Good Afternoon … Getting a bit heavy for a Monday aren’t we.

I’m aware of the history of my name. It means strong and manly. I am named after my grandfather(s)
and a long line of Andrew Hrubiks dating back several centuries (if my research is correct). My
direct family line links back to a town in Serbia named Aradac (Aradash).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aradac

“A single ray of light from a distant star falling upon the eye of a tyrant in bygone times may
have altered the course of his life, may have changed the destiny of nations, may have transformed
the surface of the globe, so intricate, so inconceivably complex are the processes in Nature.” -
Nikola Tesla (On Light And Other High Frequency Phenomena, 1893)

I don’t fear love as far as I consciously know. I suppose the argument could be made that we
haven’t found each other (in the wife arena). I love my family and friends as much as any human
can I suppose and I wouldn’t consider myself alone to any degree but I do value my solitude (from
time to time) as it allows me to think and do what I want with little consideration for others.
Which seems a bit selfish now that I type it out but it’s the truth none-the-less.

I’ve come to the personal conclusion that I don’t believe in God. That it is a construct of early
man created in man’s image and used to explain the inexplicable; to give comfort that what was
inexplicable was out of their control. It has taken on many forms throughout the years as humans
have evolved and has been used by humans to perpetrate some of the most heinous crimes against
humanity in our short history. Even your Bible talks about wars waged in Gods name by his
followers against “non believers”. This conduct is insufferable to me. Many fideists like to gloss
over the horrors of religion with the shiny veneer that there is something better out there if we
only believe. Experience has taught me this is a sham inflicted upon believers by those in power
and only used to retain their power.

“As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened
its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together
with their possessions” – Moses, Numbers 16:31-32, The Bible (NIV) 1450-1410 BCE

I came to this after many years of thought. I was raised in a loving home. I was raised to believe
in Christianity. My parents are Christian from different backgrounds (Catholic and Lutheran) but
they taught me compromise early on by choosing Methodism to bridge the gap between their
doctrines. My parents are my best friends even though the word friend does not do justice to a
true parental figure. It seems we experienced completely different lives and while yours pushed
you to embrace Christianity; mine pushed me to question it. Not because of my parents but because
of the Christians around me.

“Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians — you are not like him.” – Bara Dada (as quoted
by E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road, 1925)

Growing up I was an outcast to some who should have loved (at least tolerated) me through the
teachings of Christ. Not to the pastors of the church I attended or my family but friends, adults
and colleagues at the church I attended. I was mocked to my face and behind it. Ostracized from
the group because I went to school in a different city. Thought of as spoiled because my parents
saw to it that I had all I needed (not necessarily wanted), we’re there to love me (always) and
teach me life’s lessons. Those adults and kids taught me (unbeknownst to them) a life lesson as
well. The lesson that life is what you make of it and that the only person truly in your corner
100% of the time is you. You could argue that it was God that shepherded me through that but I
won’t do the disservice of attributing to a deity what good humans did. It was my parents and true
friends that got me through those events. You might say that it was God’s influence on them that
allowed them to do it but I would respond with what about his influence on those that perpetrated
the acts. All involved supposedly believed. So how is it explained?

“We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed
by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.” – Charles Robert
Darwin, (Notebook N: Metaphysics & expression) 1838

Hypocrisy of action, intent, and thought will be the downfall of religion; maybe even man. You
can’t attribute to God the good and leave out the bad. It is a fallacy similar to “No True
Scotsman”. The Bible is rife with examples of applied human culture (its views on slavery for
instance) which in turn shows it can’t be inspired by a benevolent deity or at least properly
recorded by those that were supposedly inspired unless your God really is (or was) man at some
point. Which brings me to conclusion that there is no God only man purporting to be it. I respect
your freedom to believe what you want as long as those beliefs don’t injure or restrict the
freedoms of other humans. I will vehemently fight to keep religion from oppressing people ever
again as long as I am able. When that is achieved I will revert to reason and debate to provoke
thorough consideration of what people choose to believe in the hopes that they will free
themselves and embrace what it means to be human.

Thanks for you message. I honestly like to debate and I am honored that you would see me (or least
my name) as worthy for addition to your family. Andrew Tedford has very nice flow to it. Feel free
to bounce your ideas off me at any time and I will answer honestly and to the best of my ability.

Very respectfully,

Andrew Karl Hrubik (2012)

“The universe is not chaos. It’s connection. Life reaches out for life. That’s what we were born for, isn’t it ? To stand on a new world and look beyond it to the next one. It’s who we are.” – Maggie McConnell (Kim Delaney) Mission to Mars, 2000