Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Cause of Life's Problems

Religion easily has the best bullshit story of all time. Think about it. Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire, smoke, torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, burn, and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money. And by believing it's true is the only way you can get away unscathed.

It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

The most heinous and the must cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion. We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society. What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. It is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires. The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

Our ignorance is God; but what we know is science!

If we go back to the beginning, we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve their own interests. Ignorance gave birth to gods, and knowledge is calculated to destroy them!

2 comments:

  1. That's absolutely 1000% true! That's exactly how I see it, and I sometimes wonder where are all the antitheists, I seem to be left alone and surrounded by strong believers. Religion does poison. And since we'd have no sins if it weren't for religion, let's improve, upgrade.

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  2. Well written article. Religion is the "final fig leaf" and we're growing out of it don't worry, just a matter of time.

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