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Category: Atheism

Our “New” National Anthem — God Bless America

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The terrorist attacks on 9/11 deeply wounded the psyche of Christian nationalists. Thinking that the United States had favored nation status with God, these white, middle-class, Republican, Evangelical Christians thought that our country was invincible. The Christian nation myth is so deeply embedded in our culture that it is almost impossible to get Evangelicals to see and understand the facts of the matter — that the United States is a schoolyard bully that uses violence and extortion to advance its globalist agenda. No, no, no, the United States is a Christian nation, says Evangelicals. We are a good, kind, and loving people who want what’s best for the world. Best being, of course, Christianity and capitalism. From its earliest days, United States has used violence to conquer all those who oppose her. One need only to look to the Middle East to see that the United States still thinks that bombs and bullets are the best way to settle any conflict. Even more troubling is the fact that millions of Americans plan on voting for a man who not only embraces the use of violence but wants to expand its use, going so far as to suggest that the United States needs to drop nuclear bombs on its enemies

These violence-loving Christians — thinking that the United States is some sort of global dispenser of God’s justice — are increasingly incensed over what they perceive to be a lack of fealty to their version of the Christian God. Ignoring the fact that the United States is a secular state, flag-waving Evangelicals demand that their God and their religion be given preferential treatment. Any pushback from atheists, humanists, secularists, or Christians who support the separation of church and state is viewed as persecution. Pretty soon the Christmas season will be upon us, and social media, along with Faux News, will be filled with stories about the “war on Christmas.” Businesses that don’t have their employees say Merry Christmas to their customers are viewed as anti-Christian. The same story is played out over and over throughout the year as Evangelicals whine, scream, and complain about the supposed secularist takeover of America. Again, facts don’t matter. Christians feel threatened by the restoration of the proper place of the separation of church and state in our government institutions, and instead of realizing that Christianity actually benefits from this, Evangelicals attempt to force God on people through public displays of Christian power. One such display is the singing of God Bless America at sporting events.

Last Friday, I attended the Wayne Trace-Tinora high school football game. A few minutes before game time, Wayne Trace’s marching band came on the field to play what I thought would be the Star-Spangled Banner. Imagine my surprise when they played, not the national anthem, but God Bless America. Fans on both sides of the field stood, removed their hats, and placed their hands over the hearts as the band played America’s new national anthem. I, for one, did not stand, nor did I take my hat off or put my hand over my heart. I find such displays of Christian nationalism to be offensive and I refuse to give my tacit support to anything that promotes the America-is-a-Christian-Nation myth.

After the playing of God Bless America, the band played the Star-Spangled Banner. At that moment, I stood, removed my hat, placed my hand over my heart, and quietly mouthed the words to the national anthem. While I’m not a big fan of singing the national anthem at sporting events, I recognize doing so is an attempt to express the common patriotic bond Americans have with one another. Personally, I wish they’d stop singing the national anthem, especially since in recent years its singing has often been used to advance militarism and display American military prowess. How else can we explain the use of military personnel to unfurl the flag or the Air Force jet flyovers as the anthem is being sung?

Several years ago, I attended a Sunday service at a Lutheran Church outside of Newark Ohio. As part of its worship service — I kid you not —  the pastor led the congregation in singing the national anthem and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I thought, at the time, how ironic to see this in a Lutheran Church. Seventy-five years ago, such displays of Christian nationalism were common in Hitler’s Germany. Both the Lutheran and Catholic churches played a significant part in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. It is not beyond the pale of human imagination to see the same thing happening in the United States if Donald Trump is elected president. Like Hitler, Trump is not a Christian, but he is smart enough to see that Christian nationalism can be used to advance his political agenda. Evangelicals in particular have been manipulated and used by the Republican Party for the past 40 years. And once again, in 2016, they are being used to advance a pernicious agenda that could lead to World War III. And what will these God-fearing, flag-waving Christians do when war comes to the shores of the United States? Why, they will wave their flags, sing God Bless America, and with great pride pledge their allegiance to America’s Christian God.

