and going to church was really just a habit. But I still enjoyed singing in the choir, so what the heck. Then came the revelation that Jesus wasn't the son of God. I had always struggled with the concept of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But now, the Blessed Trinity was nothing more than a concept concocted by the church. The time had finally come to fully embrace the truth. There is but one GOD and Jesus isn’t that God. Jesus was just a man – a mere mortal. And his heart was filled with the same hopes and dreams that fill every man's heart.

What a kick in the pants – especially if you are a Christian. After all, Christians center their worship service around Christ. And that’s okay for Christians because they accept that Christ and God are one. But now that I accept Christ as a man, how am I to continue worshipping him? I couldn’t. So I left the church that I attended. I still pray daily (to God) and while I admire Jesus, I do not worship him. Here’s the strange part. I do believe that Jesus was and is the Messiah. From what I’ve read he fulfilled all the ancient prophesies. And while I believe most of the New Testament's account of the life of Jesus, I still believe that he was just a man. A very special man, but a man none the less. And yes, he died on the cross. But doesn’t it strike you as odd that the creator of the universe couldn’t find a better way to offer humanity forgiveness for there sins? Come on! Think about it. I’m supposed to believe that God comes to Earth via a virgin teenager; His chosen people deny Him; the Romans beat Him, spit on Him and then crucify Him and somehow all that leads to the gift of salvation. To borrow a phrase from Mr. Spock – that would be illogical.

I know that the resurrection is the significant part of the story. But I think it more likely that Christ was here to tell us that we had it all wrong. The church was so full of rules and regulations – and themselves – that there wasn’t room for God. And just like we had done throughout history, we screwed things up. I don’t think that Jesus intended to die on the cross when he began his ministry. But there certainly came a point in time when he knew that his actions would lead to crucifixion. Why not run away and hide? Why continue on the path to death? Why? Unless it was God’s will. Jesus – the only son of God – I don’t think so. Jesus – a servant of God – now that makes sense. Hopefully you see why I left the church. I cannot worship Jesus – only God. I don’t know what I am now, other than confused. I’m not Christian. I’m not Jewish and I’m not Muslim. I did read a newer translation of the Qur’an by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, though. I found a lot of similarities between the Qur’an and the Old Testament. Did you know that every sura in the Qur’an begins with this passage: In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy. That doesn’t sound like a doctrine of hate to me.

I do not have enough time, space or knowledge to cover the entire Bible but I do want to touch on some of the highlights. So, let's start at the very beginning - a very good place to start. God created the earth and all life on Earth in six days, said 'Boy am I ever tired' and rested on the seventh day. What were they smoking when they came up with this scenario? It takes a very long time for a planet to form. Just how long is irrelevant because I cannot comprehend millions or billions of years. I guess if God thought us into existence then He may have created the universe in the blink of an eye. But that would make us figments of His imagination. If that's the case, I hope He doesn't lose His train of thought.

Now for Adam and Eve. There are over six billion people on the planet and the Bible wants us to believe that they are all descendants of just two people. Really? Actually, it makes sense to me. What doesn't make sense is that they lived in the Garden of Eden and a snake tempted them to eat from the tree of knowledge and suddenly they knew they were naked and God got mad and threw them out of the garden. Who makes this stuff up? Wait a minute. Let's make something up right now. Let's say that in addition to Adam, Eve and God, there were other beings like God but not as powerful. And let's say that some of them were bad and intended to destroy God's creation. So God banished those beings into another dimension to protect His creation. Unfortunately, it also separated Him from His creation. That's why He had to send prophets to tell us things instead of just telling us Himself. Wow!!! That makes a lot more sense than a snake offering Adam and Eve an apple that was secretly from the tree of knowledge.

Let's skip all the way to Noah and the ark. There is evidence to support a great flood at the time that Noah may have lived. But take a minute or two to think about the story. It rained for forty days and forty nights and flooded the entire planet. Because God had given Noah a heads up about the flood, he built an arc so he and his family would survive. He also took two of every animal because God told him to do so. Oh pah-leeze. Even if Noah managed to build the arc, it is physically impossible to take two of every animal and have enough food and water to sustain them. And who was on poop patrol? Somebody had to keep the place clean.

