I Hate Religion

The idea of an invisible, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent supernatural being, who was supposedly responsible for the creation of the universe, has never really seemed plausible to me. From a young age, barely old enough to actually comprehend the ludicrous notions being taught in scripture, I rejected it and all the mythology that came with it. I couldn’t, and still can’t, understand why people have to resort to explaining the origin of the universe by saying “god did it”, and yet be content with having no explanation of where this so-called “god” came from. It made no sense to me then, and it still makes no sense to me now.

My disdain for religion began as a young schoolboy, of no more than about 7 or 8, possibly younger. It’s difficult to be more specific than that. Thankfully, I was never forced into religion by my parents, neither of whom are overly religious themselves. Mum seems quite indifferent to the whole thing and while Dad still attends church every weekend, he rejects fundamentalist dogma and biblical literalism, like any rational person should.

Luckily, I attended a public school and so I didn’t have it forced down my throat there either. However, students were still sent to scripture for about half an hour a week, for part of the year, separated into groups by denomination. Unfortuantely, the separation of church and state in Australia isn’t quite as clear cut as it’s supposed to be in the USA, and so some religion is still allowed in public schools.

I wasn’t overly happy about that arrangement. I didn’t want to go just to be taught stories I didn’t believe. As far as I know, there was no alternative available for non-believers; or if there was, I don’t know why I wasn’t sent there. So I did what any rebellious kid would do. I acted out in various ways; not always, but frequently enough. Unfortunately, the details of my exploits mostly elude me. It’s hard to remember that far back.

But on one occasion that I do remember, we were given some kind of work sheet to fill out, with various questions about the fables being read to us. I remember repeatedly scrawling phrases like “GOD DOES NOT EXIST!!!” and “JESUS WAS NOT THE SON OF GOD!!!” as my answers. I haven’t a clue what the questions were. I then spent the remaining time filling up the rest of the page with exclamation points as my way of emphasising the fact that I didn’t believe any of that nonsense and really didn’t want to be there. Sadly, I can’t recall the response of the minister when he saw it. I’m sure it wasn’t particularly positive.

So in a sense, I took The Blasphemy Challenge about a decade and half before it was considered cool, and well before I knew it meant my eternal damnation! But hey, now that I do, I have something to look forward to.

That was by no means my only form of protest during school scriptures. Other times were a little more disruptive. But it was around this time that I vowed, when I grew up, I would fight to have all religion abolished from public schools. I still hope that this will happen one day.

Anyway, this may seem odd for a kid as young as I was back then to be so vehemently opposed to religious dogma. I certainly knew of no other in my position—at least none of my friends were—and there was no-one else in my life from whom my blasphemous anti-religious sentiments spawned. But the fact is, I was an atheist long before I even knew what the word meant, let alone knew of anyone else who shared my disbelief. To be honest, I believed in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny longer than I believed in a god.

Of course, all of this was well before I knew anything about the scientific explanations for the origin of life, the universe and everything. I knew nothing of the Big Bang Theory, Evolution, nor anything else in between. My rejection of religion was not based on scientific knowledge. So then the question arises how and why did I manage to not only avoid, but to actively reject indoctrination, especially at such a young and impressionable age? The answer to this will become apparent later.

But despite these views of mine, I did in fact occasionally attend scripture at church on Sundays. Not because I was ever dragged there against my will, kicking and screaming; but by my own choice. It was a tough choice to make though, and most of the time I chose not to. By this stage, I had already firmly rejected any sort of faith-based beliefs, and there was no chance of me ever converting. So why did I attend? Simple: because my friends did and sometimes the activities were fun, as was running around playing in the church yard afterwards.

I still find it somewhat amusing that over the years, given my anti-religious convictions, two of my closest friends have been deeply religious. One was the son of our church minister, who sometimes taught my scripture class at school. I’ve no-doubt he was on the receiving end of my aforementioned protests, most likely on more than one occasion. Although he actually respected my views and never tried to force his onto me, and we developed a kind of mutual respect for each other. I suppose it helped that his son and I were good friends. But the irony of this was that I spent many afternoons, after school, hanging out a minister’s house — almost the last place you’d expect to find a radical atheist.

Unfortunately they moved to another town during the later years of primary school and I’ve not seen much of them since. After this, I never voluntarily attended scripture again.

But the problem was not only did one of my good friends move away, the replacement minister, who happened to move into that same house I’d spent so many memorable afternoons, was not nearly as pleasant or respectful. I despised him for the way he treated me unfairly from the rest of the students in the class, largely because of our diametrically opposed views. But, I must admit, it was probably partially compounded by my occasional disruptive, rebellious conduct. But let’s just say he started it and he still owes me a Mintie, and leave it that.

The other one of my closest friends considers himself to be a born-again, fundamentalist christian who I’m pretty sure still believes everything I don’t. I’m not entirely certain though, as we stopped discussing religion after our arguments started getting in the way of our friendship.

We’re still friends today, but our arguments largely centred around the non-existence of God and the implausibility of many of the biblical myths that he took so literally, such as Adam and Eve; Noah’s Ark; Moses parting the Red Sea; God dictating the Ten Commandments to him; the “virgin” birth; the many miracles claimed to be performed by Jesus; the resurrection, and many other stories that any rationally thinking person would unquestionably reject as myths and allegories, had they not been indoctrinated into believing from childhood.

When I questioned how he could believe, or know any of it was true, the answer always came down to one thing: faith. Nothing but blind, unwavering, unsupported and utterly irrational faith! I’m sure that comes as no surprise, as it’s a fairly typical requirement of any religious person. But it’s the concept of faith that I was never able to grasp, and this is why I rejected religion so early in my life.

I simply could not accept as true: outlandish stories which could not be verified, depended upon unfounded assumptions or invoked supernatural beings or powers, based on nothing more than faith. Nor could I understand what could possibly make any one religion more true or at least more believable than any other.

I viewed all of these myths as outright lies handed down from one generation to the next, infecting peoples minds with irrational belief in what can only be described as fairy tales. It destroys all sense of reason. It discourages critical thinking by encouraging belief in spite of reason. This anti-intellectualism, I thought, was quite dangerous in and of itself, and it had to be stopped. Though it wasn’t till much later in life that I realised just how dangerous religion can be towards not only science and progress in general, but to civilisation as a whole. I now realise that it absolutely must be stopped.

Until this point, my exposure to religion, specifically christianity, had been largely limited to the toned down versions of the biblical myths aimed at children. I had never actually read the real bible in its entirety, and still haven’t read most of it to this day. But I’ve now read enough of it to see how violent, discriminatory, bigoted, immoral and just plain evil that the characters and events depicted in the bible, including “God” himself, can be. It’s disgusting!

If there’s one place in the western civilisation where the anti-intellectual, anti-scientific nature of religion is most clearly illustrated, it’s in the god-fearing, bible bashing, United States of America. Led by organisations like Answers in Genesis, Creation Science Evangelism and the Institute for Creation Research, among others, the USA’s constitutional separation of church and state has been and is still being attacked and eroded by fundamentalists.

Ranging from getting the phrase “In God We Trust” added to the US currency; the words “Under God” inserted into the pledge of allegiance; hijacking the Boy Scouts of America and turning it into a homophobic christian organisation; right up to the continuing, though thankfully failed, attempts to get Creationism, Intelligent Design, “Teach the Controversy” or whatever you want to call it next, taught in public schools. It certainly doesn’t help that the current US President considers himself to be a born-again christian, nor that the candidates for the upcoming election aren’t any better in this respect.

To an outside observer, the Creation Museum surely seems like an hilarious attempt at mocking the faith and highlighting the absurdities of these Bronze Age myths. Well, it would be if the anti-science organisation responsible for it wasn’t so serious about actually believing such propaganda. In reality, it’s just sad.

I should point out that even though I’ve focussed largely on the myths and lies of Christianity, that’s only because it’s the one religion I’ve had the most exposure too. But rest assured, when it comes to insulting religion, I’m an equal opportunity offender.

For instance, imagine for the moment that I had been born into an Islamic nation and attended an Islamic school, yet still developed my same contempt for religion. I’m quite sure I’d have been stoned to death by now for my blasphemy. Sadly, that particular sin still carries the death penalty in some sick middle eastern countries that are ruled by an Islamic theocracy. Although I’m quite sure there are some christians who would support the same penalty.

Both the Bible and Qur’an are filled with countless examples of brutally stoning people, rape, torture, discrimination against homosexuals, segregation of women and other horrendous acts. It really is a wonder how any Christian or Muslim can honestly claim their faith as the basis of morality. It’s just absurd.

The bottom line is, I have no respect for religion at all. At least, not the theistic religions. I have mildly more respect for non-theistic religions like Buddhism, which I view as really more of a philosophy and way of life, than a religion, though I’m not really familiar with it.

I respect people, and I not only respect, but would defend anyone’s freedom to believe whatever they want, including religion; but I have no for respect religious belief itself.

I hate religion. Fuck Christianity. Fuck Islam. Fuck Judaism and Hinduism. Fuck Scientology and all other crazy cults. Fuck ’em all. Respect people, not religion. The world would be a much better place without it.

