Organized Religion and the Problem they Cause.

Take a survey and find out what religion your belief system matches.Here are some personal views from people which spells out many of the sins of organized religions. "Pacific as the Gospels may be, the religion they gave rise to has been remarkably violent... Western Europe during the so-called Age of Faith was the most warlike civilization on earth, with the exception of Japan. The Arabs were stunned by the brutality of the Crusaders when they invaded Palestine in the eleventh century... Barefoot and ragged, armed only with clubs, sticks, hoes and other crude implements, [the Tafurs] charged into battle gnashing their teeth, feasting afterward on the roasted flesh of whatever poor Muslim they managed to get their hands on. Yet the knights were so impressed with these holy cannibals that they gave them the honor of being the first ones over the wall during the climactic assault on Jerusalem in 1099... "Although everyone remembers Christ's line about the meek inheriting the earth, she points out that the Gospels are in fact studded with apocalyptic warnings of the terrible fate awaiting those whose only sin is to question whether he is the messiah... "...the heart of what is most troubling about Christianity. Telling people how to behave is one thing, but telling them what to believe means invading every intellectual nook and cranny in order to root out contrary ideas. It means robbing the individual of his last shred of privacy. From Christ's demand for complete psychological surrender, Drury contends that it was only a step to the great heresy hunts, book burnings and religious massacres of the Middle Ages... ""The totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century were equally preoccupied with the control of thought," Drury writes. "But in comparison to their more successful antecedent (i.e., the Church), they were mere amateurs"... "Drury... thinks that "the religion of Jesus is zealous, immoderate, and unwise" and that, as a result, "Jesus cannot be totally absolved of the savage history of the Church"... "...one reason the Church became so oppressive is that it continued to insist on a series of false ideas concerning the existence of God and the nature of Christ long after European society was ready to move on. The problem was not belief per se but belief that was increasingly at war with reality... "Religion, as he sees it, is a bad idea that has lodged itself under the human skull and must be driven out. "It is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions," he writes [in Terror and Civilization: Christianity, Politics, and the Western Psyche, by Shadia Drury, Palgrave Macmillan]..." (Daniel Lazare. "The Gods Must Be Crazy." The Nation, Nov. 15, 2004: 29-36). Pope Benedict welcomes 20,000 Spanish Catholics to St. Peter’s Square today to celebrate the beatification of 498 Catholics who were killed during the Spanish Civil War. The ceremony will declare the “blessed” status of priests, nuns, monks, deacons, a seminarian and some secular Catholics who were killed in what the Church describes as “the biggest religious persecution in Spain’s history.” The biggest in history … I pulled out my trusty Guinness Book of World Records to try to verify this, but found nothing on it. In digging a little further, though, I think the Church’s claim may be just a teensy bit off. There is no doubt that Catholics were viciously persecuted in Spain during the 1930s. Spanish atheists, inspired by the recent example of Bolsheviks in Russia, were so certain in their knowledge that there is no God that they felt free to commit the worst kind of atrocities against those so backwards as to disagree with them: murder, rape, larceny, torture, vandalism – everything in the book. Not just isolated instances, either; the 498 being beatified today are the tip of an enormous iceberg. Given the choice, I would rather vacation in 2007 Iraq than in 1937 Spain. But “the biggest religious persecution in Spain’s history”? Not really. Disproving that claim requires looking no further than – well, no further than the Spanish Civil War itself, in which the Catholics meted out murder, rape, torture, etc. to Spain’s atheists and agnostics on a far grander scale than they themselves endured. Historians estimate that the Loyalists executed about 38,000 Catholics during the war, a number quite a bit smaller than the 150,000 unbelievers killed by the Nationalists under General Franco. That’s during the war; after the war, Franco had the power and the time to exterminate another 50,000 of less than perfect faith. Don’t expect much criticism of the Generalissimo at today’s ceremonies, though. All bad – but still not “the biggest religious persecution in Spain’s history.” Let’s think: Spain … religion … persecution … Ah, yes: the Spanish Inquisition. Now there’s one for persecution history buffs. During the centuries of Muslim rule, Jews lived in Spain in relative peace, at least most of the time. When the Christians took over in 1492, however, they ordered every Spanish Jew either to convert to Christianity or to leave. Hundreds of thousands left, especially those affluent enough to afford the travel. Many ended up in Turkey, where the Sultan could not believe his good fortune: “Allah has struck the king of Spain with blindness,” he exclaimed, “that he should impoverish his realm to enrich mine!” Some sneaky Jews who stayed behind on a claim they