 

Local Christian Says My Letters to the Editor Belong in Library’s Fantasy Section

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fantasy-bookI regularly write letters to the editor of the Defiance Crescent-News. I am one of a handful of liberal/secularist/humanist/atheist letter writers who challenge and rebut the never-ending stream of right-wing drivel that daily appears on the Crescent-News editorial page. Local Christians will often respond to my letters. Five men in particular: Daniel Gray, John Wilson, Larry Tonjes, Randall Peabody, and Richard Mastin have repeatedly over the years responded to my letters.  You can read the various responses to my letters here.

I recently wrote a letter to the editor concerning Evangelical support of Donald Trump. You can read my letter here. You can read previous letters to the editor here. In today’s Crescent-News, Daniel Gray responded to my latest letter, Gray, along with Richard Mastin, have gone out of their way to spread lies about me and besmirch my character — all in the name of Jesus, of course. Here is Gray’s response:

It seems Bruce Gerencser is completely ignoring the fact that the person who would be the First Husband has been accused of sexual assault and rape by no less than six women. You want that in the White House?

I find it very amazing that Gerencser would believe any of these women. The latest one is coming forward because Trump refused to loan her money for her failing food business in California, and this is a way to get back at him. The first one claimed to have been groped on a Braniff airline on a 707. Problem is there were no 707s at that time, only 727s, and the arm rest in first class is bolted and cannot be moved. Not to mention that $500,000 was deposited into her account after making the claim and it came from a high ranking Clinton campaign officer. Let’s not forget the $8 million worth of furnishings that Clinton had to return when the Secret Service caught her taking them from the White House.

Let’s not forget that she has used racial slurs against minorities or the Bimbo eruptions and her violation of the federal Anti-nepotism Act of 1968 when she tried to take over health care. The emails that show she is the one that ordered the stand-down of the rescue team for Benghazi and the 600 plus times she ignored ambassador Stevens when he begged for help. Or the simple fact that pay-to-play has been found in the recent Podesta emails.

What’s worse is that Hillary has told Goldman Sachs that her dream is to have a hemisphere-wide NAFTA from Chile to Canada. That would cut the union’s throats and yet they still want to endorse her. Say goodbye to GM and JM.

Isn’t it just strange that Gerencser, and his ilk want the government out of the bedroom, but then turn right around and demand that the government says who can and can’t get married? You can’t have it both ways, either they are not in the bedroom or they are. Mr. Gerencser’s letter is so full of half truths and myths that it would be better to be placed in the fantasy section of the public library.

People should vote for who they want, but just remember you may get what you asked for and there is no way to return it.

Daniel Gray
Defiance

Christians Say The Darnedest Things: Destroying the Arguments of Atheists

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atheist-hellThe atheist has been unleashed on the world as part of a planned attack on all religions of faith. The specific targets of the atheists are: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. When the man of sin shows up, he will destroy the atheists along with everyone else that does not accept his “pure luciferian” religion.

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To illustrate how ridiculous the atheist argument is, consider this: Take any complex organism, or machine, or anything else in the world that has hundreds (if not thousands of parts) and shake them around in a box for thousands of years, and see what you get when you open the box. Somehow humans “evolved?” Well, great theory, but how? Who set the rules for that evolution? Who designed it all? The entire universe screams at the top of its lungs “RANDOM DOES’NT [sic] WORK HERE.”

Can you imagine how long an engineer would last at any company if they suggested the best way to create something new was to throw all kinds of pieces and parts in a box and shake them around for a long time? That is utterly, completely ridiculous, and its also the argument the atheist uses for the existence of everything we see.”

Atheist “it all “just happened, we don’t know how”
Christian: “oh, so your faith is in “I don’t know.”
Atheist “correct, “I don’t know” explains more than an intelligent designer.”
Christian “ummm, sorry, but I don’t know, explains nothing.”

The atheist worships math and science. Great! So who set the laws that govern math and science? Math and science are based on order, so who set the order? Oh yea, I remember, the order came from “i don’t know.”

The universe that we live in is the evidence that our God exists. All creation is evidence that he exists. The incredible complexity, order, and grandeur of creation is the evidence, but the atheist says that “I don’t know” makes more sense than a creator.