92 thoughts on “I Hate Religion

  1. This may be hard to swallow or far fetched or down right crazy but: religion is a system (like mathematics). Axioms exist. You choose to subscribe to the ones that you feel to be useful. Nothing more.

    I wrote my thoughts on this subject if you are interested in reading: http://www.csarven.ca/systems-and-choices

    And http://www.csarven.ca/three-significant-modes-of-human-organisation-and-learning outlines the commons problems that most people have about religion.

  2. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. Like you, I realized at a very young age how utterly non-sensical it was to believe in an imaginary sky-daddy called ‘God.’ I never believed in the Easter Bunny and I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was four. As far as I could tell, ‘God’ and ‘Santa’ were cut from the same cloth – they were both invented to scare little kids into behaving. Although, to be fair, Santa was a much nicer guy – being that he wasn’t prone to fits of jealousy, and didn’t threaten to roast you in the fires of hell, for all eternity, if you didn’t believe in him.

  3. You seem not to make a distinction between religion as a faith, and “religion” as an organized church, but I guess you are aware that those two are not the same? Besides, I find it rather interesting that you attack religion with such a vehemence – if it really was completely extraneous to your world, you wouldn’t even bother getting so angry, would you?

    Disclaimer: I do not belong to any church. I might be religious, though, in some sense or other…

  4. Anita, I’m not sure how you could possibly think Santa was invented to scare kids into behaving. Perhaps the version you were told was different, but the Santa I knew used positive reinforcement techniques to encourage us to be good, by rewarding the good kids with presents.

    csant, I didn’t make a distinction between church and faith because such a distinction wasn’t really necessary. But if you want me to, here’s an analogy: the church is the parasite and faith is the infection it spreads. The cure needs to eliminate both.

    Also, I don’t let religion play a role in my personal life and I certainly could choose to blissfully ignore the atrocities of religion going on in the world around me. But I think I’ve remained silent long enough and felt it was time for me to start speaking out.

    Although it may not be happening in my own country as much as it is in others, religion is having a detrimental effect on a wide range of issues I either care about or which affect me in some way (either directly or indirectly), like science, education, human rights, or even politics.

  5. No, I wouldn’t want to be a member of any group whose symbol is a man nailed on to two pieces of wood, especially if it’s me. Buddha’s laughing, I’m on the cross.

    — George Carlin, playing as Jesus in Interview with Jesus

  6. I cannot deny that I feel quite similar, Lachlan. The only difference I see is that any kind of fundamentalism is harmful (and in fact, idealism can get very close yet cross the border to fanatism), including fundamentalistic atheism. After all though it is about respect and love. That is something all religions seem to share, and yet it is something all to easy to forget.

  7. A great rant, to be sure. That said, the solution lies mostly with good politicking—something that can only be done with tact and grace, without offending either side. For what it’s worth, I think this change must happen at the education level, for the upcoming generation of people.

    Software development is a lot nicer because you can always start with a blank state when things get messy. In the real world, though, there is always a ridiculous tangle of legacy systems.

  8. There’s no such thing as “fundamentalist atheism”. Atheism is the lack of superstitious belief, that’s all. You can’t really be more or less fundamental about it.

    It’s certainly true that organized religion, though the vehicle of “faith”, has committed uncountable atrocities worldwide. This continues to this day. You just have to look at the Catholic church’s position on contraception (and their role in furthering HIV and AIDS in Africa), for instance. However, that has nothing to do with atheism. It’s an observable, measurable, testable fact.

    I agree that we should attempt to transition the human race to a more rational society, but as Brad says, the route to that is going to be a slow one, mostly driven by increasing education quality. This is one reason that there is so much opposition to teaching science in the US school system — the religious leaders understand that education is a direct threat to their power base.

  9. (Note in particular that a position against organized religion is not an atheistic one, it’s an antitheistic one.)

  10. Space is profane, time is sacred. Tune into the aspects of existence you want as long as you derive respect and care for others and for the fabric of society from it. Balancing that in a practical implementation of life is hard, which is one of the reasons many religions and thought systems have failed so badly and done so much evil. To put it this way: when you’re implementing “love thy neighbour” bugs are a lot worse than when you’re implementing “eat a slice of bread”.

  11. Wow. That’s a fairly wide departure from your usual blogs.

    One thing that bothers me is the absurd fundamentalism that some aethists demonstrate. “I hate religion, therefore all religion is wrong. My way is the right way and all others must be converted.”

    Is letting other people believe in something that makes them sleep easier at night really so bad? And for every fanantic who uses religion as an excuse to wage war, there are a million others who find solace in their faith, whether it’s believing that their loved ones who’ve died are in a better place, or just gaining the strength to get through life.

    Why would taking that away make the world a better place?

  12. i couldn’t agree with you more and enjoyed reading. i just started a blog, myself a couple of days ago and started it basically to rant. it feels good to know that the whole ENTIRE world hasn’t gone mad.

    Hallvord: touche!

    -Tofu

    check out my new blog if you wish! as i mentioned before it is very new but growing every day! http://tofuforall.blogspot.com/

  13. katebp, I don’t have a problem with people having their own individual beliefs. But the problem with religion isn’t just that people believe it, it’s what comes as result of religious belief that is the problem.

  14. Hi there – I agree with katebp, but I’d take it further.

    To me the great evil is extremism – political or religious. In politics you could call that radicalism, and in religion fundamentalism.

    Great things have been done in the name of religion, and it’s too easy to demonise people based on a simplistic stereotyping. Does Martin Luther King fit your description above? What about Barak Obama or Dietrich Bonhoeffer? The Taleban spray a woman with acid. Should we blame Muhammed Ali?

    I’d also take issue with the idea that religion exists to help people sleep well … Often it’s a practical expression of love, a sort of codification for the human need to build community and help the weak, etc. The role of the supernatural in the religious lives of people I know is seldom one of a Santa figure, but closer to Einstein’s pantheism or the Buddhist dharma (tho they’d hate me to say it).

    Other thing is that, in their social activism, the Christians I know (and the Buddhists) act out of love for the oppressed, rather than hatred for the oppressor. So they are more motivated by compassion than by seeking a self-righteous outlet.

    They also tend to be able to see themselves in the oppressor (ie, admit the need for personal development) rather than see themselves in the oppressed, and dine out on the pain of others, as political rads I know seem to. Its usually religious people handing out the soup, not so much the hardline atheists …

    Out in the extremes tho, I’ve noticed a lot of similarities between rads and fundies that make me think extremism in is just the same emotional need in different modes.

    In many cases, its angry people looking for moral clarity and personal armour through the demonisation of all opposition & the belief you alone see The Truth. Here are a few things I think they have in common …

    * Intolerance of dissent within the group

    Fundy: heretic, whoever is not for us is against us
    Rad: splitter, sell out, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem

    * Sense of piety and devotion

    Rad: staunch, commitment
    Fundy: pious, unwavering

    * Conspiracy

    Rad: sense of vast opposition (see Chomsky esp)
    Fundy: as above

    * Holy leaders who have received knowledge hidden to the rest of the world and who impart it in the face of massive persecution.

    Rad: various
    Fundy: various

    * Demonisation of all opposition

    Rad: agent of [the state, the left, the right]
    Fundy: agent of satan

    … etc …

  15. Great post Lachy! You should also read Christopher Hitchen’s God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything to show you that Buddhism is just as harmful as any other system of belief. And you should also check out Richard Dawkin’s The God Delusion, from which I present the following arguments.

    katebp, the problem with individual belief is that it can be spread and become parasitic (e.g., going outside in the cold will make you sick). If your belief is based on nothing provable or testable (i.e. faith), then it’s a delusion (that is not to say that atheists are not delusional, but unlikely to be as delusional as religious folk). You can call it whatever you like, but basically one must accept an ungrounded belief as a delusion.

    When a delusion is spread and shared, it becomes a religion. When a religion is based on harmful nonsense (e.g., God will punish you, the world is 4000 years old, woman are responsible for original sin, jews condemned the lord to death, etc), religion becomes dangerous. Particularly in the latter case, where christians persecute the jews (another delusional belief system) for 2000+ years because of bullshit stories. This is why religion is dangerous. It can, and has, hurt people and slowed progress. It is still trying to slow progress: look at the church’s intervention in genetic research; or the mess Catholics have made in Africa, as Hixie noted. This is why religion should not be taught in schools and why people should be discouraged from having delusional beliefs that have continuously shown to be harmful to others (yes, all religion falls into this category).

    Sure, people should be allowed to have delusions if they want. No one can stop them – that’s the beauty of being an individual. But we should teach people not to spread those delusions because they can be harmful. Or encourage them to seek medical help! as people who believe in imaginary beings are usually classified as having some sort of mental illness or may be suffering from schizophrenia. As Hixie said, education is the key. Particularly education that encourages critical thinking; education that encourages inquiry in and upon everything. Where every child should be allowed to ask questions about the origins of any thing and not receive responses that are unfounded or simply outright lies. And not be threatened by damnation and other forms of psychological child abuse.