had converted, though, continued to practice Judaism in secret. In the days before wiretaps, the principal way to get at the truth was to use torture. In 1568, for example, the Inquisition of Toledo tortured a woman accused of secret Jewish leanings on the grounds that she would not eat pork. A transcript of her trial is filled with pages of fine print of her cries for mercy, her screams of pain and her pleas for death, all minutely recorded by the attendant scribe; each time, the Inquisitor simply repeated his command: “Tell the truth.” Those who were caught, either by confessing under torture or by making other mistakes such as praying without shoes or bathing the whole body, were generally burnt, after a glorious procession and ceremony called an auto-de-fé. This was done on the direct order of Jesus, who said: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” [John 15:6.] The Spanish Inquisition lasted for centuries; the last official Spanish execution for heresy was in 1826, when a schoolmaster was hanged for substituting “Praise be to God” in place of “Ave Maria” in school prayers. Three centuries of Inquisition have got to be considered bigger, persecution-wise, than three years of civil war. Still, we’re not ready to crown a champion yet. “Who is going to return to us the temples, art works, images, and paintings destroyed by anti-clericals during the Civil War?” asked Father Jorge Lopez-Teulon, one of the priests planning the beatification ceremonies. Obviously, no one can; which brings to mind the obliteration not only of millions of people, but of an entire culture, perpetrated by the Spanish Catholic Church on the people and religion of the New World. Talk about heresy! Bringing an entire continent to correct beliefs about God was no easy task. In 1531, only a decade after the conquest, Bishop Zumárraga wrote home from Mexico that he had personally destroyed more than 500 temples and 20,000 idols. Communicating complex theological concepts through the language barrier was difficult, but not impossible. The Franciscan Luis Caldera, who spoke only Spanish, taught the doctrine of hell by throwing dogs and cats into an oven, and lighting a fire under it: the howls of the animals terrified the Indians. But attempts to educate Indians met bitter criticism. Jeronimo Lopez wrote in 1541: “It is a most dangerous error to teach science to the Indians and still more to put the Bible and the holy scriptures into their hands. . . . Many people in our Spain have been lost that way, and have invented a thousand heresies.” One specific complaint was that “reading the holy scriptures, [the Indians] would learn that the old patriarchs had many wives at the same time, just as they used to have.” Even though millions of Indians were baptized, backsliding was widespread; some priests baptized babies and then immediately killed them, while their souls were known to be free of sin, to assure their safe conduct into Heaven. There is one recorded case in which the Aztecs were permitted to argue with the missionaries on theological grounds. Their chief, Ometochtzin, said in his deposition that the various orders of friars had different dress and rules, proving that that everyone had his own way of life. The Indians had their way too, and they should not be forced to give it up. He also argued that many Spaniards were drunkards who scoffed at religion, and were therefore not necessarily better than Indians who were devout toward their own God. The Church’s response to Ometochtzin’s argument was straightforward: he was executed. So I think we have a winner for “the biggest religious persecution in Spain’s history,” with the atrocities committed against the clergy in the 1930s placing at best a distant fourth. The flaw with this analysis is that I may be misconstruing the term “persecution.” “Persecution” is what happens when people who do not have a correct understanding of God do bad things to people who do have a correct understanding of God. When people who actually have a correct understanding of God use righteous force against those either consciously or unwittingly in league with Satan, it’s an affront to religious sentiment to call that “persecution.” A better term might be “helping God,” except when atheists are doing the killing. To be painfully honest about it, every Catholic and every anti-Catholic who was killed for his or her beliefs in the Spanish Civil War, the Inquisition, and the Conquest would have died eventually anyway. One thing doesn’t have to die, though, and that’s “the truth.” It will suffer some injuries in St. Peter’s Square today, but I hope it can pull through. “Faith and knowledge are related as the two scales of balance; when the one goes up, the other goes down. . . . The power of religious dogma, when inculcated early, is such as to stifle conscience, compassion, and finally every feeling of humanity. . . . For, as you know, religions are like glow worms; they shine only when it's dark. A certain amount of ignorance is the condition of all religions, the element in which alone they can exist. ” (Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), cited in http://www.ffrf.org/day/, 2-22-05). "No institution in modern civilization is so tyrannical and so unjust to woman as is the Christian Church. It demands everything from her and gives her nothing in return.” (Josephine K. Henry, letter responding to Frances Willard's praise of the bible. Published in