Enough about Noah. Let's talk Moses. The story of Moses and the ten commandments is interesting. Most people over thirty have seen the movie The Ten Commandments and Cecil B. DeMille didn't stray far from the Bible. But is the story true? Personally, I believe about ninety percent of the story. I really only want to touch on two parts of the story - the tablets containing the ten commandments and the plagues. We know that Rameses continued the tradition of enslaving God's people. Evidently, God was mad at His people again, otherwise they wouldn't have been slaves. Anyway, along comes Moses to free them. Of course Rameses says 'up yours' so God sends the cursed plagues upon Egypt. Each plague may be explained by a natural phenomena and for all I know God had nothing to do with the plagues. But you cannot ignore the timing. Maybe it happened just the way the Bible says it did. Or maybe God knew that a volcano was going to erupt and that there would be earthquakes and deadly gas was going to leak from the earth and that there would be a tsunami to part the Red Sea so He decided that the time was right to free His people from captivity. He looked around and what did He see but Moses - the man destined to lead God's people from captivity. Even I think that's a bit much so maybe we should just accepted that God sent the plagues upon Egypt.

At any rate, Moses leads God's people out of captivity and into the desert to freedom. But after days, weeks, months and even years of wandering, the people become restless. They're being downright unruly - what with all the cursing and back stabbing and doing the naughty and all that kind of stuff. So what does Moses do? He flees to the mountains. Enough with leading God's people. But after a while he has a change of heart. All he really needs are a few simple rules to keep the people in line. Whoa!!! What if God gave him ten commandments for the people to live by. Wouldn't that help keep the people under control? So Moses carves the ten commandments into stone tablets and trots down the mountain for the grand unveiling. But when he gets there, the people are worse than ever. They're fighting and yelling and worshipping a golden calf. This ticks Moses off. After all, he is a bit of a hot head and prone to violent outbursts. So Moses destroys the tablets. And people say that we live in a disposable society. At any rate, once he settles down, he regrets what he did and off he goes to carve a new pair of tablets. It won't take nearly as much time because he already knows what to chisel into the tablets. To me, this version of what happened is just as possible as the movie version. But why would anybody listen to a fat old man like me?

Look, God/Moses gave us ten simple rules and boy didn't organized religion have a field day with those rules. It got so bad that you couldn't even pass gas without saying the right words first. So along comes Jesus to set the record straight. He tried. I think it's fair to say that he gave it his all. But Christians have managed to pollute his message of peace, tolerance and forgiveness with crap, crap, crap, crap, crap almost from day one. What was up with the crusades? I don't remember Jesus preaching death and destruction in any of his sermons. Maybe I just don't like authority. There's also an outside chance that I don't like being told what to do. And just maybe organized religions are too interested in control and MONEY for my taste. Not to mention the pedophiles, adulterers and homosexuals that fill the pulpits. I think it rather unfair to group homosexuals with pedophiles and adulterers though.

Bottom line: There is only one God and organized religions are too busy with self preservation to help anybody find God. Plus they tend to worship Jesus or Muhammad or Buddha instead of God. Fortunately, you don't need organized religion to find God. He is there, waiting for you. Remember - look and yea shall find. God is my last hope in this world. I cling to the thought that when I die I will stand before God; face to face. I doubt that He will saying anything close to 'Well done, good and faithful servant', but I still want that moment. Without God, there is no sin. There isn't right or wrong. There is only legal and illegal. So if I decide to kill a family of five just for the heck of it, that wouldn't be a sin. It wouldn't be right or wrong - maybe illegal, but not wrong. Perhaps the time has come to put an end to my ranting, but only for now.


RAMBLINGS OF A MAD MAN!!! (Rambling is different than ranting)

I'm not so sure that God created the universe. When God asks Moses to deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt, Moses says something like "Who should I tell them has sent me?" Exodus 3:14 says "And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you". To me, God is saying that He is clueless as to His own name and origin. All He knows is that "I Am".

If Jesus and God are one, how do you explain Matthew 27:46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Did he forsake himself?

You can't prove or disprove the existence of God. You just have to believe. If one more person tells me "that's why it's called faith", I'm going to jackslap them into next week. And I'm not talking Monday or Tuesday. Faith isn't enough for me. I want to know. I can't prove or disprove the existence of Bigfoot and that's okay. But I'm not putting Bigfoot at the center of my life.

Am I really supposed to believe that a man in a white suit can put his hand on a sick person's forehead, say a few words and that person is miraculously healed. Gee, it must be so. The sick person always falls down and goes "Boom". Shortly thereafter, they hit you up for MONEY!!!! Enough already. Healing the sick isn't a godly matter. If you get sick and the doctors cannot cure you, then you are going to die. But if you should live, that doesn't mean that God healed you. Maybe you just got lucky.