    Science is not a belief system. It is a system of methods and tools. Science is proud to answer, “we don’t know how that is made, but here are the tools for you to go and find out”. That’s what sets us apart from the religiously unenlightened. Atheists have enough sense to ask questions and not believe in any absolutes (with the exception, of course, that it is highly unlikely that there is a god! but then again, that’s something we can continue to test for but probably not worth wasting time on. Atheists only get one life you know, so we have to spend our time wisely helping others and being kind to our fellow humans;)).

  16. listen, i know you might not like god, but i hope you find him some day

  17. its not my imagination, i have personally talked to him, i know he exists in my heart, and i dont care what others think, i know

  18. Just because that pastor that you liked moved away, doesn’t mean there are others out there that will respect you even if that one didnt, i know, i had a pastor that was a jerk once, he was very disrespectful, bu there are others out there, you just need to find the right one that fits your style and he can lead you onto the right path

  19. anne, I don’t doubt that there are both good and bad ministers out there. But regardless of how nice and respectful any minister may be, there’s not a chance I’m ever going to get sucked in by religious dogma. I’ve already firmly rejected such nonsense.

    You are of course free to believe whatever you like, but for your own sake, I do hope that one day you will open your mind to a more rational view of this world without being clouded by irrational belief in bronze age myths.

  20. they arent myths, theyre real, why would people lie about all this and even write a book about it? and it isnt it the most read book in the world? i dont understand, why someone would lie about such a great man that did so many great things? i feel sorry that you wont open your mind to the possibilites that there might be out there, i feel sorry for you and people are praying for you, even if you dont want them too.

  21. anne, what makes your particular religion and your god, whether that be Zeus, Thor, Allah, or the modern christian god, Yahweh, any more believable or true than that of any other cult or organised religion in this world? The difference between religion and mythology is merely that people still believe in religion. Consider, for example, what we now consider to be Greek mythology, was their religion just a few thousand years ago, and many would have had as much conviction in their beliefs as you do yours.

    If you’re curious about how easily religions can spontaneously form, I suggest you read Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion; specifically, chapter 5, “The roots of religion”, and the case study within entitled “Cargo Cults”.

  22. no thank you I grew up with this religion and everything and I plan to stay with it, I LOVE MY GOD

  23. So what you’re saying is that refuse to look at any evidence that may contradict your world view? I guess that’s fairly typical of most religious people. Thanks for helping to demonstrate that religion is just a self-reinforcing delusion.

  24. Little people don’t like insecurity and that is way they create God in their own image. Beliveing that they are on the right path and someone else is not makes them feel significant. Face it; we are dust. Concesness may be forever but I don’t believe that God is obsurver from outside. So you religious friks; take your religion and stuff it in your ass. What comes out of your ass should go back there. Fuck your brain. It is just malfunctioning pice of shit. I never met normal religious person. Fuck your God that look so much like you RETARD. How repeating the same bullshit for thousannds of years made it wisdom. Stinky shit today is even stinkier shit tomorrow.

  25. No I’m not saying that, I have looked at the evidence and the big bang theory, but it still doesn’t make sense to me, I really dont care for scientific evidence even though I have to study it I know what my God did and that I am going to heaven when I die, and thats all that matters to me

  26. I really dont care for scientific evidence…

    It’s always entertaining to see religious nutters whip out the argument from incredulity.

  27. Hehe, Anne. You ask us to believe in one god. Then, out of nowhere, you suddenly thrown in another god: this “devil” character. Man, what is next!? You are going to tell us people are born from virgins? people can turn water into wine? people can part the sea and perform magical miracles? or come back from the dead? all without a single shred of evidence? If there is a god, he would probably think you should go get your head checked for believing such nonsense. On the subject of why someone would write such lies in the form of the bible, look at the wealth and political control the catholic church and other churches have accumulated. It’s a simple matter of economics. People will make up crap so other people will hand over money. It’s no different from other myths, like the beauty myth (“I’m fat, better get liposuction!”). Religion operates the same way. It’s set up to make money and control stupid people who should know better but don’t. And seriously dude, if you are talking to a “God” character in your head that talks back, and no one else can hear it, then please seek medical help. You obviously have some kind of neurological condition and could be dangerous to others.

  28. The first question I ask is why am I even on this page and why am I responding?? Perhaps the answer lies deep within myself but I have neither the faith nor the inclanation to dig for it. Whilst I feel your beliefs are strong and well placed given your experience, I also feel that you are taking the whole thing way too serious…I would say to you that provided you are travelling a path which you feel is rightious (not in a religious sense) then you really need not concern yourself with the world’s plight. Who knows what lays beyond the brink of life and death, but I know one thing for certain. Who amd I or anyone else for that matter – to preach anything to anyone? We all know about the same amount of truth – which is zero. Faith may carry some people a long way in their own closed minded realms, but the truth is that I know as much as the next person. The only plausable response I can give is to treaty others as you would want to be treated and let your conscience be your guide – not a dusty old book full of stories edited by those who stood to prospour…Best wishes to all.

  29. very good blog. i enjoyed reading every second of it. it made me feel comforted and belonged. i find anne’s arument amusing, refusing obvious evidince. in my opinion, i think religion is based on political law. sorta like brainwash. some are born into it and some are takin into by other brainwashed people. but it continues to spread. it is very hard to get out of it to. i was born into it and i was just like anne. i think one of the major reasons for this is that humans are so easily inspired. music, stories, and persistence make us feel diferently about things. it took me some time to see past that ignorance. i studied the facts and have a better knowledge than i used to. anne, if you could just read the book he sugested it realy wouldnt hurt. thank you lanclan hunt for this post. it was very enjoyable.

  30. Great post; found by Googling “I hate religion”, because I do. Every religion that exists in the world today has caused centuries of conflict, killing, separatism, torture, terrorism and all manner of barbarity, for the same basic reason that there are those who are so brainwashed by it, they are certain that their religion is the correct one and all the others are wrong. You would think that by now, people would have stopped behaving like this. If there is some kind of God then where did it come from? People who think they know it all should study some physics about the origins of the universe etc.

  31. i hate lots of things about it. Particulary the fact that its one of those things where constant growth is the main focus irrespective of all harms caused by that growth.

    I mean you have 60+% of all children under 12 going to these faith (a word which essentially locks you in a set doctrine and oblivious to all logic and adaptions i mean a rabbit gets outrun by a puma he doesnt repent for his adultreous bunny fornifications he adapts and gets faster.)

    Children are extremely impressionable so their parents believe this crap where if their family doesn’t not only will the kids go to hell but the parents for allowing it. the kids get no choice in the matter.

    It is so sad because it really is no different then hitler raising a child from infancy telling him that if he doesn’t kill a jew by midnight every saturday his testicles will spontaneously explode in a most horrific manner ( and reinforcing it by making his underwear woven out of poison ivy)

    So just like that church kid is going to be a insecure closed minded oppressive and sexually repressed little shit that one you gave hitler is going to well

    I find religion to be the exact same as advertising- make person feel they are lacking offer a open.immediate solution and profit. its all about airtime with these freaks because if a person hears something enough times no matter how insane they start to accept it as truth. And with kids who have yet to develope the cognitive ability to block and filter it is a brutal success.

  32. Lachlan,

    An interesting post for sure. What I find most interesting is that you know for a fact that you rejected religion at such a young age.

    I remember watching my friends play tetherball in 1st grade (6-7 years old) and deciding there most definitely was someone or something that knew everything and everyone on this earth. My mother was raised Catholic, my father Methodist, but neither had any particular affiliation with either church or belief set. I never went to church as a child, was in public school, and yet, at that early age, without religion, believed in God.

    It’s unfortunate that you seem to have only experienced faith at the hands of people who also don’t think critically (including anne). But don’t think that faith in *any* religion is any more of an indicator of intelligence than asking if someone likes apples. Faith and intelligence are orthogonal to each other.

    I totally respect your story of rejection at a young age because it reminds me so much of my story. But I’m curious why you think the path you took based on that early-in-life decision is more valid/intelligent/sane than the path I took? Is it just because people have done bad things in the name of religious faith?

  33. ever since i was a kid, im still young [16] i doubted god and mocked him and i laugh at religions. asked who made earth at around 4 or 3 and parents said god made it, i asked who made god, and they said he has always existed. bullshit. who is the creator of god? and the creator of the creator of god? no way something can always exist, is just bullshit.

  34. Seeing is believing. I am not going to say that I do or I don’t believe in some type of god, for all we know, if there is a god, he/she/HeShe could be just an alien kid and we are his ant farm. Most religion seems to want to condemn someone for believing in a religion other than theirs. I am not a gambler, I’ll stay an atheist until after I die, then I’ll choose my god, gonna play it safe.

