More than animals

I read an article as I was preparing an entry about being more than animals and I accidentally came across this article if there is no God and it inspired most, if not all of this entry.

I've supposed that as human beings we are not like the animals, and this got me thinking, well, I can't say so much as to thinking as to watching my dog. The palindrome made me smile as I thought about God as I looked toward my dog.

When my dog is hungry he searches for food and he eats, when he is tired he rests or sleeps, when he is (darn my christen upbringing) "In the mood for love" he finds a mate or a nearby leg.
As human beings I am under the impression that we are, or at least should be above that. To believe that we are merely animals is to subject ourselves to the most cruel form of slavery, slavery to our own desires. If we believe that this life is the only one that we have and that there is nothing beyond then there is nothing that would inspire us to desire the well-being of those around us, because logically if I do not look to my own happiness then I will never be happy. Our short lives would be taken up in the pursuit of worldly joys and because our lives are short why would a person think twice about doing whatever it takes to acquire said joys?

As human beings we are capable of the most horrendous atrocities and those atrocities are not fueled by a man's belief in God but a man desire, ambition and short-sightedness. Those things do not come from God as any God-fearing man knows. Those qualities come from men, take away God, what will remain?

Belief in God challenges us (or at least should) to be better people. There are those that take a belief in God and twist it, just like a person can take any cause, tool or thought and twist it. Nevertheless for those that really pursue God they find that God wants us to be better people, to be better people to everyone. God wants us to be free of our desires and not do as our bodies push us to do. We all know that our bodies can lie, they can tell us to eat junk when we should eat vegetables. We should play with our kids even though we are tired. We should restrain ourselves from anger, etc...

Belief in God has done more good than it has ever done evil.