I reject God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Santa and the Easter Bunny

This is probably an old story, but there's a curious movement online called The Blasphemy Challenge: make a video of yourself saying that you reject the Holy Spirit, post it on YouTube and they'll send you a free DVD "The God Who Wasn't There" (actually, they send those to the first 1001 posters, and that limit has been reached already, sorry). See, the Bible says that of all the bad things people have ever done, the worst one is rejecting the Holy Spirit. It's so bad, in fact, that it's the only sin for which you are forever destined to hell, with no possibility of parole. Apparently, in their belief, you can commit any other sin and as long as you jump through the right hoops you can make it into heaven. But not for saying a couple simple words about some ghost dude. OK.

Here's the video that explains this in greater detail..



I don't have a camera or a microphone so I'm destined to say it out loud to my computer and write it on this blog. Hope that's loud enough to get the DVD. Well, maybe not. But it sure is loud enough for most Christians to say that I'm gonna burn for all eternity. And you know what, I don't really care. I reject Jesus. And Santa. And Zeus. And Brahman. And Allah. And anything else you care to throw my way. Go ahead, imagine this is a batting cage, come up with a non-factual concept pulled out of your ass and toss it this way and I'll reject it.

Incidentally, the atheism that Ryan "Sapient" (the atheist from the video) presents is not exactly what I believe, so don't assume that I agree with him 100%. True, we think the same thing about God and the imaginary trio, but Ryan is very much opposed to religion while I have a bit more relaxed outlook on the whole thing: believe in what you wish. If you wish to believe in Santa, go for it. If you wish to believe that a carpenter awaits you in the clouds after you die, go ahead, I don't mind. If you can find meaning and happiness in an idiotic concept, all the better. However, as soon as your own personal religion starts being a problem, it is out the window. Religion is an appendix: it was useful at some point, but not anymore. At its best religion is a triviality and a source of happiness. At its worst it is a ticking time-bomb with enough boom to destroy humanity.

This is, not surprisingly, my approach to traditions. If it makes you happy to send red envelopes with an even amount of money to a relative, go nuts, but some part of the celebration probably has to be reconsidered, seeing as this is the largest human migration and creates quite a few problems. I say it's not surprising because, after all, isn't religion just one more tradition?