  35. After reading the posts I find my self quite amused at some of the responses, and at the lack of spell check :). I am 20, and for the first time in my life I feel at ease with myself at the thought that when I die, I die. No thrills, no bells and whistles, just nothing. I find the concept of “God” to be a unnecessary ball-n-chain on human evolution that should be dealt with with the utmost ability of rational human-based thought. I became an atheist because not only do i find the notion of “God” to be (what’s the word I often use?) “bad-shit”, I could care less if this “five-year-old with an ant hill and a magnifying glass” really existed at all. It was the “worshiping” part I couldn’t stomach. Even if your, as others have some gleefully put it, sky-daddy was real, I’m not going to fall to my knees and pray, I would most certainly without a doubt tell him to take his kingdom and cram it as far up his divine ass as he could shove it, while of course giving him the finger as hard as humanly possible causing myself to urinate and defecate.

    I believe most of you fear the unknown, as I do sometimes, but because I think and because I try to grasp an understanding of the world around me that fear slowing shrinks into nothingness. The things us men and women have accomplished on this frail blue dot in the place we call the universe have once been seen as things only a god of some sort could do. I ask you this, if we have the ability to do what was first thought only a god could do, then that doesn’t make the act so godly anymore does it?

    Having a dogma that says you can’t question it limits your “what if?” part of reason and understanding.

    I have been called close minded because I don’t accept god, but let me say this, since when did open minded mean you have to believe something was true? If I’m not mistaken open mindedness means being able to accept possibilities, and if those possibilities don’t make sense then they can be dismissed as nonsense. It is my firm opinion that ALL religious people are close minded when it comes to god and the question of our origins, or anything that religion holds in particular. If someone tells you that your god may not exist then you try to defend your side of the argument by giving proof that wouldn’t stand up in any court room, if that argument were treated like court case that is. Such as saying there’s proof for “intelligent design”, or whatever hog-wash you religious scientific wannabes want to call it now-a-days. You tell me to look at the evidence and when I do i’ll see the proof, but when I do look, it all points to…………………evolution. This debate always gives me a good laugh, it must be something about religious people trying to “play” scientist and then having their ass kicked by some other actual scientist checking the facts that sets off the giggle-trigger.

    I know some of you might be a little weary of letting everyone know what it is you actually believe when it comes to matters such as this, and I can understand. I’m not saying this to try and win your favor by trying some form of sympathy, I really do care about you as far as being a human being and know some things are hard to achieve, but life is hard and being an individual is still harder.

    Anne, I would like to say a few words without being to harsh or offensive, but seeing how i’m and atheist and you are theist there’s little that might not offend you, I would like to apologize ahead of time. I am sure you are a good person to be around, you have many friends and you may not talk about anything related to your god or religion every hour of every day. You and those you interact with daily might all share the same views on worldly matters. You may or may not hate gay people, and might not support abortion. But still, event tho your views may be different from mine, if we were to be passing by one another in a public place and had small talk, we both might enjoy it. I find that religion only gets in the way of actually enjoying someone else’s company. If we were to talk and religion never came up, or any topic pertaining to it, we could pretty much pass the time and get on with our day and never have an argument . I strongly believe you yourself, with the absence of any deity or supernatural being, are a genuinely good person and deserve my full respect.

    Thoughts and beliefs are just mere thoughts and beliefs, only when they are put into actions that affect others in a harmful way will I feel the need to dislike it and strive to prevent it, and ultimately annihilate the source.

    To make something clear, I don’t hate the people in religion, I hate religion itself. it tears people apart for silly beliefs and erects social barriers that need not be there. It puts labels on children and causes uproars in government, even when there are laws that divide church and state. I disapprove of anything religious being taught in school, this idea makes me think religion is failing as far as teaching their holy text on their respective gatherings(i.e., going to church or a temple for service). If they think they’re not getting enough people to believe I don’t think they should involve young undeveloped minds in a building where non-restricted thought processes take place, and where science is the key to everything worth knowing. When I say “worth knowing” I don’t mean old folklore and a holy book, even though people try to use a book to prove itself(utterly propposterous!!).

    I know what I have typed is a bit much but its not often I get to put my ideas and thoughts where others can read them. Some may enjoy reading this, others may just scorn it after the first few lines and not bother to read the whole section, but its a chance to find out what I think. Otherwise, you would not be on this website, you wouldn’t have bothered clicking on the link for “I hate religion”. After all, is this not what he/she thinks?

    If you do not read all of it (its a bit much, I know), that does not bother me. But if you do, and would like to converse with me more my e-mail is ryoh_001@fusiongt.com. I would appreciate any questions you like to share or debates you would like to have, I am after all open minded to anything you would like to say.

    My only request is that you question both of what you see and hear.
    I am human, therefore I think, and think I shall.

  36. someone above (in the article that is) said that they don’t know why they’re here, and something to the effect that they don’t know why people like lachy care so much about these things. I find this kinda funny because i’m here and I seem to think I don’t care much about these things

    However I would guess i look up atheist rants on the internet because i find it’s the easiest way to read people honestly discussing the issue w/o religious people either getting emotional or angry, or if they do I don’t have to deal with the social awkwardness of the situation. Meanwhile in every other situation i have to suppress my natural and defensible thoughts on the matter lest i ruin someone’s worldview.\

    I don’t want to hurt anyones feelings or make anyone think that lifes not worth living, but whenever anyone at all professes their particular religious beliefs, in my natural inclination to present my own views back, all i find that I can really contribute is that there is no reason whatsoever to believe any of those things that you believe.

    I think that “faith” is a ridiculous concept which really means nothing more than: I just believe it for no reason at all other than its what i was told and what i want to believe because the existence of the world is scary without my particular fairy tale explanation to make sense of it all.

    And though I

  37. I forget where i got the idea from, maybe a book by jared diamond, but i think that looking at religions as institutions which are in a sense competing organisms, which are subject to the same pressures of reproductive fitness which evolution demands, is the best perspective from which to look at religions.

    this view would seemingly explain many traits of different religions like that of christianity which makes the above mentioned blind, non-thinking “Faith” so very important. For example if it were not developed as a central tenet, and people who did not “just believe” in this god without reason did not end up in a horribly terrible hell, the people who belong to the religion might have easily seen that there was no reason to believe such things and abandon it.

    thus any religion which wasn’t so fit as to have scare tactics to convince people to have “faith” in unreasonable things would likely eventually be displaced by a religion, like christianity which does encompass the idea of such a “faith”, and which punishes those whom dont observe the practice of blinding themselves to reason.

  38. Also i think that this look at religions as evolved, as in pretty randomly (kinda), over time, being shaped by reproductive fitness, debunks the conspirational explanations of religions, propounded by so many disconcerted athiests, as either moneymaking or power driven institutions.

    I think that in some cases “religions” do in fact amount to nothing more than that, for example when their on TV, or become political type organizations, but the origins of most religious beliefs are old and from True Believers like the apostles of jesus or moses or buddah, or ahmed?? ali?? or whatever, and not simply set up or ruled by schemers.

    and I think it only logical that those religions encompassing beliefs which would best propogate themselves, would do so, and would displace those which do not.

  39. Let’s face it, the world would be better if religion didn’t exist. There would be no homophobes, women would always be treated as equaly as men, there would be more peace (think, no Taliban) and we would be waaaay more advanced in technology. It would be my take on the popular saying “No God, Know Peace, Know God, No Peace.”

  40. Fantastic . Of all the posts I have read here Anne yours champion the very essence of why religion is so bad the best . It’s only when you have a religious person arguing their point that the true benality of religion comes through . I was taught at a Catholic school 20 years ago , I was born an athiest so rejected it at every avenue . Just wish I had the internet then to help me proove my arguments.

  41. If you respect people then you’d respect there beliefs.
    I dont believe in any religions.

  42. Hock, no, respecting people and respecting their right to believe whatever they like absolutely does not mean the same as respecting the beliefs themselves. Do you, for instance, respect the beliefs of White Supremacists, or people with other equally sick and twisted beliefs? I doubt it. While it’s still important to respect the right of such a person to believe what they want, most decent people outright reject such racist views and have little or no tolerance for it.

    It’s exactly the same with religion. Respecting the right of anyone to believe in religion is very different from respecting the religious views themselves.

  43. What concerns me is how religion is suffered by society more generally. Why do we permit those with public power to associate with religion at all? It is quite perverse when you step back from it all and take a cold hard look at it.

    I mean we laugh and scoff at past civilizations for believing in any number of different things because we now know they were misguided and naive – there is no real difference between this and how people of the future will view us today…

    If you actually read the major religious texts they expressly incite hatred, intolerance and all manner of offences under our current laws. As such, practicing religion should be banned on the grounds of inciting hatred and intolerance much the same as our ‘so-called’ anti-terrorism laws. Religion after all, is merely a cloak for those who want power over others and those who want to be controlled for whatever reason.

    People like Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbot should be disallowed from being MP’s on the grounds of their association with religion and associating with religious people, much the same as they would be if they associated or sympathized with any criminals. Why is religion somehow immune from this position?

    Surely others out there can see in conceptual terms at least how the Universe began and how life here and no doubt in many other places began and thrives and how it has absolutely nothing to do with some supernatural being or beings – I mean it’s as plain as the nose on your face if you really think about it for I don’t know – 10 seconds or so.

