Implausible Claims
  by Jan Brazill

Across the country, newspapers have run full-page ads announcing that the founders of several world religions - Christ, Buddha, Muhammad, and some Hindu leaders - as well as four dead communist leaders, met in the "spirit world" recently to pledge loyalty to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

According to the account by the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, all participants in this "spirit world" conference hailed Moon as the messiah and savior of mankind.

Muhammad is reported as saying, "Since I, Muhammad, encountered the Unification Principle and met the Rev. Sun Myong Moon, my worldview has changed….I cry out, "Victory for God! Victory for Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the True Parent, Messiah and Savior!"

The dead communist leaders - Karl Marx. Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Deng Xiao Ping - are all reported as renouncing communism and pledging to follow Moon, who has long sought to unite the religious and political worlds under his leadership.

According to the report, Stalin was especially enthusiastic, telling his fellow communists, "Please receive the will of Rev. Moon completely; open your minds and build churches for the worship of God and hold services. Rev. Moon reflects the image of God, even though he is a man….His thought is messianic, especially for Communist countries. You must receive his ideology of peace immediately."

This incredible account must surely raise eyebrows among Christians, Buddhist, Muslims, Hindus, and Communists - in short, everyone except the followers of the Rev. Moon! Certainly, no word has come that any of the named subjects has rushed to embrace the Rev. Sun Myong Moon as their leader.

Why not? What prevents them? Can it be that they realize that this astonishing tale of a meeting in the "spirit world" can never be substantiated? They instinctively apply the skeptic's test, realizing that extraordinary-claims + zero-evidence are only advanced to yield a benefit for someone. And who exactly benefits from this wild claim? Of course it is the Rev. Sun Myong Moon, who would gain a world full of followers if this account were believed and the consequences accepted. Since such a result would violate their personal beliefs, they can immediately dismiss this entire story as not being credible.

This should help Christians and other believers understand why Freethinkers cannot find the statements of any religion credible, since "zero-evidence" is always part of any claim being made.

Take the Christian doctrine of Salvation with its extraordinary-claims of Heaven and Hell. Finding absolutely no verification of the validity of these concepts, therefore zero-evidence, Freethinkers consider the consequences and find that the control derived from the promises of rewards in Heaven or the threats of eternal punishment on Judgment Day yields enormous benefit to the religious interpreters - ministers, priests, television proselytizers - who preach this doctrine to their flocks. It gives them total power over the lives of believers, dictating their behavior and their thinking in both spiritual and secular matters. Such authority often leads to great wealth when the collection box is rattled. If joined with government, this control can be magnified through political influence to enforce its rules on believers and non-believers alike.

Religious believers adhere strongly to the tenets of one faith, dismissing the claims of all others. Freethinkers carry this logic one step further and simply dismiss them all.

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