When I was young mum took me off to a sunday-schoolish kind of activity. It was mostly for fun but then the leaders started talking about this God and Jesus fellow. I went home and asked mum about these guys - she said that I could listen or not, it was up to me. Needless to say I thought that this guy in the sky was a little silly and decided I'd think about things that were a bit more logical.

I don't know a whole bunch about religions other than Christianity, so I will be mostly referring to this religion. I will refer to other religions on occasion, but I don't know enough about them to comment extensively. I'm not writing this for the "benefit" of the IC community. This is a long post. Depending on the response I get, I may choose to share my motivation for spenging time writing this to a community who may not even care.

I'm glad that I have realised that religion is based upon delusion, and it has caused far more destruction than good. Everything about religion appears to be both hyprocritical and inconsistent, well at least Christianity is. God is either all-powerful or he is not. The Bible is either his word or it isn't. Either Jesus was born from a virgin or he wasn't. Either there was a talking snake in a garden, or there wasn't. And either the Earth will be destroyed and we will all be judged, or we won't.

Picking and choosing what you believe in, and what you don't, is not acceptable. God has not given you a personal message to say "oh don't worry about x and y, the bible doesn't really mean that."  I have known too many people that have picked and choosed what they have believed in; this only reinforces the idea that any religion is BS. **Saying that "God work's in mysterious ways" and similar is TOTAL BS** It's a cop out. When you profess that the Bible tells you everything how to live a good life, then God must be some kind of psychopath.

If God had a hand in helping that flight land in the Hudson, then he must have put the birds there in the first place? {edit a: and why would he have chosen a plane where it appeared that the Captain does not believe in God, and still does not. When asked if he was praying, Capt. Sully replied with something like (not 100% accurate) "No, I was too busy flying the plane." Attributing the safe landing to God, while ignoring the fact that birds hit both engines is ignorant and ignores the skill of an obviously great pilot"} If God saved people that didn't turn up to work on 9/11 because of traffic delays, then he obviously controlled all of those people who blocked the roads. Those people who made it to work early that day because they wanted to get some extra work done - did God hate them, or is he not really all-powerful?

Some people have told me that "the Bible is the word of God written by man." If it was the founding document of the religion, don't you think that God would have made sure they got it right? They would have eliminated the hyprocritical comments - the New Testament never says that anything in the Old Testament was incorrect.

I thought the Bible, and Christianity, was meant to be the shining light on morals, love, and caring about all life. Yet for some reason the Bible tells us how we are to treat our slaves and when we are allowed to beat them. We must love our neighbour; yet if your best friend decides that he does not want to follow God, instead of lovingly showing him that he is incorrect and teaching him to love God once again, you must be the first person to raise your hand and stone him to death.

People attempt to do plenty of good work for the name of God. Unfortunately this is where the 'destruction' starts. Yes, abstinience is an effective method to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. But it is not the only method. In schools you advocate the teaching of creationism alongside evolution. Why, when it comes to having a direct tangible effect on saving the lives of millions, should the teaching of condoms not be presented alongside abstinience? Both are effective - but because of your religious dogma, you say that only abstinience is acceptable. You are therefore not doing any good work, at all, in the name of Jesus and God. Why must the work you do be in the name of God? Why not follow the example of Doctors without Borders and Engineers without Borders and take part in truthful, practical work that does not spread Christianity? Do you think that you will be treated better once you arrive to Heaven, than a Doctor who works hundreds of volunteer hours? Too bad that some of those people didn't listen to you about abstinience and have HIV, but at least you spread the word of God. If you believe that HIV was created by God to punish, then you are truely deluded.