  44. I hate Religion also but God? thats a different story altogether. Im only going to say this as a rebuttal to all the opinions that you pour out in your Blog Lachy but I am a Fundamentalist Christian and personally that phrase isnt the least bit offensive to me Because I do believe in all the fundamentals of Christianity; certainly I dont base my faith on the incidentals as opposed to the fundamentals. I dont believe in God thru blind faith whatsoever !!! Im happy to debate anyone anywhere anytime about the provableness (if thats a word?) of my God and his Son. You know it takes actually more blind faith to believe in Evolution than it does in God due to things like there being absolutely no fossil record (which the Boffins put so much faith in) of ANY Link species there is not even one !!! If Man was a descendant of the Apes then why do we still have Apes if they evolved into something more suited to their environment, why didnt they die out like Darwin and his evolutionists suggested that primitive Aboriginal people would if they were inferior on the evoluntionary scale. As far as the other ‘Myths’ from the bible, as you put them go, Archaeology is proving all the time that the bible was a factual and accurate record of the history of the Hebrew people then later the start of the movement (the way) that Christ himself founded. As I said I’m happy to discuss, debate and chat with anyone in any forum the validity of my God and his claims. I think its pretty easy for anyone to diss the word of God who hasnt actually read it and cant make any substantial claims against it with any references quoted Lachy. And yes Lachy there are people who are hypocrites in society who say one thing and do another and who claim to be Christian and yet behave in the most unchristian way towards others. Fortunately we are not all like that !! Feel free to deride my statements if you like You and all your friends who subscribe to your blog if you think you need to, But my God can and does prove himself on a daily basis. Even Darwin himself just prior to his death had grave concerns about most of his Evolutionary theory. I have absolutely no doubt of the existence of my miracle working God who answered my prayers and proved himself beyond a shadow of a doubt. And I might add Lachy just because your experience with Lukewarm or Watered down Christianity was less than ideal, doesnt mean God does not exist … Can anyone actually see a Black Hole I mean physically see a Black Hole? No just cos you cant see one doesnt mean they dont exist … there is a shed load of evidence to suggest that they are real … Just like evidence exists to suggest (show and even prove) that God is real You just have to have an open mind and only the close minded are truly ignorant by choice!!! And remember, most of the Laws we have today were handed down from a tradition that includes Moses and the Exodus which predates Hammurabi and any of the ancient rulers who had an idea of civilized society. God never ever asked ANYONE to believe in him based on blind faith; God has always been a God who was able to prove himself … ALWAYS !! Anyhow enough said if you want to know more or even engage in debate I can provide any and all references to everything I say backed up from scripture and other resources… Have a look at what Albert Einstein arguably the smartest man in the universe said about the existence of God … And finally two quotes from the old testament book of Psalms 14:1 “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God … ” and from Proverbs 18:12-14 “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”
    Unlike Anne who seems to be afraid to read or investigate any reference or so called “evidence” that disproves her God … Im more than ready to hear your actual “proof” that my God doesnt exist because my God is made of tougher stuff than that Lachy he really doesnbtneed my help as far as that goes but for the sake of some that might be searching for the truth I open my mouth and speak that which I know!!!
    So I think before you try to tear down REAL Christianity again (and I make that distinction!) you should do some homework, do the research so you can put your hand on your heart and say you know what you’re talking about.
    Kind regards

  45. Micheal, very interesting. You say “achaeology [sic] is proving all the time that the bible was a factual and accurate record of the history of the Hebrew people then later the start of the movement (the way) that Christ himself founded.”

    Can you provide one such study from an archeological journal?

  46. Micheal (or is that supposed to be Michael?), please consider using the enter key more often to separate paragraphs. It would make your hilarious ramblings much easier to read.

    Aboriginals are not a primitive or in any way inferior race of humans. They just developed in an environment – Australia – where retaining their darker brown skin pigment was more advantageous for them, while it was more advantageous for the early Europeans to develop a lighter skin pigment.

    Can you please clarify what it is that Einstein said about the existence of god? Einstein was actually an agnostic. He has clearly stated that he did not believe in a personal god. But even if he did, so what? The religious views of a famous physicist, or indeed anyone else for that matter, are not proof of anything.

    I will only address a couple of points at time. Please raise issues more coherently, one at a time, and I will be happy to debate with you in these comments.

  47. What so you think I cant spell my own name now ? is your name supposed to be spelt Locky dont get off the discussion by making silly references. I didnt actually say that Aboriginal people were primitive I was quoting Darwin and some of his evolutionist friends of the time whom white Australia seemed to have emulated in their educational teachings for the longest time … on the contrary I love the Native Australian people some of my best friends are from the Koori the Narrungah and Narranjeri peoples.

    As for the paragraphing my bad Im sorry I didnt realise my essay was being assessed for grammar, punctuation and spelling and please explain what was incoherent about my Post … yes I did tend Not to para with spacing. But I thought I was quite clear on several points I was making since I wasnt actually writing an essay and typed my thoughts as I thunk them, I do believe youre being quite precious.

    My post was just bringing up several points that your original post sparked in my consciousness and can you please explain to me also why people like yourself and Marcos and others tend to “attack the man” and not the argument all the time when you’ve challenged and if you don’t think you’re attacking the man then what exactly is hilarious about my post that you should be so rude to accuse me of rambling and as for Marcos trying to score points with my obvious spelling error which on further examination seems to be correct and Marcos not actually reading my post clearly enough or thinking that his spelling of that word is superior to mine, I hate it when people think theyre better or cleverer than you are just because you have different ideas!!! I looked again and found that I had indeed spelled Archaeology correctly … Guys if this is the best you can do by trying to score points childishly with the (hehheheh he cant even spell Archaeology correctly!! or even his own name hahahaha!!)gambit like little school children then perhaps you should both learn to be a bit more mature in your discussion techniques. For instance you kind of both swerve neatly around two of my main points one that Darwinism and the Evolutionists of the time claimed that Aboriginal (particularly the Australian Aboriginal were an inferior species of Man that would obviously die out in time when confronted with superior civilised white society). And the lack of Fossil record of the missing links between any species!!

    To Marcos why does it have to be a study and why does it have to be published in an Archeological [sic] journal? I know of several field research studies that have been conducted and documented and found some very surprising discoveries. Archaeology archaeology archaeology !!

    Oh please forgive me I wandered a la tangent!!

    And I didn’t suggest Einsteins religious leanings were proof of anything only that I would point out tho that He was a very intelligent man and to suggest that all right thinking people or even anyone with a logical mind scientific research yadda yadda yadda etc etc would have to agree that Religion (Christianity is how did you put it ?) ludicrous notions and mythology. Why does God have to be cut out of the picture purely because there is an explanation called the Big Bang Just as you would pose the rhetorical question who made God ? Id ask you a similar question if there was a Big Bang how exactly did it go Bang and who made it go Bang?? Questions that modern science isnt really too clear about still!!!

    Just because so called minsters of religion werent able to adequately to your satisfaction answer the meatier questions of existence doesnt mean there are no valid spiritually based answers … just ask me anything Ill tell you … especially about those so called myths you think I believe in and since you wont actually address the questions I posed in my previous post neatly avoiding them – please ask me anything at all about those “MYTHS” Just to give you a little more fuel to add to this sacrificial fire. As a Fundamentalist Christian I believe in the word of God and believe that it is 100% true every word of it!! So that should give you a good starting point to actually quiz me on just about anything from Creation Theory to the existence of Adam and Eve, to the Crossing of the Red Sea. –

    By the way there is a place in the Sinai Peninsula called Nuweiba which has been identified as the most likely crossing point for the Children of Israel during the Exodus significantly supported by the site of an ancient Egyptian Fortress that overlooks the Sea and the beach at this place called Nuweiba. The Fortress was referred to as Migdol by the Sea in the book of Exodus which in the ancient egyptian language means Fortress or Castle. One of the biggest difficulties for modern archaeologists to overcome in accepting the plausability of an actual exodus was the issue of being able to camp over roughly 1 1/2 Million people on a beach location that fit in with the scriptural account of the Exodus there couldnt be found such a place (until the 90s when an obscure amateur Archaeologist discovered such a place) This place also happened to have a myriad of human and animal (horse) bones located in the shallow waters (in tact) of the beach and several 8 spoke chariot wheels and other artefacts that were positively identified by the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo as belonging to the dynasty of Egypt that corresponded with The Pharaoh Rhamses who is most commonly believed to be the Pharoah of the Exodus from that period which Moses and the Israelites could have existed in !!! Also an amazing discovery at that time was that there exists a shallow landbridge between the Sinai Peninsula at Nuweiba that traverses the entire distance between Egypt Sinai Peninsula and what is now Saudi Arabia or known then as the wilderness of Midian. This landbridge was approximately 20 metres under the surface of the water. (Mt Sinai is now believed to be a real Mountain called Jabel El Lawz (I think my spelling is correct) in Saudi Arabia on the other side of the beach at Nuweiba. A mountain that has curious ancient markings around the base of the mountain and a place where there appears to be set up a kind of altar with markings depicting a golden Calf. Also this mountain appears to have a blackened top which again is clearly defined in the book of Exodus but was never discovered until recent times There is no other mountain that fits the description of Mt Sinai like Jabel El Lawz. etc etc

    I could go on but so that you can research my hilarious ramblings to add more fuel and more bullets to your arsenal of disbelief I will stop now to take a breath and let you rebutt !!!

