Friday, May 30, 2014

Introduction: How I got to where I am

I was born to a non-practicing Jewish family.
My parents were always secular. They never bothered themselves with religion too much other than the occasional holiday with the families. They were more concerned with gaining education,  being able to provide for their children as best they could, both in terms of living conditions as well as education. You can say they're of the pragmatic generation.

The Early Years (kindergarten, school)
I grew up in Israel. That means that since kindergarten, I was surrounded by Jewish indoctrination from every direction. What this means is that bible studies were mandatory, Jewish holidays were mandatory and recognized by the state, and the Shabbat as well.
Despite all that and more, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
For example: Bible studies were taught on-par with "theoretical" subjects such as literature and history (unlike "practical" subjects such as Math, Geography and English). And other than being familiar with the bible stories like you would with historical stories, actually believing in these stories was not a requirement.

What this means is that I grew up believing in God. Even if he was not the main (or even secondary) focus in my life, he was an ever-present "side note".
The God I grew up to believe in was a kind and just God. Such that would reward good people and punish bad people. Such who would want the best for his creation (otherwise, why would you want to worship him?).
And yet... Everything that happened around me screamed at me that the opposite was happening.
I was doing my best to be a good person... I studied hard. I was kind to people. I was respectful and polite... But none of it helped me in becoming popular. None of it stopped other kids from being hurtful towards me for no good reason. None of it helped me with the girls. I was doing my best to be a good person... but where was my expected reward? Other kids who were clearly bad people got popular, got all the girls, and didn't get picked on. Nothing made sense.

I prayed to God and I was upset. Nothing was as I was told it would be.
The despair was deep. I even considered suicide numerous times... was very close to it a couple times.
But never had the courage to actually do it.

The Middle Years (Junior High, High School)
Around this time I slowly came to the realization that if I did not take matters into my own hands, nothing would be set right for me (just because I was a "good boy").
I was aware of my own abilities. I generally knew what I was good at and what I was lacking.
I started to try and make things right by actively influencing my own life:
I started learning martial arts so I'd be able to defend myself from thugs.
I started choosing my friends in such a way so it'd be beneficial for me.
I became a tail for lions instead of a lion for a bunch of tails.
More specifically, I cultivated friendships with kids who were successful, so that I would learn from them how to improve myself.
And I abandoned friendships with kids who only kept me down, and were not beneficial to me.
Slowly but surely, things started looking up for me. Not as much as I wanted, but the improvement was clearly apparent to me. I finally had reasons to be optimistic about my life.
All of this because I counted on myself. NOT on a God.

Major Stepping-Stone #1: Pick-up Artists Course
My life got twisted upside-down one day when I got a junkmail from one "David De'Angelo". This is how the pick-up artist world was opened up to me, and EVERYTHING CHANGED.
Using what I learned from this field, I came to the realization that all the good and bad things I experienced in my earlier years had a BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION. This learning experience was mind-blowing to me. Suddenly all these things that were a mystery to me, such as why girls would be attracted to assholes, it all made sense. It had a biological, genetic and ancestral explanation. It's in our genes! Girls are attracted to alpha males because they are the ones who are able to provide for them, care for them, and protect their offspring. Humans are just like any other animal: The Strong Flourish, The Weak Perish. It's beyond our control - it's in our subconscious mind - it's in our biological instincts.
And most importantly - I could learn how to control it!

After a while of self-teaching this to myself, I eventually took a practical course with a group which operated in Israel. This was the actual major stepping stone because I could learn directly from people who actually knew how to do it, and they knew how to teach me do it.
And it worked. "Amazed" and "Shocked" don't even come close to the feelings I had when I saw how I could manipulate nature - the Human nature no less. And all of this why?
Because of biology, chemistry, genetics, and evolution.

Major Stepping-Stone #2: The Lee Rigby Murder
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
On the afternoon of 22 May 2013, a British Army soldier, Drummer (Fusilier) Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was attacked and killed by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Rigby was off duty and walking along Wellington Street when he was attacked.[7] Two men ran him down with a car, then used knives and a cleaver to stab and hack him to death.[8] The men dragged Rigby's body into the road and remained at the scene until police arrived.

And here is where it gets actually interesting:
Between the time of the murder itself, and when the police arrived, the two men actually went out and stopped passers-by on the street to explain to them why they did it. The reason? Because the Qur'an commands them to do so.

Until that day, I never really thought about why Islam is causing so much problems around the world. I mean, the effects were clearly apparent. But while some people claimed that it was because of the religion itself, other people went out of their way to protect the religion, and say that violent acts have nothing to do with Islam and that it's being "misrepresented".
In light of Adebolajo and Adebowale actually stopping passers-by and explaining to them exactly why the Qur'an commanded them to do it, I was thinking: "If these people actually go and tell others 'here, this and that verse explains why I should murder people', then how come so many people still deny that violence has anything to do with Islam?"
So not too long after that, I did something that I never even considered doing before...
I have read the Qur'an.
It was one lovely day of touring in Jerusalem that I entered the first book store that I saw, picked up the first Qur'an copy that I laid my eyes on, opened up the book on a completely random page, and laid my eyes upon the following words:
Seize them and slay them wherever ye find them
Needless to say, I was completely shocked. I mean, what was the chance that the first verse I'd read was this kind of verse? This did not satisfy me. I closed the book, and opened it up again in a random page.
After some incoherent babblings and preaching, I reached the following verse:
Those before them had already plotted, but Allah came at their building from the foundations, so the roof fell upon them from above them, and the punishment came to them from where they did not perceive.
Then on the Day of Resurrection He will disgrace them and say, "Where are My 'partners' for whom you used to oppose [the believers]?" Those who were given knowledge will say, "Indeed disgrace, this Day, and evil are upon the disbelievers"
So here I stumbled upon something that not only eerily predicts the 9/11 attack, but it's another verse which calls for hate.
At this moment I decided that I have seen enough. I closed the book and returned it to its place.
The following days I started researching Islam on the internet, and that's when I found websites such as:
And everything I read I verified using websites such as:
www.quran.com
and so on.

This is how I got to where I am today.
A hater of not only Islam specifically, but all religions in general.
I saw just how dangerous religions can be.
And so I decided to do whatever I can to fight this plague.
I occasionally share posts with the hashtag #whatstheharm on G+, to show the dangers of religion.

Major Stepping-Stone #3: A Manual for Creating Atheists
Another important step in my "atheistic journey" was when I read Peter Boghossian's book titled "A Manual for Creating Atheists".
This book explained how faith itself is the real culprit when dealing with religion and religious people.
Faith - which is the belief in something despite the lack of evidence - is the basis of every single religion.
It doesn't matter whether you're a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Zoroastrian, or a Wiccan. Everything you believe in owes itself to faith - the belief in something despite the lack of evidence.
The book also provides various tools of how to deal with faith and how to undermine the beliefs of religious people. It helped me tremendously with understanding religious people and how to debate with them effectively.

In my next blog posts, I'll be breaking down my theological non-beliefs, and elaborating on various counter-arguments, and my own personal theological hypotheses.