the Appendix of The Woman's Bible, 1897.) “Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief.” (James Russell Lowell, Literary Essays, Witchcraft, Vol. II, p. 374 (1891)). A new exhibit is attracting thousands of visitors to a museum in Salta, Argentina. On display are the frozen remains of a 15-year old girl who was sacrificed by Incan religious experts 500 years ago. She was not alone when she froze to death after having been put to sleep by corn liquor; a 6-year old girl and a 7-year old boy were found with her, along with some of their toys. Theologians had the lot hauled up a 22,000-foot mountain before they were killed. This was more pleasing to God, since it was closer to Him. Modern day Incas unsuccessfully protested against the exhibit, apparently embarrassed about their ancestors’ religious practices. There is nothing to be embarrassed about, though; human sacrifice has been a staple of religious observance throughout the world. In Africa, when it was necessary to deliver a message to the Gods (e.g., “Enough with all the rain already!”), theologians would club a woman to death, write a message and stick it inside her mouth, then place her in a tall tree – where the Gods could see the message more easily. Same concept as the Incas, putting the sacrifice closer to God The sun gives life to the world, so Mexican theologians deduced that the sun needs to receive life back from it. Since the heart is the symbol of human life, the bleeding hearts of men were offered to the sun to give it strength to continue his journey across the sky. Scholars estimate that between 20,000 and 40,000 people were sacrificed to the Mexican sun every year. Those who have spent time in Mexico can attest that the sun there is still grateful for these gifts. If you are thinking, at least subconsciously, “I’m glad my ancestors didn’t do that sort of thing,” well, they did. When a Scandinavian or Slavic husband died, his now-useless widow would often be killed along with him. This occurred in Poland as late as the 10th century AD. Arab visitors to southern Russian reported that, if a man died with three wives, his favorite would be selected to be strangled and then burned on the man’s funeral pyre. Nine was the sacred number of the Gods of Scandinavia. Every nine years, a spring festival was held in the Swedish town of Uppsala to honor the God Frey. Nine humans, nine horses, and nine dogs were hanged in his honor. (If Michael Vick had smarter lawyers, they would have argued that he killed those dogs as part of a religious rite; a jury under America’s pro-religious laws would have had to acquit him.) Julius Caesar was no wimp. He watched gladiators like we watch baseball games. Yet even his stomach was turned by the amount of human sacrifice he witnessed in France. “The Gauls consider that the oblation of such as have been taken in theft, or robbery, or any other offences is more acceptable to the immortal Gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse even to the innocent.” Priests of Germanic tribes in the Baltic region observed the custom of enclosing a living person within the masonry of a new building in order to secure the blessing of the Gods for it. Children’s bodies were inserted into dykes on the sea coasts to preserve them from the battering of the waves. When the bridge gate of the German city of Bremen was demolished, the skeleton of a child was found embedded in the groundwork. The civilized Athenians kept in readiness at public expense of group of people called the Pharmakoi, who could be available for a quick sacrifice in case of a plague, famine or other disaster. If there were no disasters, then the Pharmakoi were used in the mid-summer Thargelia festival, when two men were led out of the city and stoned to death as scapegoats for the sins of others (not unlike the later Christian teaching about Jesus being killed for the sins of others). That was a long time ago. Suicide bombings, all intended by the most devout Muslims to glorify God, are practiced routinely today. Modern Christians, although they glorify the human sacrifice of Jesus and then eat his body, now oppose human sacrifice. Except for the fundamentalist Christian congregation in the Andes who performed a human sacrifice on August 18, 1986. And except for Rev. Jeffrey Lundgren, pastor of a devout Christian community 30 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio, who along with 13 other members of his flock was arrested for the sacrifice of the Avery family on April 17, 1989. All five members of the Avery family were killed, including daughters Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and Karen, 7. Rev. Lundgren was attempting to hasten the second coming of Jesus, which was being unnecessarily delayed by this family of backsliders. “It is impossible to exaggerate the evil work theology has done in the world.” (Lydia Maria Child, The Progress of Religious Ideas Through Successive Ages, 1855.) “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” -- Blaise Pascal, French philosopher, Pensees (1623-1662) Jewish religious law requires bodies of the deceased to be ritually cleansed and swiftly buried underground, wrapped in shrouds and without a coffin. There is nothing particularly wrong with that, if that’s what you want to do. Pious Jews, though, object to any other form of corpse disposal, at least in “their” state of Israel. Cremation is especially offensive, despite the fact that burning babies for God was popular in Old Testament times. The Jewish stranglehold on Israel’s government and culture is such that no crematoria existed in the entire country prior to 2005, when one opened at a secret location, finally providing an alternative for those who didn’t care to follow the ancient Jewish custom. Until last month, that is. After diligent investigation, activists discovered the hiding-place of the crematorium and published it in a newspaper. Within 24 hours, the facility itself was toast. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to deduce that zealous Jews may have had something to do with this mysterious fire, especially when one of them, who was seen at the location shortly before the fire broke out, joked afterwards that “This structure was designed for burning. Now it has fulfilled its purpose.” It may be too hasty to jump to that conclusion, though. Sleuths should not ignore the financial angle. Official Jewish burials in Israel are handled by Hevra Kadisha, taxpayer-funded organizations that provide ritual burials for free. In other words, the non-Orthodox majority in Israel pays for the funerals of the Orthodox minority. Other burial options are quite expensive, but cremation offered an alternative at half the price. If too many people started using this lower cost alternative to the faith-based bureaucracy, what effect might that have on political support for its continued funding? The issue became especially sensitive amid reports that the Tel Aviv Hevra Kadisha was diverting taxpayer funds supposed to be used only for burials to other purposes: cash rewards to ultra-Orthodox families who grew the faith by producing at least five children. Religious bureaucrats hate competition; the destruction of the crematorium gave them a welcome reprieve. "The tsunami of sea water was followed instantly by a tsunami of spittle as the religious sputtered to rationalize God's latest felony... whack[ed] a quarter million in a couple of hours... "Thodicy, in other words--the attempt to reconcil God's perfect goodness with the manifest evils of His world... "God's spokes-people hastened to stuff their fingers in the dike even as the floodwaters of doubt washed over it... "Catholic priests like to remind us, "He's a 'mystery'"--though that's never stopped them from pronouncing His views on abortion with absolute certainty... "...this is hardly the first display of God's penchant for wanton, homicidal mischief... God has a lot to account for in the way of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and plagues... "If we are responsible for our actions, as most religions insist, then God should be, too, and I would propose, post-tsunami, an immediate withdrawal of prayer and other forms of flattery directd at a supposedly moral diety--at least until an apology is issued... "Any religion centered on a God who is both all-powerful and all-good... should be subject to a thorough post-tsunami evaluation... If God cares about our puny species, then disasters prove that he is not all-powerful; and if he IS all-powerful, then clearly he doesn't give a damn... "The faithful will protest that they don't want to worship a bad--or amoral or indifferent--God, but obviously they already do" (Barbara Ehrenreich. "God Owes Us an Apology." The Progressive, March 2005: 16-17). “Gullibility and credulity are considered undesirable qualities in every department of human life--except religion. . . . Why are we praised by godly men for surrendering our 'godly gift' of reason when we cross their mental thresholds? . . . . Atheism strikes me as morally superior, as well as intellectually superior, to religion. Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.” (Christopher Hitchens, "The Lord and the Intellectuals," Harper's (July 1982), cited by James A. Haught in 2,000 Years of Disbelief (1996).) "Pope John Paul II.... He was an inflexible traditionalist in denying equality to women in church and society. He regarded homosexuals as sinners and so legitimized the most primitive of hatreds... The Vatican's opposition to birth control programs contributes to the poverty of the Third World; its refusal to accept the use of condoms likely facilitated the spread of AIDS; its coalitions with Islamists in international bodies reinforced their capacity to deny rights to women... "Often, the most engaged groups of the Catholic laity had to struggle with their own church for the right to carry its social doctrines into the public arena. The fate of the liberation theology movement is a striking example: In a continent desparate for justice, it was pronounced heretical--setting back reform of Latin American society a generation... "The case of American Catholicism is especially disappointing... despite the Pope's opposition to the Iraq War, the Bush doctrines of global domination, and the sovereignty of the market--contributed to the defeat of John Kerry. Prominent cardinals and bishops instructed Catholics not to vote for him because of his views on the rights of homosexuals and women" (Norman Birnbaum. "An Ambiguous Papacy." The Nation, April 25, 2005: 5, 23). "Efforts to include Christian "intelligent design" theory in high school biology classes have caused controversy in Dover, Pennsylvania. Intelligent design supporter and parent Ray Mummert said, "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture"" ("No Comment." The Progressive, May, 2005: 11). "Americans