    Kind regards

    PS There is plenty more where that came from if you are truly interested in a logical, reasonable. rational debate without the silly name calling and childish stuff!

    PPS I hope my paragraphing is more acceptable this time!

  48. Archeology is the US spelling, Archaeology is the British and Australian spelling. It doesn’t matter which you use. Sorry for thinking you might have accidentally misspelled your own name, but given the numerous other spelling mistakes in your post (“evoluntionary”, “doesnbtneed” and many missing apostrphes), and the obviously rushed writing style, it wasn’t clear.

    But irrelevant spelling issues aside, I didn’t address most of your points because I was really busy, your claims showed a complete lack of understanding of how evolution works, and deciphering your wall of text was a challenge.

    So I chose to address just two simple points: your racism against Aboriginals, and your bogus and irrelevant claim about Einstein. Darwin never made any claims about Aboriginals being inferior, or white people being in any way superior. Rather, he made observations about how the Aboriginal way of life was being adversely affected by the invading Europeans, and the effect this was having on their ability to survive.

    As for the lack of transitional species, haha haha haha haha! Please read Claim CC200: Transitional fossils on Talk Origins. In fact, every species ever found is a transitional species between what came before it and what came after it.

    For one specific example, please refer to Tiktaalik. The researchers, Edward B. Daeschler, Neil H. Shubin and Farish A. Jenkins, used the theory of evolution to accurately predict both what to expect and where to find the species. They then proceeded to search Ellesmere Island in Northern Canada, where they predicted, and guess what! They found exactly what they were looking for: a transitional species between fish and amphibians.

    I have no interest in discussing your claims about the bible. But I’m happy to destroy any further claims you have against evolution.

  49. Ok since you continue to be belligerent about how decent people behave when in a discussion, Ill address your point – There is no transitional species because there is no transition, Evolution is still an unproven theory dude thats what you and all your friends seem to not get And if you read the paper that you claim as a reference it says “may be” “may be” “may be” all the way thru the paper in other words the dude that wrote the paper is hypothesising none of it is proven its all theory fella and you need to get that in your head. Prove with actual proof that evolution is a fact … you cant do it! Anyway …

    I make no apologies for missing apostrophes and the occaisonal spelling error and as it were I have no spell check on my browser so If I actually want to go to the considerable effort to proof my own post which I reiterate is not an essay i would have to go to some great effort so as far as that goes PPPhhhhhhhht yeah right … its really like that important I just cant believe you people go to that kind of effort to shoot someone down again I say ‘attacking the man’ and not the argument – a very poor effort at debate. Ridicule is not the tool of a truly educated and enlightened man sorry dude !!!

    I totally understand how the “theory of Evolution works” because as yet its still only a theory and as far as Im aware Darwin who may not have actually suggested that black people were inferior but he certainly helped the argument skew to the negative side of things have a look at some of his evolutionist friends who posed the theory of survival of the fittest using his natural selection ideas.

    And anyway whats your problem man? why do guys like you always go for the man ? You cant help it because you have no basis of argument at all and so because you cant prove anything you just go the man and get nasty!!!

    Hmmmmmmm one fishapod kind of creature that kinda looks like a salamander he has leg like appendages and thats your whole basis for proving evolutionary theory which I maintain is still only a theory If I am wrong please tell me that Evolution is a proven fact and not a theory please and quote the reference that says it is fact Im interested!!

    And I really have to say this and try not to be offensive but are you stupid ? I explained to you I was not making racist comment I am not a racist friend and if you carefully re-read the original statement I made you would realise I was posing a false assertion based on early evolutionists stance that Aboriginal people were inferior not on my personal belief

    … so Now its been laid out for you twice if you persist with that attack then you are truly a silly person and not worthy of further consideration. Time taken to hold a decent rational discussion which you dont seem to be capable of anyhow, seems wasted!! Do you not read very well or is your comprehension limited ? or do you just read what takes your eye and leave the rest. Are you just plain ignorant and have a hidden agenda to labour a point in the hope that someone else will pick up on the obvious erroneous statement you made about me being a racist and join in on the frenzy you create by Christian Bashing. I understand your theory of evolution that you like to cling to so preciously, it seems a whole lot better than a 7 or 8 year old’s understanding of God that seems to have twisted and developed into a real root of bitterness toward anyone who has the courage to profess a belief in God and his Christ, I feel sorry for you my friend and You see Im not the one who is behaving badly toward my fellow man in this instance.
    If thats what Atheists are about, then Im glad I was brought low off of my high horse so that I might call out to my God to save me I truly hope that there is time for you!!

    And my last thought friend is this … its obvious why you are unwilling to debate or discuss the bible because although you are a vehement opponent of it you actually know very very little about it in reality!!! Hence the big all encompassing statements about Myths and fables and no real reference to actual scriptures or passages of scripture that are so obviously wrong and made up.

    Albert Einstein
    Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.

    Albert Einstein
    My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

    Regards mistakes and all !!

  50. all religions seperate people into judgemental,self righteous,andextremist groups.almost every war that has ever been fought has been linked with religion.what about the roman church of child abuse and its denials and cover ups!! here in northern ireland ian paisley has preached hatred for decades.religion has ripped this tiny island apart for 800 years!! i was suckered into christianity and became a hypocrite who had a bigoted opinion on everything that was not in line with what i believed in.i am now someone who is 100% anti religion,i dont carry any label,i am a human who lives and enjoys life to the full.

  51. michael
    I don’t believe in any religion as god is against my very being.
    But you say your up for a discussion and not an attack on you spelling so please explain some things.

    When ‘god’ created Adam and Eve they had two sons Cane and Abel. Cane killed abel and was sent away but with only three people on the planet he finds a wife where did she come from?

    And why is it that magic is the devils work but god allows some people to do it live Moses and Noah?

    And what is the bibles explaination on dinosaurs if god created everything in seven day’s then this sugests that dinosaurs lived at the same time as man how did noah get two of every type of living creature wich would then include dinosaurs onto a boat the size of two football feilds?

    I have plenty more questions if you don’t mind my bad spelling.

  52. I support this article.

    Regarding Santa…My family own a big toy factory, as far as I remember, we were Santa!

  53. Yo, people using this argument ‘evolution just a theory it hasnt been proved’, yeah thats right, its a theory. Scientists have the decency to call it a theory, and thats exactly what it is. It’s a theory because it has some evidence but not enough so that we can say it is definetely true. So what? Those aren’t the only damn options, its not like you have a choice between christianity or evolution. Ffs all science tries to do is make your lives better, tries to explain things we cant understand based on evidence. Stop dissing it man. And when something is called a theory that is because science deems it unacceptable to be called a theorem.

  54. Bob, no, you also misunderstand the issue. It’s called a theory because a theory in science does not mean the same thing as a theory as typically used to describe conjecture. A theory in science is a model that is well supported by evidence and has been rigorously tested.

    Evolution is a fact in the sense that it definitely occurred and is still occurring today. The theory of evolution describes the process through which it happens.

  55. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

    -Napoleon Bonaparte

  56. Thanks for your sharing.
    I wish I would have figured out the Fakeness of Jesus Chris when I was younger – it took me $100,000 of education and until the age of 24 to figure it out.

  57. Two thumbs waaaay up man!!! I reside in the USA and I am forced to sit by and watch my govt be taken over by religous fanatics. I wish there were more people like me, then maybe we could win this stupid argument.

  58. God exists but religions are still nonsense LOL

    I LOVE AGNOSTICISM!

  59. Yes.
    The Christianity is dying.
    These weak agonizing attempts are just meant to cover a rotting disgusting corpse of the Christ’s Church.
    You CANNOT RULE ANY MORE.

  60. There is no God, is the simplest way I can put it.

    Lachy, we seem to have exactly the same opinions when it comes to religion. Just nice to know there are more people out there willing to question and ultimately reject religion 🙂

  61. I also have a deep hate to all faiths.
    I’m sick on the prejudice of women who broke up with me because I would not go to church with them.
    I’m sick of people coming to my house to push their fictions on me.
    Our country has lost thousands of young men to the fight against radical islam.
    I know it’s only a matter of time when all religions will fall. The growing body of science will stomp out the mental herpes of religion once and for all.
    I am an Athesit who has dediated his life to making the world a better place for everyone, including those infected with religion.

  62. your born . you get a nasty disease . and you die.
    SIMPLE AS THAT
    how many thick people are there in this world…
    i honestly believe that without them the world
    would be fine and people would have a nicer existence.
    i detest all religion especially islam and i do not really
    have that much hope for scientific studies tampering
    with the fabric of life. fuck them all .. backward cunts.

