The biggy, isn't it. I mean, you aren't supposed to criticise religion and you have to 'respect' peoples beliefs, even if they are based on stone age nonsense and defy the laws of nature, physics and common sense. 'Beliefs' are immune, they hold an exalted position and are not open for challenge.
Wrong. The sooner the human race reaches that point in it's evolution where everyone realises that religion is utter nonsense, the better. And we will get there, eventually. It's the natural course of things, the default position. Nobody was born a christian, muslim, jew or hindu. They were made that way by their parents or the culture in which they were raised. As were the parents, grandparents etc etc etc. It is not natural to be 'religious', it is a learned thing. Once we accept that fact, which is inescapable and indisputable, we can use the intelligence that evolution has created for us and examine the concept of religion.
And once we start doing that, once we start to question it, to rationalise it and to apply modern day knowledge and science, it falls apart at the seams. It doesn't get past the first stage. We know 'god' didn't create the heavens and the earth. We know that there was no virgin birth. We know that the old testament of the christian bible is nonsense if taken literally. In fact, we know that the whole bible is nonsense if taken as being anything other than a book that doesn't really do anything other than provide a glimpse of life in the late Iron Age.
All religions are obsessed with death and sex. Particularly the latter - the catholic church is utterly obsessed by it. What a strange example when it has so many celibate priests that are total paeodophiles. A close second place is Islam, though. The woman hating religion. The religion that executes homosexuals and suspected female adulterers, believes in genital mutilation and total repression of every single female right that we take for granted in secular society. How disgusting, utterly depraved and totally repugnant is that. And they tell me I have to respect their religion? No, I don't think so.
At least christians (outside of the American Bible Belt) don't generally adopt such a radical attitude. Unless you count Messrs Bush and Blair and reckon up the body count from their voices in the head god inspired crusades into the East. Add that to the catholic obsession with not using birth control (condoms) and count up the number that may have been saved from AIDS or starvation in 3rd world countries if the moronic pope and his idiot pals would come into the 21st century and stop wearing dresses. So I suppose the body count is totting up on the christian side as well.
Then there is the vast wealth invested in the churches, mosques, temples and other buildings. How much is the Vatican worth, eh? What was it about rich men and eyes of needles? And the C of E, whilst not in the same league, isn't short of a bob or two. How much do they give to charity? Secular charity I mean, without the proviso that you can have some help but you must convert to believing a load of crap from the stone age? Seems to me that they all try to buy their way to paradise or heaven or whatever you want to call it. Why does a god need his worshipers to be housed in a building that costs millions to build? I suspect the answer is not hard to find, but the faithful prefer to stay blinkered to the reality. It's more comforting that way.