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All creation is evidence for the existence of our God. Atheism explains nothing, so how exactly is that worldview helpful to mankind? The atheist is a spiritually bankrupt person, running around telling other people that somehow they have a superior spiritual view from those of us who believe in a Creator? We have answers for the creation, they have “I don’t know,” which is superior?

The atheist has no “deathblow” arguments for Christianity, which is why they have to setup never ending debates and monologues, write hundreds of books, etc etc etc. If they had some kind of “magic bullet” argument why don’t they just use it and be done with it? Since they have no “magic bullet” they go on, and on, and on, debating, writing, and rehashing the same arguments over and over again.

Here’s another vexing question for the atheist: What happens after you die? Now, can you guess what their answer is to that question? Try hard to guess now…. I DON’T KNOW!….there it is…again…the atheist answer for everything. For people who debate ad nauseum [sic], claiming the wisdom and brilliance of mankind over God, surely they have a better answer to the most important questions in life than “I don’t know?”

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The atheist has much, much, MUCH more faith than any member of Islam, Judaism or Christianity, and their faith is in “I don’t know.” We will see here very soon how far “I don’t know” carries these men, as their world turns upside down on them, chews them up and spits them out. They will cry out to “I don’t know” for help when their hearts are failing them for fear, and “I don’t know” will watch their destruction passively with a grin on its face.

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If the atheists were honestly inquiring in their hearts to determine if our God was real, they would find him. But they ask only to answer their own questions with their predetermined agendas, and their self satisfaction in giving canned answers that other men provided for them. The bible says if we seek him with all of our heart, we will find him. For men who call science and math their gods, I am amazed at how far they ride “I don’t know” when it comes to God.
The atheist’s faith in “I don’t know” is something to be marveled at. Time will soon tell who the wise and the foolish among us are. grace and peace

— Brother D, Christian Apostasy, Destroying the Arguments of Atheists, March 28, 2009

Quote of the Day: Revisiting My Apostasy by Mike D

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Want to rattle your faith? Read the Bible.

Perhaps I should have been prepared for the fact that answers to my many-religions questions were not forthcoming in the Bible. It was, to say the least, disheartening. Instead, I turned to the theology of the faith itself, particularly the book of Hebrews. Hebrews explains how the death of Christ is wed to the Old Testament covenants that involved ritual animal sacrifice. The Jewish people sacrificed animals to appease the wrath of God brought upon them by their sins; Christ was a perfect sacrifice that allowed the old covenant to be discarded and a new one, based on faith, was forged.

Except, none of this made any sense to me at all. Why did God want ritual animal sacrifice in the first place? What does that have to do with forgiveness? Perhaps, I thought, God wanted people to make a sacrifice — farm animals, in those days, were precious resources. But that explanation evaporates with Christ, since he took the sacrifice upon himself. What was so special about the “blood of Christ”? What did that have to do with God’s willingness to forgive people? And why did God spend centuries on ineffectual covenants in the first place? How does an omnipotent deity “sacrifice” anything at all — Jesus could have, conceivably, poofed himself right back into existence or simply refused to die in the first place. Generally when we mortals talk about “sacrifice”, it means something quite different. We don’t get to come back a few days later and float into the clouds.

Worse, Christianity holds that Christ is God. How can God sacrifice himself to himself to fulfill his own covenant? A covenant whose terms were, as far as I could tell, completely arbitrary! Adding insult to injury is the fact that modern Christianity (generally) holds that humans are “fallen”, and born into sin. Even those few who reject Original Sin still accept the Biblical decree that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. In other words, the system is rigged. You’re a sinner, and there’s nothing you can do to change that. But God can save you, as long as you assent to the belief that he created a convoluted system of arbitrary covenants and “sacrificed” himself to himself to appease himself of the terms he created so he could forgive you for being what you had no choice to be — a flawed human being. I should point out that it’s utterly irrelevant whether someone believes it’s all literal, as in the “penal substitution theory of atonement”, or they believe it’s either all or in part metaphorical. Either way, it doesn’t make an iota of sense.