  63. I found your article to be very thought provoking. if more people were rational and read this there wouldnt be any religion. like you I was an atheist from an early age (my parents and school didnt give me any problems) hell i ve only been to church twice in my life (once for a field trip which was completely unbiased it was mostly about architecture and other stuff about the renisance) the other time was with my grandma dragging me to a sermon 🙁 she was a faithful christian and was the only one in my family whom you would call “god fearing” any way I wasnt moved by the priests lectures I actually fell asleep at spme time

  64. I hate religion too. But I don’t see ‘religion’ the way you see it. To me it means man made rituals, a man made being, man made hatred. I hate it when my Salvation Army boss bags the Sisters of Mercy for sending us (a children’s charity) a donation. If all the Salvos are like her then they are not much good either. How dare she criticise anyone else? And then there are the people who have read The Alchemist – they think they have all the spiritual answers too. It makes me laugh.

    I hate religion only for this reason – each one thinks they are the only one. They are not. No one is a member of some exclusive club. How arrogant. As for an afterlife – I have no idea if one exists (I’m not arrogant enough to assume I could know) but it is a nice thought, only I reckon if it exists, all the gurus will be there, wondering why the heck we all fought with each other about it.

  65. I had these same inclinations as a child. I remember very well the first time I ever questioned gods existence — I feared god punishing me for questioning whether he exists or not! I think that may be a major stumbling block for many people; fear.

    I spent years exploring and reading about religions– systematically exposing for myself the flaws of each and every one of them — I started calling myself a pagan, then an agnostic (I was afraid to admit that through reason I had lost my faith, and would inevitably, when exposed to the proper arguments become an atheist).

    Then, during my junior year of college I decided to take up a second major — Philosophy. During this time I had a lot of friends who were “spiritual” Jewish mystics, pagans, Christians — they were part of the activist community. As a student, I heard arguments for the existence of god, arguments against the existence of god, studied the Greeks, logic, etc. Soon, after cornered by the mother of a good friend of mine about my being “afraid to admit you are an atheist”, I finally started to explore the finer points of agnosticism and atheism. Atheism is a spectrum of certainties — one can never be 100% certain, but that is not the point, I was now 99% certain, but still stubbornly calling myself an agnostic.

    As a student I became incensed, sick of the anti-intellectual arguments being made by theists under the guise of philosophy. I argued whole-heartedly against religious studies professors and students — It was empowering, invigorating to realize something so fundamental about the nature of reality — There is No God. The department later donated a book to the school library in my name: ‘Morality Without God’.

    Atheism has been both a blessing and a curse for me, it has isolated me from a large part of society, but it has solidified my commitment to reason and humanitarianism. There is no god. Religion is not, has never been and never will be a positive force in society. The more people who realize that the better.

    Still, I find myself unable to fully admit my atheism to my family — once a catholic always a catholic, I suppose. But that’s my own personal failing. It doesn’t give any credence to religions truth value.

    The fact remains that there is absolutely no evidence for god, and morality is not rooted in religious belief.

  66. The atheists you might look up to, would they want you acting this way?

  67. Sorry Micheal, if you’re any kind of “fundamentalist”, your thinking processes are a conglomeration of pseudo-thinking drivel, not based in reality, and, quite frankly, every single one of your sentences concerning evolution are completely, totally, useless uneducated ones. Evolution is no longer a theory, flash, Micheal. Please, before you open your faith-based (ie moronic) mouth spewing forth stone-aged aphorisms that smack of sticks and stones, please, study, read, think, and by God, give up that dead-end God shit! All it’s gotten anyone throughout history and even today, is separatist, violent, egotistical, irrational war-mongering behaviors and rhetoric. Thank you.

    The only reality is a scientific reality. I hate religion, and even thinking that a “God” exists, is utterly disgusting for so many reasons.

  68. I gotta say I call poe on this. It’s like a bad parody of how a Christian wants atheism to be seen.

  69. The whole ‘I hate religion, people thinking god exists is disgusting’ schitck. To me it’s not something an atheist would say. To me that’s something a Christian pretending to be an atheist would say to make atheists look bad.

  70. I fail to see how it makes atheists look bad. I just expressed my honest opinion.

    I think you’re being overly sensitive about what I’ve written, and you probably think that religion deserves respect. Well, I think that’s where our opinion differs. I make a clear distinction between respecting people and their right to believe whatever they like, and religion itself. I have no respect for any religion and I make no apology for that.

  71. As an atheist you have a lot of power over religion. You can display just how much better atheism is over the hatred and hypocrisy of religion. By getting into the mud with religion and thinking the best way to combat it is to act even worse than they are shows to a lot of people that atheism is really no different to religion. If you really want to break religion’s hold on the world it has to be done by winning hearts and minds rather than beating those who follow it into submission.

  72. i totally agreed with wat u said and feel….bcoz that is wat u feel n think that is ur rite….but dont u ever think how does the ppl became civilise?….does it come from the way think or there is something that thougth them like phrophets…ministers…clerics….all these comes fm religion belief fm all the holy book they hv given down by god….if u dont belief ini god creation of all this so at least think how ur being born or earlier than that how does ur mother n father hv sex ejaculate their sperm then how does it merge create u giving life and the for 9 monthe 10 days u we born ..then u grow up …then wat ur now hv kownlegde abt the world n everything…think all this and alot more…fm where all this came that make u and me….i suggest u read all religion books all holy books to get ur answer ….nothing in this world which u agree happened by itself it must be somebody behind it doing it create it like wat u do not in ur life u create something u wat to be ….so who create u n me…pls read all those religious books all holy books asked the clerics …ministers….buddis monks….wat u want to know what is their answew does it satiffy u or not…..by the way it is ur choice to follow…nothing concerned of me bcoz ur one in urself nothing is belong to u fm the 1st day u were created in ur mother womb untuk u died n untill u being alife again to be judge but wat ppl call GOD/ALLAH. Ppl can say watever while they alife living but once the face death or hardship in life they will seek to GOD’S blessing and help …belief me…its truth….doesnt matter wat belief ur even ur an atheis or free thinker or a communist ppl…..so ple try wat i hv said…think …abt urself…ur daily life …ur live everyday….good luck hope seek for the truth….

  73. Damn straight! Magic and faith is simply a term for a science or a logic that we cannot explain or comprehend.

  74. what matters most is the good deeds that we do on our fellow men, it does not matter what religion you have as long as you do good stuffs ;.;

  75. I love what that ex-Mafia dude Joe Donato said when he left the Popes Church! “Religion divides, breeds fear, demands much and gives you nothing! I’m not talking about religion tonight. I’m taking about a relationship with a living and a loving God, when Jesus Christ comes into your heart.”
    Joe Donato – Tell It To The Mafia.
    hategeds

  76. I like your style! I was somewhat simliar to yourself, except that I went to a Catholic primary school until I was unceremoniously booted out at the tender age 9 (year 3) for many reasons, some being rejection of religion, some being failure to conform. I am now a Militant Atheist, not in the sense that i’ll attack a religion person/place of worship, but i’m not afraid to give them stick about their lies.

    I have only just started reading the bible, and I totally see all the murder, lies, rape, sexual slavery and am at a loss to understand why they believe it.
    You should check out “The Man Who Created God” by Stephen Marton, it’s a great book and will give you lots and lots of verbal ammuntion to let the religious folk know what BS they believe in, it’s got references to the Old & New Testaments + The Koran (that’s which parts of the bible i’ve been reading so far).
    there is no god, no heaven & no hell 🙂

  77. This is so true. And I think all the ppl who are religious enough to believe that aetheists or homos, or muslims should go to hell- well they should just go die in a hole. You know what, they dont even deserve a hole. Go die on your church mantle!!

  78. Yes, I agree with you. I’m a natural born atheist as well.

    However I think greed, hate, prejudice, murders, misogyny, racism came well before religion and as such are human traits that will not be eradicated even if religion suddenly disappeared. It’s the human shadow, the dark side of the psyche. It’s always been there and always will be, even if 100% of the world is areligious. It just seems the shadow found a comfortable home in religion, or maybe religion was designed to house those dark corners of our minds.

    I wish that by wiping religion out of this Earth we would actually live more peacefully but, to be honest, I don’t see it. The only way is to accept and integrate the shadow, to learn about it, watch it and then accept it.

    Contemporary psychology seems to be having more and more answers, that’s what I would put my money on, even though it will be a long and painful process. In my own process working with anger, shame, greed (all the ‘usual suspects’) I can offer that accepting them truly, accepting yourself with all your ‘shit’, actually banishes them. In religion it’s the opposite, you are supposed to repress them, suppress them and put a layer of ‘kindness and love’ when inside you’re boiling.. It’s a recipe for a disaster, that’s how major psychiatric conditions arise as well as sudden outbreaks of killings and murders. The psyche can only hold so much.

    Would I want to see religion disappear? Yes. It sanctions insanity. Would I believe humans would suddenly live in peace? No. We have a long way to go.

