I write these words not to offend. I will present the argument.

According to our three great religious traditions, God insists that we believe in him. “I am the lord thy God” is the first six words of the ten commandments. In these three great religious ideologies the lord god revealed himself to humanity long before verifiable means of recording the events were possible. The revelation event in each case was experienced by a small group of “worthy individuals”.  The written accounts of these revelations were codified generations and even centuries after the momentous event took place.

The earliest revelation of the monotheistic traditions, the revelation at Sinai, occurred roughly 3500 years ago. Having an understanding of humanity at that time period is daunting to even the most astute historian alive today. We are talking about a period in human history which is as remote to us as it would have been to the Roman’s living at the time of Christ. The humans alive at the time of Sinai would seem prehistoric and barbaric to us. Written records from that time were sketchy and unavailable. Historians today patch together a narrative from that period based on archeology and early forms of written language. At best we can only guess at the lives of these early humans.  Interesting how God would choose that time period to reveal himself to humanity.

Revelation is a cornerstone of religious ideology. Failure to believe in revelation as a fact, is  incompatible with following a religious lifestyle. Integrity demands that we not deceive ourselves or others in what we believe in. Religion demands that we “believe” in something unknowable. The demand of religious belief, is incompatible with someone wanting to live a life based on integrity.

For us to live lives based on integrity our beliefs must be grounded in reality. “Reality” is that which is either observable, understandable, comprehensible and compatible to human intelligence. Religious belief is none of these things. Religious belief is a license for people to behave in ways that are illogical and potentially harmful to humanity. Big Brother Burt is fortunate to live in a time and place on this planet where religious believers are subjected to rules and laws that limit their power and influence. Other places on this planet today are not as fortunate.

Religion by OUR definition constitutes a deception. Any belief that is humanly unknowable, that a person subscribes to, is a deception. INTEGRITY implies that our beliefs are knowable and understandable to us all. Integrity is more than honesty. Any creature alive must be true to it’s nature. Frogs cannot start acting like bats. In the same way we must be true to our nature, and rely on our intelligence as a basis for the beliefs which guide our thoughts and actions.

While a religious person may be honest to the tenants of his faith, he is not compatible with human integrity. The Islamic Jihadist that murders for the sake of his faith, the Orthodox Jew who mourns for his son who marries a non-jew, or the Christian that attacks a homosexual are all being “honest” to their faiths. This honesty is not compatible with human integrity because the faith is based on believing that which is humanly unknowable. Human integrity for it to be meaningful to us all, must be based on beliefs and experiences that we all share and can understand. That is why the morality of religion often runs counter to the sensibilities and morality of the secular world. When the faithful commit atrocities in the name of their god they are honestly following their “beliefs”. The rest of us grounded in human integrity see the behavior for what it is.

In conclusion, God if you exist make yourself known to humanity. How about doing it in a way which is evidentiary to even the most ardent non-believers. Also when you do let us know whose version of you if any, is the accurate one. Then take those fanatics who have misinterpreted your intentions, causing horrendous ruin and destruction in their wake and make them see the error of their ways.

Until such time I will err on the side of human integrity. I will subscribe to beliefs and behaviors that are knowable to me and beneficial to us as humans. The very notion that Gods faithful on earth have to engage in a devine game of hide and seek,  where the act of believing is enough to  gain you entrance to heaven is preposterous.  The idea that all Jews, Muslims, Buddhists , and countless other humans who do not believe that Jesus was their savior, are all going to hell, has made many Christian groups rethink their position. The glaring flaw is that each of these groups with their own version of God and his rules, believes deeply that all the others are wrong. Since no one can bring a proof, or even a practical theory to prove their case, at it’s heart it is a deception.

Human integrity is the course that guides us forward. Speculation on beliefs that deviate from the path of integrity has always taken us away from our mission of human evolution. Big Brother Burt believes that as we continue to evolve more people will wake up to the fact that beliefs in that which is unknowable is counter-productive to human prosperity. Eventually the deception that is religion will exist only in museums in the same regard as we can now examine the Gods and superstitions that our ancestors once held dear to themselves in their own time.

“To believe” is a tool that we all use to inspire progress. Believing is a powerful motivator. During difficult and trying tasks “belief in success ” can be the difference in fulfilling our dreams. As American’s we respect human perseverance when the odd’s of success are not in our favor.

How then does this belief differ from that of religious belief. At what point does belief become nothing more than speculation.

When seated at the roulette table, odds of success are one out of thirty eight.  Our hypothetical gambler will wager one dollar per spin of the wheel believing that he he will collect the reward of $36, before having to spend that amount. No matter how deep his “belief” of success is, the outcome is not affected, as the odds remain 1/38 every time the wheel spins. We call this believing, speculation.

When religious people take the leap of faith within a particular religious ideology, they too are merely speculating. The bet is that if you believe in the “deity” and play by his rules, you will get the big payoff. The belief here is pure speculation, because as humans we do not possess the ability to analyze or even understand the true nature of the deity. The bet however is better than that of a the gambler, because if the gambler is wrong he looses his money. The faith believer has nothing to loose. If he is wrong and his deity isn’t real, then he ends up no worse off than the average atheist.

The truth is that in taking the “bet” of the faithful, we all ultimately lose. Society as a whole is degraded and constantly molested by those who believe and choose to take the leap of faith. Belief in speculation is the same as lying. The believer is lying to himself and to others. Priest’s, Rabbi’s, and all religious leaders who profess a knowledge of god are and have been lying to us for millennium. The lie is so complete and has gone on for so long that they themselves have no idea that they are lying. Selling a bill of goods that they actually know  nothing about is the business of religion.

What they are selling seems very attractive because it answers questions that we would all want to have answers for. Given all our technological advances we still do not have any insight to the afterlife. Religions provide answers and rituals in regard to the dead. Unfortunately these answers are based on pure speculation. Any theories about the nature of the afterlife are complete fabrications as no human has ever died and returned with a report.

The great religions of our day justify their existence based on revelation of God. So at some obscure moment in time, long ago, the lord God decided to reveal himself to a particular group of people. It seems that god is incapable of one revelation to all humans. And in doing so codifying of the events should happen hundreds of years and multiple generations later. In this way god reveals himself to select few and continues playing hide and seek with the rest of us. As in most fabrication verification is elusive and simply nonexistent.

It should come as no surprise that in countries where education and peoples are less exposed to science and technologies harbor the greatest amount of religious fanatics ready to die and be killed to further the dictates of their faith. The horrors associated with religious fanaticism are alive and well in populations that technology which today has provided many answers and improved quality of life and health, is not readily available. In this regard the lie of religious faith has come to roost and we are all in danger of loosing everything to fanatics who would stop at nothing to destroy our world.

Big Brother Burt urges that the next time you hear a religious leader speak of god and what god wants from us, ask him how he knows so much about God. Ask him when he last visited with God and if he doesn’t mind if you came along to one of those meetings. Integrity demands of us all to represent the world in ways that conform to the scope of what is observable or can be rationalized through human intellect. We must be willing to admit an agnostic view to ideas and concepts that our outside our experiences that we cannot see any evidence for. To do otherwise is to perpetuate deception in a universe of speculation.