Confused and frustrated, I sought out some church leaders to discuss these matters. One chaplain, in particular, was particularly patient with me as I probed for answers about the blood of Christ, ritual sacrifice, and atonement. But he couldn’t offer anything more than trite platitudes about having faith, that there are some thing we just don’t understand. Maybe that was good enough for him, but I couldn’t assent to beliefs that were, on their face, ridiculous. Frankly, I didn’t think it was too much to ask that a logically coherent explanation of basic Christian theology was forthcoming. These aren’t tertiary issues of theology, after all — they’re the fundamentals of what Christianity is in the first place.

— Mike D, The A-Unicornist, Revisiting My Apostasy, October 23, 2016

Sacrilegious Humor: What if You Are Wrong? by Richard Dawkins

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This is the forty-fifth installment in the Sacrilegious Humor series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a comedy bit that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please email me the name of the bit or a link to it.

Today’s bit is a South Park video of Richard Dawkins answering the question, What if you are wrong?

Warning, many of the comedy bits in this series will contain profanity. You have been warned.

Video Link

Sacrilegious Humor: Religion, Science, and Dinosaurs by Eddie Izzard

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eddie-izzard

This is the forty-fourth installment in the Sacrilegious Humor series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a comedy bit that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please email me the name of the bit or a link to it.

Today’s bit is a video titled Religion, Science, and Dinosaurs by Eddie Izzard.

Warning, many of the comedy bits in this series will contain profanity. You have been warned.

Video Link

Bruce, You Are Just Like Judas in the Bible

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Recently, an Evangelical sent me the following via Facebook (unedited) :

Charles Spurgeon made this statement. ”if sinners will be damned then let them leap to hell over our bodies if they perish let them do so with our hands around their ankles imploring them to stay let no soul go unwarned or unprayed for” I understand you were a pastor for 30 years. Judas Iscariot also spent 3 years with Jesus physically during his earthly ministry yet he never truly believed in him for salvation and forgiveness of sin. Looking at these anti-God pics you are posting makes it appear you are right in line with Judas.  Ive talked to many atheists in the Seattle area and they admit to being 2 or 3 generation atheists. And are not advocating anti-theism with anti-God photos on facebook. I cant and wont judge you. But my message to you all is this. Put complete faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He died so you wouldnt have to be separated from the Father eternally. If not like Spurgeon said STAY ALIVE! When on deathbed if you get that much of an advance warning do whatever it takes to remain alive. Spit,scream,tear sheets.fart,chew the pillow ,grab the mattress,etc once you slip into eternity without Christ your decision is FINAL.

What I want to know is this: where is my 30 pieces of silver?

I love it when Evangelicals say that they can’t or won’t judge me and then turn right around and judge me. Of course, their justification is that it is GOD judging me, not them.

This particular person is part of a group of Evangelicals who have made it their mission to harass me, send me emails, and leave numerous comments on my Facebook page. Not much I can do about this other than ban/block them. Well, that and make sure readers see their comments. These zealots are oblivious to the fact that their behavior leads people away from Jesus. At times, I wonder if their real goal is just to be assholes for Jesus. I suspect they are Calvinists, and if they are my salvation or lack thereof is all up to God. The same could be said for Judas. He was chosen by God to be the Son of Perdition, thus making his eternal damnation settled before the foundation of the world.

Whatever their motives might be, I love the gospel they are preaching. It will surely lead people AWAY from Jesus and his church and into the arms of atheism or some sort of non-Evangelical religion. Keep up the good work!

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Evangelical Gnats Are Everywhere

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Thanks to my public presence on social media and this blog, I frequently come in contact with people who believe they have a duty to “rescue” me from the clutches of atheism. Just today an Evangelical man asked me if I had ever read Lee Strobel? I have been asked this question more times than I can count. What follows is the brief discussion that ensued.

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One of my Facebook page moderators stepped in and told this man to buzz off. I think this man is part of a cadre of Evangelicals who have set up multiple Facebook profiles so they can spread Christian propaganda. Ban one of them and a different commenter shows up and starts commenting. In this man’s case, he left a derogatory comment about gays in the military (using the word homo). I have zero respect or tolerance for such people.

Yes, zealots such as this man are e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. On a warm summer day, so are gnats. Swat!