  79. Thank you, you’ve sucsessfully and tastefully put my thoughts into words. Religious people make me physically sick, though my best friend too is very religious. I’m 14 and female, I honestly think that religion is no better than cannibalistic cults. People are too weak to handle the fact that there is nothing waiting for us to protect us and give us eternal life when we die, so they have to cling to the fabrications that have been passed down all this time, it shows that mankind has been weak for as long as the bible has existed. A very long time. Unfortunatly, I see no end to the thing that plagues our society. The monster has had years and years to swell and become a major part of modern times. Religion has weakened over the years, it went from being mandatory in the medeval times to only shameful if you traveled on the sabbath day, to simply a choice, an oppinion. In the constitution it states that we have freedom of choice, freedom of religion, freedom in general, therefor religious infections will stay, because we will surely not be rewriting over 200 years of American history. I’d be elated to see it leave us and put people in reality but I also don’t like science carelessly experimenting with the human race and our world, it’s as if we are nothing but beings to them and they don’t care if they distroy us as long as it benefits them. I firmly belive in science, but only to a point. I veiw religious people as weaklings, tints that are codependent on a fabricated story to survive. I’ll be atheist until I am put to rest where I will be thankful that I may finnaly have a break from the stress and pain of reality. While I’m here I hope to live a happy, healthy, fulfilled life.

  80. ” I hate religion. Fuck Christianity. Fuck Islam. Fuck Judaism and Hinduism. Fuck Scientology and all other crazy cults. Fuck ’em all. Respect people, not religion. The world would be a much better place without it. ”

    ahaha!
    amen to this.

  81. Hey Elissa, not sure how great is the snippet you have picked. I don’t believe in God, but i go to church (i feel relaxed after it), i don’t believe in spirit, but i practice meditation (i think it makes me calmer and stronger). Fuck Christianity? Why? Because of church and Vatican’s behaviour? They have almost nothing in common with Christianity, they are just freeks seeking for power and domination. Fuck Islam? Because of terrorists? Again, terrorists have nothing to do with Islam, they are just other group of freeks who misundertood Koran. The same with others.
    As i said, i dont believe in God, but i try to live like a catholic, because if everyone would keep these rules, that catholic should keep, the life, i think, would be much greater for all of us.
    For example take a look at catholic meditation and tell me what’s wrong with it?
    I will be following this blog and waiting for your answer, i believe we will have a great discussion.

  82. damn. took the words right out of my mouth.
    I’ve never really had the guts to explicitly display my contempt for religion like you, instead I always give a little disclaimer, like
    “I understand that everyone has their own views..”
    or “but who is to say that my atheism is correct….”
    jus to avoid confrontation.

    but seriously.
    to hell with that.

    religion should be eradicated. =A=

  83. I’m an atheist and proud of it! I was 15 when I stopped believing in God! When I last went to church people were crying,throwing their arms in the air and thanking God and Jesus! For what….I have no idea! I felt like the only normal human being in the whole church! I was thinking these people need some serious help! It was a display of childish grown ups! I had to leave to keep my sanity! I left the church and said to myself…. (“There is no God!”) I was right! How intelligent people can have a belief with 0% proof makes no sense whatsoever! Why creationists ignore the mountains of evidence,the discoveries and continuing discoveries,reason,truth and common sense of science makes no sense to me! All religion has only a belief with 0% proof! How can these people be so deluded? Even when the evidence is right there in front of their faces…they still deny it and choose to still believe! I feel so sorry for these blind faith heads! I really do! All the bibles from every religion was writtin by primitive man who didn’t know any better! How many people were slaughtered in religious wars? How many woman were put to death because they were free thinking? I could go on but I think you know what I mean! Religion is a killer and justifies its killings in the name of God! Where is the humanity in that? There is good in religion but the bad outweighs the good ten fold! Science prooves with evidence to support its claims that evolution is how mankind got to be! What does religion have?…..A belief! How can any rational human being support a religion that has so much blood on its hands? All religion has a bloody history! Atheism does not! We are pro life and stand for human rights! All these religious leaders are taking money from the gullible,naive faith heads and then say believe or you will go to hell! What a crock of shit! These poor faith heads just sit there and take what ever the religious leaders spew from their lying mouths! I really hope these people wake from their delusional state and realize they’ve been duped…for thousands of years!Religious leaders stand on the shoulders of the poor and take their money for their own! Religion is dying…more and more people are not going to church! Thank goodness! But there are still gullible,naive people that need rescuing from their weak faith! No matter what a creationist says…he or she will never have proof of their religions claims! Why?…..because it’s only a belief! I would challenge any faith head out there to a debate on the issue of any or all religions,Gods or other faire tales out there…but they’re unarmed so it wouldn’t be a fare debate! How many gods have humans believed in before Jesus, God, Allah, Muhammad, Satan, were ever even heard of by any human? Loads… Thor, Ra, Zuess, Venus to name a few! These are gods and goddesses that humans believed in and died believing in!Where was the God we know of today?…waiting on the side lines for his or hers or its turn?! Now these Gods were discarded over time! What makes the God we know of today any different from the Gods humans have discarded over the thousands of years? They only have one thing in common….they all don’t exsist! Religion is for the gullible,naive,weakminded people who are scared of dying! Every human lives and dies! I’ve accepted this and have no fear of dying! I do wish all people of all different faiths would just get along! Atheists are on the outside of religion and looking in and shaking our heads wondering when the madness of all religion will stop and be nothing but a bad memory! Science with evidence,non stop discoveries, truth, reason, humanity or religion with only a belief? Hmm Science wins hands down! There is no disputing this! So come and say what you like faith heads! I challenge any faith to a friendly debate! Science may have gaps but in time these gaps will be filled with future discoveries! What has religion discovered? NOTHING! Its stagnant! Down with all religion and its fairetales and SHAME! SHAME on all religions! Read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins! I dare any faith head to read and understand! It will help any faith head to find the truth! Religion one day will be nothing but a history lesson! And history is where it will stay! To bad I won’t be around to see that! But my future generations will! DEATH to religion and long live science and humanity! PEACE to all humans! And plz no quotes from the bible….i know them all and yes its all bullshit!

  84. I totilay agree with you. Ever since the dawn of time people have been fussing over religon and discriminating people for what they bielived in, but, we are now in the year 2011 and our technoligy has developed so much and we are still bieliving these insane stories from the bible ( especially the old testiment) Such as someone living inside a whale or, moses wanting to see gods face but instead see’s his backside. If you bielive in this you have to just be afraid of death. People will make up any excuse to bielive that you go somewhere after death and something happens to your spirit later on, but, the reality is that once you die, you get burried, and your body rots underground, and gets eaten by animals. Even Stephen Hawkings said that there is no life after death! Yet again, people STILL beilive this bullshit. Not only is most religon TOTILAY unrealistic and unbielivable, but, most religon descriminates against so many other races! I know a family that are born-again-christians that wouldnt let someone in there house because they were JEWISH! that to me is absoulutley sick. Also, those hard core religous freaks say every one is going to burn in hell if they dont convert to christianity. That meens that Some of the most respectible people are going right to hell, such as, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, and so many more people that only wanted peace! I dont understand that this world has developed so much and we are still bielive this crap. Ever since the age of 7 I refused to go to church because i HATED it so much. They sunday school teachers gave me a piece of there mind when I said, ” God cant be real!!!!” So I walked right out of church untill service was over, and NEVER went back again. I frustrated me when people dont look at the think of the real things are possible besides religon. It has dominated our world for centuries and we haved kills because of it. The world we be such a better place without religon.

  85. When will you people just accept that you are what you claim to despise so passionately; a religion. You ignore your true history, you evangelize your beliefs, you ridicule those that don’t share your beliefs, you collect money in the name of your faith. You represent the same non-thinking elements that oppressed the masses via traditional religions throughout the centuries. You are just another outlet for prejudice and hatred. Just another religion.

  86. When you put a why? in front of the word religion you arrive at one conclusion, CONTROL. Religion was invented to control people”s minds in other words to brain wash you into thinking or not thinking. Religion is like any form of Government it is a means of control and it takes a thinking person to question that form of control. Any human on this earth who does not believe in the science that every thing on this earth has evolved over time does not have the mindset or lacks the courage to question religion. My questioning of religion occured at a very early age, at a required religious class at school, when I questioned the teacher with, and of course you can provide us with proof of what you are telling the class. His reply was that the proof is in the bible. I said the bible is a book of fiction and you cannot prove one word of it. I was sent from the religious class to the head master and I told him the same thing and for my trouble was given ten cuts with the cane.
    To this day I still do not believe in religion of any type shape or form and believe me I have done it tough.
    My way is to live and let live as long as nothing resembling religion is forced on me, sadly this world today is being torn apart by religion extreme or otherwise and I say to myself and my family, They are like sheep if one runs the whole mob runs they never stop to question why they are running, religious people are much the same as sheep but have 10 times the brain capacity but never use it.
    The world and it population will never unite as one, there will allways be conflict and friction caused by religion and governments, so each to their own, live and let live, try to be in control of your own life and die happy knowing that you will be allways be a part of this earth in the form of matter. From nature you came and it will be the natural world that will infold you.
    What we should fear most is not what we are told but what we are not told. Peace to everyone.

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