I have prayed for God to heal terminally sick people. And without exception, they - all - died. God doesn't heal people. And don't give me that line of bull about it not being God's will or He healed their spirit. And let's not forget the ever popular "it was just their time" or "God called them home". He doesn't heal people. Wait. Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I didn't say the right words. Is it "through Christ I pray" or "in Christ's holy name I pray"? I can never keep that straight.

Somebody once told me that when you ask God for something, you will receive one of three answers: "Yes", "No" and "Not yet". That actually makes sense. But I think it more likely that God will say something like "I'm sorry. Did you say something? I wasn't listening."

Wouldn't it be really funny if when you like die and go to heaven and you ask God why He didn't answer any of your prayers He would say something like "Next time try praying out loud. What do you think I am, a mind reader?"

Who started the myth that God knows our every thought - that He has a plan for each of us? When did we become the center of God's universe. Let's look at the big picture for just a moment. There are over six billion people on planet Earth. And there are countless billions on countless other planets. And you want me to believe that God has a hotline into each persons head. Wow!!! That is quite a feat. Let's say I go along with the madness for just a moment. That means that for every moment of God's existence, He experiences unspeakable sorrow and joy because somewhere in the universe somebody that God loves is being tortured, mutilated, raped and killed - every second of every day. But, every second of every day, somebody that God loves is also laughing, loving, sharing a tender moment or giving birth - every second of every day. So, I really don't think that God pays much attention to us at all. I think that we make up things about God just to make ourselves feel better. We try to convince ourselves that we matter - that somebody loves us. If you need to feel loved try adopting a pet.

We are currently living in Camelot. A magical time between the last ice age and the next event that will make the earth uninhabitable. What if God put us here, knowing that our time on Earth was limited, just to see how far we could go before we become extinct? Then, He would clean up our messes and start again. Just to see how far we would make it before.... I think you get the picture.

Please stop telling me that Jesus is coming soon to set up his kingdom on the earth. Why would he want to set up his kingdom on something that's temporary? That doesn't make sense. And to the people of He's Alive radio, believing that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago isn't a sin.

What does God eat? What if He consumes the souls of human beings? Maybe He didn't create us in His image. Maybe He was just hungry. Would that make Him a cosmic vampire?

I'm all finished for now, but I'm sure I'll rant some more later...........

More From the MAD MAN!!!

03/22/2009...Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Does this mean that God ignores you when you are alone? That He doesn't hear your prayers when it's just you in the dark along side of your bed? Wouldn't that bite? People talk about God creating man in His own image, but they never give it any thought. They accept that we "look" like God. I don't believe that "His image" refers to physical appearance at all. The body is merely the keeper of our souls until we return to God. "His images" refers to the part of us that is of God. You know, that little voice inside of us that helps guide us through our journey on this planet. It's starting to sound like I accept the Holy Ghost portion of the Trinity. If so, it makes sense that the little voice inside of us is the Holy Ghost - the portion of God that is in each of us. And when two or more gather in God's name, something special happens. The spirit that is in each of us grows until you can almost feel God's presence. Almost, but not quite. Especially if you are a good Methodist.
Look. I felt God's touch one time in my life, when I was saved. One time!! And believe me, once is not enough. Sometimes I think that I am "finding God" challenged. Oops, I'd better stop. My current rant is starting to sound like it belongs on my "Was It God" page.

03/24/2009...Why do some churches adhere to a doctrine of exclusion? It's okay to attend their church and give them money, but you can't take communion unless you're a member of the church, you've been baptized and confirmed, you donate ten percent of your pretax income to the church, you have five toes on your left foot and you never touch your nose without a tissue in hand. I hope God isn't as restrictive.

05/26/2009...My wife thinks I'm going to Hell. To a Christian, that makes perfect sense. Personally, I'm hoping that Hell is just a rumor. But I can't figure out why I should go to Hell for worshipping God, and she gets into Heaven for worshipping Jesus. Didn't God say something about 'having no other gods'? Oh, I forgot. Christians believe that Jesus was 'God in the flesh'. I side with the Muslims on this one. Reducing God to human form is quite disrespectful.