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire: Ken Ham Lies About Secularists Wanting to ‘Ban’ Christianity

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Just today, Ken Ham, the CEO of Answers in Genesis, released another screed about the supposed outlawing of Christianity by secularists. Ham wrote:

Little by little, the secularists have been outlawing Christianity from the culture. Through misinformation, bullying, and intimidation, they have been succeeding. And because so many Christians have been so secularized by the public education system, they have largely not put up a fight.

And if this trend keeps happening, do you want a picture of where America is headed in the future? Just look at England.
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Warning! What is happening in the United States has already happened in Britain. That’s where America is heading.

I would say the decline is happening for the same basic reason: God’s people didn’t stand on God’s Word from its beginning. In this era, the compromise between evolution/millions of years and Genesis began in England and spread around the world. Really, what’s happened to the church throughout England is actually the outworking of a church that has compromised God’s Word with man’s fallible ideas. Furthermore, the church has largely handed over the education of generations to the state.

This same compromise is rife in the church in the United States. At the same time, generations of children in America have been educated in schools that have increasingly outlawed anything Christian.

I believe this is why the Lord has raised up ministries like Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, and the new Ark Encounter. God is using these outreaches to equip Christians to stand against the secular attacks of our day and to challenge (in a very public and bold way) non-Christians with the truth of God’s Word and the gospel.

God has allowed AiG to build the Creation Museum and the Ark because I believe there are many godly people who will take a stand on the authority of the Word of God.

While we still have the freedom to boldly proclaim the message of God’s Word to the world, I pray you will support us in prayer to do whatever we can to embolden God’s people and reach millions with the saving gospel. I urge you to help us to stand against those who would try to completely outlaw Christianity from the culture.
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If God’s people don’t contend for the faith, we will see Christianity outlawed even further in our culture! I implore you to stand up for your faith. In a very public way (with an increasing number of scoffers trying to stop us), AiG is contending for the faith through many ministries like the Creation Museum and now the Ark Encounter.

Is Christianity being outlawed? Of course not. Christians are free to worship whenever, however, wherever, with whomever. Christian public school students are free to individually pray and read the Bible in school. Evangelicals are free to send their children to Christian schools or home school them. Christians are even free to build monuments to ignorance such as the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. Evangelicals are free to evangelize their neighbors and stand on street corners preaching the gospel. Christianity is freer here in America than any other country on earth. Christian ministers get special tax exemptions/deductions, as do the churches they pastor.

Despite freedom of belief, worship, and practice that all Christians (and non-Christians) enjoy, charlatans such as Ken Ham continue to say that their brand of religious Fundamentalism is under attack. Ham says secularists are trying to ban Christianity. Knowing everything that I have mentioned above, how can Ham continue to lie about this? The very fact that Ham can build a damn wood boat on dry Kentucky land and say it is a testament to God’s saving grace is proof that secularists are NOT trying to ban Christianity. Most secularists don’t care about with whom, where, and how people worship their respective deities. Simply put…WE DON’T CARE!

We do, however, care about Evangelical (and Catholic and Mormon) attempts to breach the wall of separation of church and state. We do care when Evangelicals ignore the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, saying that God’s law trumps man’s law. We do care when Evangelicals attempt to sneak creationism and its gussied-up sister, intelligent design, into SECULAR public school classrooms. We do care when Evangelicals wrongly assert that America is a Christian nation and that the Bible should be the law of the land. And most of all, we do care when Evangelicals attempt to hijack local, state, and federal government for their own purposes.

Secularists stand resolutely against ANY attempt to merge church and state. We are students of history, knowing that when church and state are one, freedoms are lost and people die. If anyone is a threat to America and human freedom and liberty, it is theocrats such as Ken Ham. Does Ham want more or less freedom for those who do not share his religious sentiments? Less! Does Ham support the wall of separation between church and state? Does Ham think people should be free to live godless, heathen lives? Does Ham think consenting adults should be free to do sexually as they please? Does Ham support fairness, justice and equal protection under the law for all? No, on all counts. It is Ham and his Fundamentalist horde who want to rob Americans of their freedoms, not secularists. The real enemy, Ken, is You!

