Hey Everyone.

So I had something completely different and more light hearted that I was going to write about today. In fact, I am going to write something I never wanted to write about, as this just begs for me to get nasty emails and starting a flame war. So let me start by saying this is My Opinion, and I only used information and knowledge I have obtained in my travels through this short life. I do not claim to be right, nor am I trying to convert anyone to my school of thought. This is going to be an article about religion and about an article a friend sent me, to see what I thought. I was really just going to ignore this, but thought I would throw my two cents in. If you are not a fan or want to read about religion, check out our other blogs which are generally about movies or whatever else we saw or had going on that day. That being said, here goes and I hope you will enjoy at least a little and maybe even make you think.

So first off, here is the article which prompted all of this.
http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Are%20all%20religions%20false.htm

Second, I am literally just going to copy and paste the email I wrote to my friend as it is much easier than writing something else again. I will also say, I sat and wrote this in about twenty minutes and really, at the start, was just mad at what I had read and did not think there was much validity in the argument. So take everything with a grain of salt. I am also sure there are some horribly invalid things I said, so keep that in mind. I did not mean to offend anyone, and if I did, I apologize. Like I said, as the article was that guys opinion, this is mine. Enjoy

Email Starts Here

In possibly one of the most ridiculous and horribly researched blogs, this was wrong on nearly every level. While I can agree that “religion” in general is the source of a lot of the world’s problems, it is also the source of a good deal of the worlds good things. He does somewhat allude to this. The first area he is wrong in is comparing “Christianity” as a whole, I assume although he didn’t say, and Mormonism. His reasoning for this, Moses and Joseph Smith. Really? Asinine. While they both did allegedly disappear and come back with telling from “God”, Joseph Smith went away and came back with a Religion, a religion he could not reproduce when prompted. Moses, however, went away and came back with ten rules. Ten rules which are for the most part common sense and did not benefit Moses in anyway other than to hopefully quench the bitching. I mean thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal etc… all pretty much a good thing and should be common sense. Not to mention that if you are going to take the Moses story, you cannot ignore the rest of the story. At this time, Moses had led the people out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea, with everyone watching. Just as one example. I do not see a whole lot of people able to part a glass of water, let alone an entire sea at his beckon call. Not to mention, even the writer of that blog says, Joseph Smith was a trickster and started his own church, basically making him a great deal of money……

He also goes on to say that all Religions have the same basic principles. Yes, they all have a god(s), they all have rules and they all have a place of worship. Go figure. That’s just a plain stupid argument. He also goes on to say, Religion is often believed because people are scared of death. In all actuality, death is rarely discussed at all. Obviously there are things like heaven and such, but at least in Christianity, death is not used a fear tactic. I have not looked into other Religions. He doesn’t not say, however, what the alternative is. He is also once again ignoring the rest of the story, Christianity that is. In the Bible, you learn that we were never supposed to die in the first place, and were supposed to already be living in heaven. There was no death or anything like that.

Later on he goes on to say how religious leaders are now debunking the bible. First of all he doesn’t mention which one, or which religion. The way he is talking he is now speaking of Catholicism but still seems to think he is talking of Christianity. So this really makes me doubt how much “research” he has actually done. He also says “Modern Church Leaders” which could mean anyone. He doesn’t mention how “Modern Scientific Minds” of our time are blackballed and ousted because they agree with religion and the way the Bible is depicted. He also goes on to say that the Bible cannot be used as evidence because it can be interoperated anyway you want. He does not provide an alternative, but this could be true of anything. It is all of a matter of how you were taught, your upbringing, or your personal experiences.

This writer than goes on to say how he was “raised” Christian, although he obviously does not know much about it, so this is a simple tool of trying to make his point more valid. He then goes on to say, in the same paragraph that he was told that only true Christians go to heaven. I am not sure what “church” he attended, but no Christians believe this. It is said, always has been, that if you truly believe in God, and accept him, this is what gets you in to heaven. Not baptism, not being good, not joining a religion. Once again, at the end of this paragraph, he goes on to say how Christianity is as ridiculous as Mormonism, further degrading his own point.