{a: These people that attempt to go out and do "good" work in the name of God are often inspired by great feelings of joy while singing or at Church. Others get the same inspiration but choose to do nothing about it - instead they will complain about the status of the world and verbaly barate anyone who disagrees with them. God has inspired you - go out and do something practical. Many get this same feeling while doing things that they enjoy, listening to music, writing music, painting, hugging a loved one, doing community work, competiing in a race or sports. That's not God, it's probably just the chemicals and hormones in your body that release into your system when you do something you enjoy}

There are many hundreds of thousands of strands of virus and a similar number of beetles in the world. Did God decide that the planet needed all these little insects and greated everyone of them individually? Why did he create a bunch of virsus that are bengin? My absolutely favourite illustration of evolution vs creationism can be found here:
http://religiousfreaks.com/2006/07/09/evolution-vs-creationism-family-guy-style/

Where did that first little slug come from? I'm sure we can accept that in every day life atoms and molecules break join together and break apart.  So a few atoms come together, and then a few more, and then a few more. While I'm not a biology expert it's pretty obvious that things can change and rearrange for mutual benefit - a lot of the time through chance mutation. Evidence for evolution is all around us. Evidence of creationism is no where. A common comment by believers is: "why don't we see half-formed creatures?". But we do. There are snakes with useless pelvises, flightless birds... fish, salamanders and crustaceans that have non-functional eyes because they have lived in the dark for so long. Where does the "intelligent" fit into "intelligent design" with a woman's pelvis when it comes to giving birth, men who have a a urinary tract that runs through the prostate gland, children who choke because the respiratory and digestive systems share parts of the throat. Even embryos produce tails, gill sacs and a full coat of apelike hair before shedding them before birth. After birth over years past, the colour of our skin has changed depending on what we needed to survive in the areas that we lived. This is evolution.

Humans are still evolving. People are taller and stronger than we were 1000 years ago. Evolution, although as a result of food, infrastructure, etc.

There is evidence for evolution. Creationist throw fossils out the window as if they were nothing. God put them there for a test? You like to throw up circular references when it comes to time periods. Carbon dating people. No it's not 100% accurate, but it can tell the difference between 1000 years and 10,000 years. You accept other test methodologies, but because this one will cast doubt upon your religon and is not 100%, you discount it automaticaly.

Christianity says that the world is about 6000 years old. This is 1000 years AFTER glue was invented.

Dolphins have sex for pleasure. Why shouldn't humans? {a: Why should some of the most pious men on earth, presumably, decide that having sex with small boys is a good thing to do. Sex with choir boys was not an isolated case. Religion has poisoned the minds of many a man who thought he would be doing good work}

What happens to the spirits children that die before they are baptised? For many years the Church advocated that they sat in limbo - not heavan or hell. Recently a group of Cardinals came together to sit around and discuss this. How does this work? God has sent them each personal messages, or they have some personal feelings about what happens? How can you possibly sit around and discuss such a thing? It sounds like they are getting together to make up stories that sound good.

History shows that whenever science threatens to disprove a theory of the Church, they have persecuted that person, killed them, or shut them up one way or another. Galileo is the best example of this. In the future I'm confident that the same thing will happen in the future. As science and technology advances, further evidence of evolution, global warming etc.

Religion is dangerous because it dominates people who may otherwise be reasonable and logical thinkers. Thankfully in NZ, the political parties that advocate Christian values do not even get 1% at election time. Im told that although the USA's founding fathers were Christian, they advocated a seperation of state and church. I've heard some say that the invasion of Iraq was a mission from God. ummm did he tell George Bush? Did he tell anyone? Nope.

Christians, or others, interpretting events in the world around them to be signs, messages, or acts of God is ignorant and dangerous. Did God hate those children that died in the boxing day Tsunami? Does he hate those that he killed in New Orleans? Did he tell Bush to delay helping people in New Orleans so that some extra people would die - or did he tell them to move in just in time to help those that survived? If he wanted people to come up and join him in heaven, why not have them die peacefully in their sleep? Why have them get maimed, injured, sick, diseased and die slowly and painfully? For a test? I believe that no matter what I do in life... if I say sorry, please forgive me, I accept you God, then I'll be let into heaven. Why let me get away with this while others have to go through horrible tests.

Why does God hate amputees? Are there no pious very deserving people who do great work in the world, who have an accident yet deserve to have a limb back?