are inundated today by proreligious propaganda. Unfortunately, the public has all too rarely been exposed to dissenting opinions. Yet there is a distinguished free-thought cultural tradition, which defends the secular outlook, and many of the leading authors in the world hold a nontheistic, secular humanist, skeptical, agnostic, or atheistic outlook. Indeed, a recent poll of Americans indicates that 29.5 million identify themselves as "nonreligious"" (from an ad by Prometheus book, 1-800-421-0351, Prometheus Books). "Pope Benedict XBI, just twenty-four hours before his anointment, delivered a homily that condemned Marxism, atheism, and liberalism itself. He even scorned the "winds of teaching"" (Matthew Rothschild. "Airing it out." The Progressive, June, 2005: 4). "...formal theology with its flatulent, self-serving assumption of a Being who is All-Good and All-Powerful. What a gargantuan oxymoron--All-Good and All-Powerful. It is certain to maroon any and all formal theologians who would like to explain an earthquake" (Norman Mailer. "On Sartre's God Problem." The Nation, June 6, 2005: 30). "The Bible has the lowest ratio of people who have read it versus people who own it of any book ever" (www.gullible.info, June 5, 2005). “I realized early on that it is detailed scientific knowledge which makes certain religious beliefs untenable. A knowledge of the true age of the earth and of the fossil record makes it impossible for any balanced intellect to believe in the literal truth of every part of the Bible in the way that fundamentalists do. And if some of the Bible is manifestly wrong, why should any of the rest of it be accepted automatically? . . . What could be more foolish than to base one's entire view of life on ideas that, however plausible at the time, now appear to be quite erroneous? And what would be more important than to find our true place in the universe by removing one by one these unfortunate vestiges of earlier beliefs?” (Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA structure). "But I am mistaken in speaking of a Christian republic; the terms are mutually exclusive. Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence. Its spirit is so favorable to tyranny that it always profits by such a regime. True Christians are made to be slaves, and they know it and do not much mind: this short life counts for too little in their eyes" (Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762). “In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?” (Salman Rushdie) ""Episcopalians are snooty because they spurn cake mixes and canned goods, without which there would be no such thing as Methodist cuisine." But everybody has to look down on somebody, they observe, so for Methodists, there are the Baptists, who put "little bitty marshmallows" on their congealed salads" (Selwa Roosevelt. "Southern Comfort." Guardian Weekly, June 24, 2005: 27. A review of the book, Being Dead is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral, by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays). "...almost all abusive marriages are hierarchical. "The religious right pushes a retro father knows best paradigm. Traditional gender roles are not only being promoted by Bush judicial nominees like J. Leon Holmes and William Pryor but also through family and marriageg services like financial counseling (Crown Financial Ministries); marriage and child-rearing education (Focus on the Family and Family Life); and premarital counseling required by states providing the Covenant Marriage option. "Clearer heads are having their say, though. With organizations like Christians for Biblical Equality and the Willow Creek Association, evangelicals are challenging the right's views on gender roles, saying that just as Christians erred in their interpretations of slavery and segregation, they are erring in their interpretations of marriage" (Letters. The Nation, July 11, 2005: 2). "We're doing the will of God, they thunder, pointing to the holy word in Leviticus 18:22, which declares homosexuality an "abomination." We are not moral relativists, they cry, but Biblical literalists. "Wait though--the wrath of Leviticus is deep and wide. Chapter 11, verse 10 tells us that eating shellfish is also an abomination. And in 11:6-8, so is touching anything made of pigskin--someone call the NFL! Leviticus 19 says that planting two different crops in the same field is forbidden by God... "Extremists who insist that every word of the Bible must be accepted literally can't pick and choose which scriptures must be obeyed. I suspect they spend more time thumping the Bible than reading it... much less understanding it" (Jim Hightower and Philip Frazer, eds. "The great corporate jobs-for-subsidies con-job." Hightower Lowdown, July 2005). "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest" (Diderot, quoted in Letters. The Nation, July 18, 2005: 2). “For years many a thinking people have had gloomy forebodings as to the result of the immense power of the church in our political affairs. . . . And the first step in the disestablishment of the church & of all churches is the taxation of church property. The government has no right to tax infidels for everything that takes the name of religion. For every dollar of church property untaxed, all other properties must be taxed one dollar more, and thus the poor man's home bears the burden of maintaining costly edifices from which he & his family are as