I also find it ridiculous that he is upset that they paint God as a kindly old bearded man, to kids. Apparently he thinks we should terrify children and scar them for life. Not to mention, God is not exactly a tyrant. I won’t go into detail here, but when we teach kids of history or science or anything, we don’t teach them and show them horrific things. Science and History have some of the most vile and heinous things ever done to anyone ever in existence. Didn’t mention that did he.

Once again, the writer goes into a diatribe saying that if God is the reason for good, then he must be the reason for the bad. While some of this can be true, most of it is ridiculous. He says natural disaster and disease, which are actually the only two points he provides, must also be God’s fault. First of all, if he does not believe in religion, or a god, then he is probably a science promoter. Which also means he would probably believe in global warming and such. He should then also know that the way we treat this planet and the things we do, are often a direct result of some of our natural disasters. Of course not all, but the reason we have the other disasters can also easily be debated. As for disease, two thoughts here. There are thousands and thousands of disease, I would say that if you go back and read through history and science books, most can be linked to things humans have done, or science has done trying to do something else. Not to mention what they created on purpose. Of course not everything is easily found, and some could be a conspiracy theory, that is a debate for a later date. Once again though, if you do believe in a religion, you would also know that God said that if you do bad things, it will begat bad things. This is also debatable, but some diseases are transferred and can arguably be traced back to some “Bad” things, according to religion, being done.

Getting closer to the bottom, he has another “insightful” quote, “All religion is nothing more than an attempt to control a population by enforcing 'laws' that come from a higher authority that is beyond challenge”. I suppose this may be argued in a third world country, but even there, you generally hear of some form of mob mentality controlling these areas, or some kind of sudo government. I am not sure, in what world, this guy believes that someone is using this as a method of control, because, surprise surprise, there are no examples given. Apparently if he says it, it must be true. As an easy retort however, what about in the middle eastern country, their religion basically tells them to go out and kill people who do not believe what they believe. Is this control to keep the peace and a proper society?

He then lists a bunch of questions, which all only have two answers. Apparently our lives only ever have two answers. One of which is a horribly skewed way of thinking, and the other one is what he wants you to believe.

So this whole time, it seemed as though he was having a battle of “Religion”, which can very much be argued over to how useful it is, especially depending on which religion you follow. He then begins to say things like take away god and religion and what do you have. He says things like we have an imperfect world so deal with it. Religion is just a security blanket, etc… Apparently he believes that we are all destined to be screwed and alone. This world will continue to become worse and worse and evidently there is nothing that can be done. He also says that religion is the reason for many deaths, which is true and unfortunate and cannot really be debated, that being said, “religion” in general is manmade. So if you believe in God, you will generally believe that man is fallible and sometimes downright evil, so some religion is created for the sole purpose of making money or causing havoc. Not all religions are created equal and for this convoluted argument, shouldn’t be.

This guy apparently is on a crusade against God, Christianity and anything else he doesn’t like. While I do agree that religion, is a dangerous tool used by certain individuals which creates havoc and chaos, it can also be used for good, and as the writer said, can be used for a security blanket for some people, which apparently is a bad thing. By the way this guy writes, and apparently has proof and done studying, although never actually provides any backing for his arguments, it seems to me that this guy was wronged in some way and is just looking for someone or something to blame. He does say that this is his own opinion, which is fine and I respect that, but he shouldn’t make an argument without any backings. Of course some religions are ludicrous, strange, and flat out mindboggling, not all religions are the same way and some have a lot of proof and backing. This guy also does not say what he currently believes and gives a thin “background” of his religious upbringings. He also does not say what type of Christian he was or what he was really taught. Unfortunately there are bad people out there willing to take advantage of people’s beliefs and fears, and sometimes these people will use this for personal gain or what have you and call it “Christian”. Who knows? Without proper background info, or knowing who this guy is or what he believes, it is hard to argue properly. If he is going to write something like this though, he really should provide proper information and create a proper debate.

So obviously this is my point of view. I tried to be unbiased and used mostly Christianity as my basis as that is what I know, but I also tried to use logic, which something this guy failed to use when writing this blog article thing. That’s my two cents, you asked for it. Enjoy