exactly.... and religion scares me! all of that stuff about sins and hell, creeps me out.
Religion doesn't scare me. But I dislike what it does to people.
People go to war, kill each other, destroy things on the off chance that their god is real and the other guys god is false. When, if you look at it unbaisedly, every major world religion is almost the exact same as everything else. Islam and Judaism are almost the exact same, now a Muslim would shoot me for saying that, but its true.
I've studied religion, and the people who follow it. Throughout history, religion went from a way to explain things to a way to control people. Thats why theocracies lasted so long. And we're still a theocracy, even though every government official will tell you other wise. If we weren't a theocracy "god" wouldn't be in our pledge of allegiance, and religious texts wouldn't be in our schools, religious signs wouldn't be in our courthouses, and our laws wouldn't be frighteningly similar to laws of a certain religion. You can only scare people so much. The worst thign you could do is kill or torture them. So how do you scare people into following your rules? Tell them that even after death some big bad wolf is going to come get them. So they follow your rules. They're good little people. Government and church were one in teh same for hundreds of thousands of years. Now, in 2007, we're still fighting this battle.
100,000 years ago, lightning struck. how does a simple mind explain it? its anger, its big, its powerful, its a god. now we know that lightning is just an electric burst. So now we've got people who miraculously recover from cancer. Is it a work of god, like lightning? or in another few hundred years will we have figured it out? There are things I can't explain, but that doesn't mean magic is at work.
Religion has caused many many pointless deaths. Its caused fighting. And why? Because people are scared about what happens after we die. So we need some reassurance that it'll be some perfect paradise. Or becuase we don't like being alone, so we want someone helping us out through hard times. Well, I think its better to think about it like, you didn't need any help. You're strong, and you did it by your self, rather than thinking that some god helped you out.
Now, I really couldn't care less if anyone read any of this, or if anyone believes what I say. I don't care if you're Buddhist or Hindu or Islamic or Christian. I wouldn't bash you for it. So I expect that same respect in return. I hope this didn't offend any of you, but if it did, well thats on you. Its just simple facts backed up by history.