effectively excluded--as though a policeman stood to bar their entrance, and in smaller towns all sects are building, building, building, not a little town in the western prairies but has its three & four churches & this immense accumulation of wealth is all exempt from taxation. In the new world as well as the old these rich ecclesiastical corporations are a heavy load on the shoulders of the people, for what wealth escapes, the laboring masses are compelled to meet. If all the church property in this country were taxed, in the same ratio poor widows are to day, we could soon roll off the national debt. . . . "The clergy of all sects are universally opposed to free thought & free speech, & if they had the power even in our republic to day would crush any man who dared to question the popular religion.” (Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), unidentified lecture fragment from taxation on church property, c. 1877). “The whole idea of god is absurd. If anything, '2001' shows that what some people call 'god' is simply an acceptable term for their ignorance. What they don't understand, they call 'god'" (Stanley Kubrick). "Men are given to worshipping malevolent gods, and that which is not cruel seems to them not worth their adoration" (Anatole France). “The freethinker has the same right to discredit the beliefs of Christians that the Orthodox Christians enjoy in destroying reverence, respect, and confidence in Mohammedanism, Mormonism, Christian Science, or Atheism.” (Theodore Schroeder, German Freethinker from Wisconsin). "Sunday - A day given over by Americans to wishing that they themselves were dead and in Heaven, and that their neighbors were dead and in Hell" (H.L. Mencken). "The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected" (H.L. Mencken). “Men of simple understanding, little inquisitive and little instructed, make good Christians.” (Michel de Montaigne) “The bible was written at a time when people thought the Earth was flat, when the wheelbarrow was high tech. Are its teachings applicable to the challenges we now face as a civilization?. . .” (Sam Harris) “The clergy are, practically, the most irresponsible of all talkers.” (George Eliot, via www.ffrf.org). “We all ought to understand we're on our own. Believing in Santa Claus doesn't do kids any harm for a few years but it isn't smart for them to continue waiting all their lives for him to come down the chimney with something wonderful. Santa Claus and God are cousins. "Christians talk as though goodness was their idea but good behavior doesn't have any religious origin. Our prisons are filled with the devout. "I'd be more willing to accept religion, even if I didn't believe it, if I thought it made people nicer to each other but I don't think it does.” (Andy Rooney, via www.ffrf.org). "Benjamin Franklin... didn't have much use for organized religion, saying it "serves principally to divide us and make us unfriendly to one another""("In Fact." The Nation, Dec. 26, 2005: 8). “There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.” (Gertrude Stein) “. . . . I decided (after listening to a "talk radio" commentator who abused, vilified, and scorned every noble cause to which I had devoted my entire life that) I was both a Humanist and a liberal, each of the most dangerous and vilified type. I am a Humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create a reasonably decent society. I am terrified of restrictive religious doctrine, having learned from history that when men who adhere to any form of it are in control, common men like me are in peril. I do not believe that pure reason can solve the perceptual problems unless it is modified by poetry and art and social vision. So I am a Humanist. And if you want to charge me with being the most virulent kind--a secular humanist--I accept the accusation.” (James Michener) “Prayers never bring anything. . . . They may bring solace to the sap, the bigot, the ignorant, the aboriginal, and the lazy--but to the enlightened it is the same as asking Santa Claus to bring you something for Xmas.” (W.C.Fields) “The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic.” --Bertrand Russell. “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” -- Blaise Pascal “A religious person is a dangerous person. He may not become a thief or a murderer, but he is liable to become a nuisance. He carries with him many foolish and harmful superstitions, and he is possessed with the notion that it is his duty to give these superstitions to others. That is what makes trouble. Nothing is so worthless as superstition. . . .” -- Marilla M. Ricker “There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state as religion. Let it once enter our civil affairs, our government would soon be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed . . . Those who made our Constitution saw this, and used the most apt and comprehensive language in it to prevent such a catastrophe.” -- Justice H.S. Orton of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, concurring opinion in Weiss v. the District Board, decided on March 18, 1890, ruling bible readings and devotionals in public schools unconstitutional "To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used." (Richard Dawkins, 1999). "To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used." (Richard Dawkins, 1999). “Free thought means fearless thought. It is not deterred by legal penalties, nor by spiritual