Fox’s ‘Lucifer’ — Hated by Evangelicals, Loved by Heathens

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Chloe Decker and Lucifer Morningstar

Fox’s hit show Lucifer began its second season this week, wasting no time as Lucifer Morningstar and others continue to mock all that Christians hold dear. Last season ended with Lucifer’s mother escaping hell. The latest episode finds Lucifer, played by Tom Ellis, explaining to his therapist (played by Rachael Harris) his Dad (God) and Mom’s relationship:

Lucifer: Very well. In human terms, once upon a time, a boy met a girl, and they fell in love. They had sex. The only trouble was, they were celestial beings, so that moment created the universe.

Linda: MM, the Big Bang?

Lucifer: Never knew how appropriate the name was until now, did you? Anyway, they became Mum and Dad. They had a whole litter of kids, including yours truly. And they built a house. They called it Heaven. They were happy. Dad was… Well, Dad, and Mum… Well, Mum was rather lovely in the beginning. But things change, don’t they? Dad started going into the garage and tinkering with a little project he called humanity. Mum grew cold… Distant. And pretty soon, they were both neglecting their family.

Linda: And then one of his children started to act out?

Lucifer: Indeed. Yeah… So Dad got pissed off and tossed me out of the house.

Linda: And what did your mother do?

Lucifer: Nothing. She just stood there and let it happen. Anyway, a couple of thousand years later, Dad kicked her out, too. Cast her into Hell and put her in a cell. So, I did the same for her as she did for me. Zilch.

This season introduces to viewers a new character — a forensic scientist named Ella Lopez (Aimee Garcia).  Lopez, a crucifix-wearing Christian, thinks that the Lucifer in the Bible got a bad rap:

Ella: You must be Detective Decker’s civilian consultant.

Lucifer: Lucifer Morningstar.

Ella: Cool.

Lucifer: I was expecting a different reaction considering your choice of bling.

Ella: Oh. Dude, I had a friend named Adolf. Okay, Adolf. I didn’t hold it against him. And besides, I think the Devil gets a bad rap.

Lucifer: Oh. You do, do you?

Ella: Sure. I mean, what did he really do that was so bad? What, rebel against his dad? Ask some naked lady if she wanted an apple?

Lucifer: Be still my heart. Do go on.

Ella: I suppose he does run Hell. That’s not so great, you know, with the torture and eternal damnation.

Lucifer: I’m retired. And besides, I didn’t create Hell. I just worked there.

Ella: And now you’re talking in the first person. Wait. Are you…

Lucifer: The Devil?

Ella: …A method actor?

Lucifer: What?

Later in the episode, Lopez answers Detective Chloe Decker’s (played by Lauren German) questions about God, angels, the Devil,and the afterlife:

Chloe: Do you believe that it all really exists?

Ella: What do you mean?

Chloe: Say, angels. Or the Devil. That sort of thing. That’s all a metaphor, right?

Ella: Maybe. Maybe not.

Chloe: Oh, okay. That’s pretty…I just thought there would be more faith in your faith, I guess.

Ella: Oh. No, see, my aunt was a nun, okay? And she always taught me that doubt was really important. Right? I mean, if you don’t question something, then what’s the point of believing it? I doubt so that I can believe.

Chloe: So, then, if you had the chance to prove it was all real or fake, would you do it?

Ella: I mean, that kind of defeats the point, don’t you think? It’s faith…

I wish more Christians would take Decker’s approach. Hebrews 11:1-6 states:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Christian apologists spend countless hours scoring the Internet looking for opportunities to rationally defend their faith. As science continues to make belief systems such as Christianity largely irrelevant, zealots fight back with worn-out, stale, irrational arguments for the veracity of their beliefs. Have they not read Hebrews 11? The essence of Christian belief is FAITH. Attempting to “prove” Christianity to people such as myself is a waste of time. I am unwilling to surrender reason to faith; unwilling to just believe. Either someone believes, or they don’t. I don’t, and Lucifer Morningstar’s tale of heaven and hell is every bit as “real” to me as that which is found in the Bible. It’s all entertainment, and these days I think Fox’s ‘Lucifer’ is far more entertaining.