07/31/2009...I was supposed to post this a while back but I never got around to it. So shoot me already...When I first heard that the rapture was going to occur in May of 2009, a spark of electricity coursed through my entire body. But, that spark was soon grounded by reality. May has come and gone - no rapture. There is always the outside chance that the rapture did occur and it was such a nonevent that nobody noticed. December 21st, 2012, will most likely be a bust, too.
Why is Billy Graham still alive? He has been and is a true and loyal servant of God. What more does God want from him?
Why do people think that life in Heaven is going to be like life on Earth? You know what I mean. They are going to have a body and live in a house and eat and drink and laugh and love and .... and all those other things that we do while we have form (aka a body). They may be right, but I don't think so. And don't even get me started on sex in Heaven. Allowing sex in Heaven would be downright irresponsible. PLEASE!!!!

08/24/2009...Wouldn't it really bite, if when you die, your soul dissipates and becomes part of the cosmos and that's how you live forever.

09/01/2009...We assume a lot about God when we pray. For starters, we assume He's listening. And if we pray silently, we assume He can read our minds. We also assume that He understands the language that we speak. So, God knows every language known to mankind. I bet He uses Rosetta Stone. You would think that the advertisements would use God as a reference.

10/25/2009...Everybody’s abuzz about 2012. Hardcore Christians await the return of Jesus. Skeptics are saying “Bah Humbug!!!’ as the shrug their shoulders. As for me, I’m undecided. I know that some scientists believe that the magnetic poles may be about to switch. What does that mean? Beats me. All I know is that if they do switch, the water in the commode will rotate counterclockwise when I flush the john. I haven’t a clue how the alignment of the sun, Earth and the center of the Milky Way galaxy might be bad. And, yes, the sun will be back in the solar maximum of its cycle, but we’ve lived through that before. And everybody knows that the Mayan calendar ends on December 21st, 2012. There is always the chance that they figured looking 5,000 years into the future was enough. Granted, twelve is an important number in the Bible, so 12/2012 could certainly be relevant. But why 12/21/2012 instead of 12/12/2012? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

11/11/2009...Throughout October, most church bulletin boards shared a common message – “Autumn leaves – Jesus doesn’t!!!” Well, I beg to differ. Jesus left over two thousand years ago and as far as I know, he hasn’t been seen since. That sure sounds like he left to me.

Final thoughts for 2009...According to the laws of physics, matter cannot be created or destroyed. So, after much thought and next to no research at all, I've decided that we do not exist. Think about it. If nothing existed in the universe before the BIG BANG, what was the source of the first bit of matter? If matter doesn't exist, it cannot be created. And if it cannot be created, it can never exist. So we cannot exist. You are not reading this, you only think you are. You are not real - none of us are real. And when I shoveled snow from the sidewalk this morning and froze my butt off because it was only fifteen degrees - well, that wasn't real either.

Here's my final thought for 2009. As a child, I believed in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost, Jesus and God. As an adult (Keep your snide remarks to yourself please), I no longer believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy or Jack Frost. I still believe that Jesus existed, but not as the son of God. As for God, I'm still hoping that He/She is real. But I fear that someday my belief in God will fall by the wayside, too. What a sad day that will be - a sad day indeed.

Here's the first thing I'm going to ponder during 2010. Compared to eternity, our time on Earth is like one grain of sand compared to the beach. So why do Christians believe that our destiny for eternity is solely decided by our time spent on Earth? Unfortunately, the answer is all too simple. That belief is how organized religion keeps the masses in check and keeps the money rolling in. Now what am I going to ponder during 2010?

01/25/2010...Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away...Matthew 24:35

There is but one truth in the universe and that is God's truth. Unfortunately, I live according to what I hold to be true. And what I believe to be true about God and Jesus tends to get me into trouble. It doesn't make sense that God would place us on Earth and that we eventually end up in Heaven or Hell. If the Christians are right, the Jews are screwed. If the Jews are right the Muslims are screwed. If the Muslims are right...I hope you get the picture by now.

03/03/2010...In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth….Genesis 1:1.

God and the angels lived and worked in Heaven and took holiday on Earth. But what good is taking holiday if you have to do everything yourself. So, God created a man to serve the angels and named him Adam. But one man couldn’t possibly serve all of the angels, so God created a woman and named her Eve. The plan was that Adam and Eve would go forth and multiply and soon there would be plenty of people to serve the angels on holiday. But one day, Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and became self-aware. They said “Heck with waiting on the angels, we’re out of here.” In effect, they terminated their employment. Now, man has over populated Earth and angels lack a holiday resort. God has been negotiating with humans for thousands of years, but man is happy and refuses to change. So, when it’s all said and done, what’s a supreme being to do?.....Nick 1:1

Looks like it's time to go. Please feel free to drop me a line to ask a question or just to call me a jerk. Either way, it's all good stuff.....nick@nickleigh.com.