consequences. Dissent from the Bible does not alarm the true investigator, who takes truth for authority not authority for truth. The thinker who is really free, is independent; he is under no dread; he yields to no menace; he is not dismayed by law, nor custom, nor pulpits, nor society--whose opinion appals so many. He who has the manly passion of free thought, has no fear of anything, save the fear of error.” -- George Jacob Holyoake, The Origin and Nature of Secularism, Ch. 3 (1896) "To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used." (Richard Dawkins, 1999). Jeffrey Padgett: My opinion of Christians are terrible people. We have done horrible things in the past, and instead of asking the world to confess to us, I believe it is time for Christians to confess to the world. So on behalf of the Christians - I am sorry for the Crusades. We killed hundreds of thousands of people all in "the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ," slaughtering women and children who would not convert while shouting, "Deus vult" - God wills it. I am sorry that we persecuted, tortured and butchered the Jews because they did not believe in Jesus as Christ. I am sorry we did not have more tolerance. I am terribly sorry for our zealous lust to eradicate evil by burning women alive who had "confessed" to being witches after rigorous torture procedures. I am sorry we followed a few leaders instead of honestly asking questions and thinking for ourselves. Many of us used the Bible to defend slavery in America instead of defending freedom, and many used it as a basis for racism. Aside from Martin Luther King Jr., we were not at the forefront of the human rights movement for blacks - we treated them as possessions, or three-fifths the value of a white person. Many of our priests and pastors have been abusing their power to sexually molest young children. Instead of giving money to the poor, our churches have collected for themselves to build lavish places of worship and gain political influence. I am sorry that Christian missionaries have equated Christianity with a Western way of life, and that they have permanently destroyed some world cultures by "Westernizing" them. Even today, Christians in the U.S. still murder people "for God." I am sorry we have killed abortion doctors and leading pro-choice activists. I'm angry at how many of us persecute homosexuals and I'm ashamed at how Christianity has suppressed women's rights. We don't deserve it, but I still have to ask you to forgive us and give us another chance. These are all reasons the educated world, myself included, is so turned off by organized religion; people stop thinking for themselves and stop seeking truth and understanding because they think they have all the answers. They become pawns of some leader or some book, become extraordinarily passionate and if they get on the wrong track, terrible things start happening. I don't like being called a Christian - it has such a negative stigma. It says, "gay-basher, woman-hater, conformist and ignorant stiff." The worst part is that for a few very vocal Christians these things are true. It would be better if religions and churches were not organized as they are, and if religion were observed on a more personal level so power structures could be avoided. The best way to approach any religion is to approach it on a personal level. Don't just study it in a book or on the Internet - get to know someone, the way they live and their beliefs about life. Don't simply call someone an atheist and stereotype them as such - get to know the way they live and understand how their beliefs affect their lives. Labels dehumanize us and make it seem as if people don't have their own ideas and beliefs about the world. That being said, I think we should try to forgive Christianity for not representing the teachings of the one they claim to follow - Jesus. He never would have done the things listed above. He was actually considered a revolutionary because of the way he liberalized organized Jewish religion. In the same way the Islamic faith shouldn't be seen as warmongering because of radicals on Sept. 11, and Christianity should not be seen as murderous because of radicals blowing up abortion clinics. In all honesty, many "Christians" don't want to be a part of Christianity, but they do want to follow the teachings of Jesus. Don't apply the stereotype of religious Christianity to individuals calling themselves Christians - remember how the religion has sinned, but give the individual a new chance. One of the major problems with religion is that it can make us feel inadequate and unworthy. After all, if we are still facing problems in our lives, perhaps it is because we are not good enough people in the eyes of God. Or if adversity hits us, maybe it is because we are not trying hard enough to follow religious practices. The truth is that we do not need religion to develop spiritually. Religion is not the goal; it is just a tool. Many people find it difficult to accept, but in fact religion is a human invention. Spirituality on the other hand is a universal, godly existence that is the core of life and not at its edge. Let me ask you a question: How does religion try to force us to become better people? Isn't it through promoting fear, shame, and guilt? I know this from personal experience, as well as from numerous patients whose fear and guilt, created by their own religions, made them feel