I've also been told that there has to be a reason for the universe. The big bang, or the start of the universe, however it happened, had to happen somehow. So God must have done it. Ummm what created God? himself?

A scientist will say "I dont know what was around the outside of the particle at the start of the universe". Our minds can not really comprehend it. We can not comprehend the mass of this particle. You think that their must be a God because you can not comprehend the universe. You can not comprehend that there is no meaning to life.  A scientist will own up to what he doesn't know. A religous person will claim that they know everything because God created everything.

What if you were born in the Middle East. You would be raised as a Muslim. But if God and Christianity was the true path, would you have realised it? I'd wager probably not! A few Muslims convert to Christianity. A few Christians have realised that they have been bought up 'on the wrong side of the fence' and have instead moved the other way. What made them realise that Islam is correct and Christianity is not.

The people with me are telling me to hurry up. So many more thoughts but this will have to do, I'll finish with a three quotes.

Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, starting page 43.
"While you believe that bringing an end to religion is an impossible goal, it is important to realise that much of the developed world has nearly accomplished it. Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdom are among the least religious societies on earth. According to the United Nations Human Development Report (2005) they are also the healthiest, as indicated by life expectancy, adult literacyt, per capita income, education attainment, gender equality, homicide rate, and infant mortality....
Other analyses paint the same picture: the US is unique among adherence; it is also uniquely beleaguered by high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and infant mortality.  The same comparison hold true within the United States itself: Southern and Midwestern states, characterized by the highest levels of religious literalism, are especially plagued by the above indicators of societal dysfunction, with the comparatively secular states of the Northeast conform to European norms.
While political party affliation in the US is not a perfect indicator of religiosity, it is no secret that the "red states" are primarily red because of the overwhelming political influence of conservative Christians. If there were a strong correlation between Christian conservatism and social health, we might expect to see some sign of it in the red-state America. We don't. Of the 25 cities with the lowest rates of violent crime, 62% are in "blue" states and 38% are in "red" states. Of the 25 most dangerous cities, 76% are in red states, 24% in blue states. .. The 12 states with the highest rates of burhlary are red. 24 of the 29 states with the highest rates of theft are red. Of the 22 states with the highest rates of murder, 17 are red.... The dubious link between Christian literalism and Christain values [one would assume that they would display them more frequently than non-christains] is belied by other indicies of social equality.  Consider the ratio of salaries paid to top-teir CEOs and those paid to the same firm' average employees: in Britain it is 24:1; in France 15:1; in Sweden, 13:1; in the US, where 80% of the population expects to be called before God on Judgement Day, it is 475:1. Many a camel, it would seem, expects to pass easily through the eye of a needle.

National Academy of Sciences
"At the root of the apparent conflict between some religions and evolution is a misunderstanding of the critical difference between religious and scientific ways of knowing. Religions and science answer different questions about the world. Whether there is a purpose to the universe or a purpose to human existence are not questions for science. Religious and scientific ways of knowing have played, and will continue to play, significant roles in human history... Science is a way of knowing about the natural world. It is limited to explaining the natural world through natural causes. Science can say nothing about the supernatural.  Whether god exists or not is a question about which science is neutral".

I'll leave it to you to figure out how this is a scathing comment about religion.

And finally, one from Mother Teresa, who even had doubts about God in the end.
"Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The Child of your Love-and now become as the most hated one - the one- You have thrown away as unwanted - unloved. I call, I cling, I want - and there is no One to answer - no One on Whom I can cling - no, No One - Alone... Where is my Faith - even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness - My God  - how painful is this unknown pain - I have no Faith - I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart - & make me suffer untold agony.
So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them - because of the blasphemy - If there be a God - please forgive me - When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven - there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul. - I am told God loves me - and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Did I make a mistake in surrendering blindly to the Call of the Sacred Heart?
- addressed to Jesus, at the suggestion of a confessor, undated."

I will attempt to provide references if anyone requests them.

{edit a: Added comments about Capt. Sully, choir boys, being inspired while praying, and changed order of 2 paragraphs}