John D. Espinoza - The Biblical God Doesnt Exist: Argument Evidence

The Biblical God Doesnt Exist

Argument & Evidence

By John D. Espinoza

Copyright 2013 JD Espinoza

Published on Smashwords

ISBN 9781301698547

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Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents

Part I Argument

Part II Evidence

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Raised inthe Roman Catholic faith, I spent much of my early life in fear.Not the fear you may experience from the threat of physical harm,but more like the unsettled anguish one feels when they thinktheyre in trouble. I attended the now defunct Holy TrinityCatholic School in New Jersey, which included church services eachmorning before class, and of course one had to put in an appearanceon The Lords Day. Six days of Catholic mass each week, regularconfessions and nuns for teachers should serve to illustrate myyoung educational life.

My most vivid memories include being punchedin the nose by a nun for having the audacity to chew gum during theMass, and yet still proceed to receive The Body of Christ. SisterTheckla was the attacker on that memorable morning and none of myclassmates were a bit surprised as she had a well-deservedreputation for physical torment of her students. My younger sisterspent much of her time under Thecklas reign suffering from earlymorning diarrhea and actually pulled all of her eyelashes out oneby one. Somehow, my mother never considered Catholicism could bethe culprit for her rather significant nervousness.

When I was in the fifth grade, some of usboys would go across the street during lunch and clean up aroundthe convent for the nuns. The main reason we agreed to do this wasfor the frogs. For reasons I cannot fathom today, I was quite a fanof frogs and toads and one particular spring day, I caught a largebullfrog and named him Ralph. I placed Ralph in a shoebox one of mypeers found in the trashcan and took him back to class with me toawait the end of the school day. Sister Noel was in a particularlyfoul mood that afternoon and was busy scolding us for not payingattention to her as she tried to instruct us. I picked thisinopportune time to peer under the lid of my frog-filled shoebox tocheck on Ralphs status. When I looked back up, Sister Noel wascoming down the aisle toward me with a full head of steam built up.She picked up the shoebox and held it high above her head, her armfully extended. She peered down at me through her spectacles andthen, with all the energy and force she could muster, threw theshoebox to the floor at my feet. I dare you to pick it up, shesneered. A fool I was not. I didnt retrieve the box until classwas dismissed for the day. When I finally got outside, I opened thebox to check on Ralph and he was dead. The cause of death: BluntForce Catholic Trauma.

Sister Leona was a gray-haired woman who kepta folded handkerchief under her watchband on her wrist. Shefrequently explained to her 8th grade class that this was a handyway to always be prepared for a sneeze. To my knowledge, none of myclassmates followed her lead on that score. One fine morning, shewas explaining how the girls in class were putting the boys inharms way by hiking up their uniform skirts to show their legs. Iwas a late bloomer when it came to attraction to the opposite sex.In the 8th grade, I was still playing with GI Joes, so her speechwas lost on me. I had difficulty understanding how a girls legscould cause me any trouble, so I glanced over at Diana Perez andshe had her tanned legs crossed under her desk and I did takenotice that her skirt was very short. I remember feeling a suddensurge of embarrassment for her, as I was certain her underwearmight show and then I looked back at Sister Leona, who was wrappingup her speech of doom and gloom. She had caught me checking out Ms.Perezs legs and told me in no uncertain terms that I was destinedfor an eternity on a fiery lake of burning sulfur. That was myfirst inkling that something here wasnt quite right, as thepunishment just didnt seem to fit the crime.

I left Catholic School after 8th grade andattended a public high school in Long Island, NY. I never returnedto the faith formally, but instead became what is commonly known asa lapsed Catholic. While I had doubts about what Id been taught, Istill believed in God and that Jesus Christ was the Son of God andthat Heaven and Hell were real places. I didnt have the tools todeal with my doubtsthat being the non-internet eraand I justgenerally avoided the topic whenever it came up. Becoming a parentchanged that a bit.

While we decided to essentially raise ourchildren without religion, my wife was Jewish by birth (whichalways struck me as odd that one is automatically Jewish becausetheir mother is) and made one attempt to introduce my children toJudaism. My oldest daughter protested most loudly, as her educationinto Judaism seemed to include a significant amount of Holocaustcoverage, which is bound to depress a young girl. The effortcouldnt be sustained and we returned to our secular ways. I didmanage to take a few lessons in reading and writing Hebrewthough.

Years later, I received a text from my oldestdaughter asking me what a New Atheist was. My initial reactionwas to text back that there was nothing new about atheism, butsince she was a freshman in college and taking a ComparativeReligion class, I assumed her question was of a serious nature so Idid what any dad would do when faced with such a thing: I turned toGoogle. What I found was truly astounding. Here were learned men,men of stature in their given professions speaking out openlyagainst religion. I read everything I could about The Four Horsemenand felt something welling up inside of me. I ordered The GodDelusion and as I started to read the preface, I felt that Dawkinshad written the book specifically for me. Thus began the excitingliberation of my mind from the years of superstition into which Ihad been indoctrinated.

What you will find in this book is theculmination of the last few years of self-study, which may havestarted out as a quest for answers to the lingering questions frommy religious youth, but has become instead a celebration ofthinking and of reason and logic. I may have started out by readingthe books of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and Dennett, but that wasmerely the opening volley. Ive read voraciously since and watchedcountless debates and talks and presentations. Ive attendedlectures and engaged in minor debates myself. The process has beenand continues to be exhilarating, and it has become more and moredifficult to try to recall those feelings of fear and dread thatwere instilled in me by priests, nuns and others who possessed thefear of God. Today, it all feels as flimsy as paper mache.

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While Ican make various arguments for the harm that religion does in theworld, and the dangers represented by a faith mentality, theprimary issue that I remain passionate about is that religion isfalse. The underlying premise is untrue, which means thateverything that is built upon that premise is also untrue. Thestaggering amount of time, money, emotional energy and bloodshedexpended in the name of something completely fictitious is a crimeagainst humanity. So while there are debates about religions placein society, whether the charitable works they do add value, whetherthey should have tax exemptions and access to power in government,whether the comfort some people seem to derive from their faith isworthwhile and should be left unchallenged, I will focus on onething: To show that the God of Abraham, from which the three greatmonotheisms were spawned, does not exist.