miserable, ill, unhappy, inhibited, repressed, and at times almost insane. Yes, mental illness can begin in religion. A disorder named Scrupulosity is a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. People experiencing this disorder are obsessed with sins, morality, and religion in general. Also, a phobia named peccatiphobia is associated with committing sins. Fear, guilt, shame—is this what spirituality is all about? Obviously not. Such consequences only serve to remove people from spirituality. I believe that the big discrepancy between religion's offering and spiritual teachings' focus gave rise to the New Age movement. It's also the reason why many people moved from traditional religions to Eastern practices such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Clergy of all denominations would want you to believe that this is how things have always been and how they should remain, but we all know that even what seems to be a "fool proof" system can be challenged. Communists, as an example, thought that their power would exist forever. But they were wrong. It collapsed in all of Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall was destroyed stone by stone by people from both sides of the border. Many people are coming out and saying in response to religion's dogma, "We don't want to follow any rules blindly; we don't want to be intimidated into behaving one way or another." Bishop John Shelby Spong, the author of "Why Christianity Must Change or Die," calls them "Believers in Exile." Such believers in a Creator want to focus on practicing spiritual principles. They still want to be mentored, but not always the way organized religion does it. One of my biggest contentions with organized religion is that it has not evolved and adapted at the pace of the rest of society. The way some religions treat women is a classic example. Women cannot be ordained as priests by the Catholic Church; they cannot become rabbis or even sit beside men in orthodox Jewish synagogues. Islam is no different. This changed in some denominations like Anglican churches and Reformist Jewish Synagogues. Many women have pointed out to me that the percentage of women volunteering for the different Catholic Church activities is very high. Why is assuming significant lay responsibility acceptable but becoming a priest is not? Almost every profession and institution has learned to accept and value women–medicine, law, sports, you name it. And yet most religious organizations remain stubborn on this glass ceiling. That to me is not spirituality. Women were created equal and not as second-class human beings. Women tend to have a better ability to understand human feelings and conflicts. Most often, they become better able to relate and connect with people. Given the opportunity, women could provide excellent guidance in many areas of daily living as leaders for churches. I sometimes play with the scenario that if women ever decide to rebel by refraining from going to sermons, churches will be mostly empty. What will the Vatican do then? Sexism is only the tip of the iceberg. Sexuality inspires greater efforts at religious controls. For instance, "The Catechism of the Catholic Church" (Publications Services, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1994), describes masturbation as an offence against chastity and, along with homosexuality, as a "disordered action." Fundamentalist church doctrines and rigid religious thinkers of all denominations are too often just as intolerant. These archaic attitudes cause people unnecessary shame and guilt. Unfortunately, we can point to the private lives of priests and church leaders as a testament to what can happen when people are forced to repress their innate sexual desires. I have done a great deal of work with patients about their sexual inhibitions because they considered their sexuality sinful or "dirty." Where do these messages come from? The church needs to recognize that sex is not dirty. Sex represents powerful creative energy that we need to learn to express in natural, healthy ways, free of inhibitions. CNN recently reported the result of a poll asking priests about the church requirement of celibacy. More than 50 percent confirmed that they would want to see celibacy dropped as a prerequisite for priesthood. I see the role of a religious figure such as a minister, rabbi, mullah, etc., not as a "religious guru," but more as a teacher, someone who can take you by the hand and gently lead you down the spiritual path, without rigid rules, intimidation or using negative motivation. Preaching produces only temporary enthusiasm or motivation. People must question religious leaders who only preach and promise, and begin to look for genuine teachers instead. If such leaders want to continue to play the role of spiritual mentors, they must genuinely teach their followers how to be in touch with who they really are, not what the church thinks they should be. This applies to any religion. If these leaders can teach people how to connect with deeper aspects of themselves, then their work is worthy. To teach connection with the spirituality within each of us, clergy of all faiths have to figure it out for themselves first. Like any teacher for any subject, a religious leader is more likely to guide you toward spiritual understanding if he demonstrates awareness of personal, deep spirituality and encourages positive instead of punitive religious practices.