The most foolish religious belief!

I do not think there can be a more foolish thing than the Christian beliefs. They believe God created the first parents out of His immense love. But He put them to a test and they failed. The loving God immediately opened the gates of hell and started roasting the souls of men, women and children for all eternity. God is not moved by their agony or screams but pushes them down into the nether depths of fire to suffer, suffer and suffer.But He is love itself!  

Christians believe God created us to know Him, love Him and gain eternal reward by using our freewill. Demographics suggest that about half of all children born so far have died before they reached 15- when perhaps they become accountable to what they do. What is the purpose in creating billions and billions of children and killing them as infant, toddler, children and teens? Why does He create the mentally retarded, imbeciles, the psychotic and the feeble minded who cannot even know what God expects of them?   If God is rewarding them heaven-without any merit from their side, why the hell He insisted on a Test from the first parents to prove their loyalty and brought in all the evil?

 

He could have forgiven them--after all Eve was tempted by the serpent God had set upon her for the purpose. But instead, God has been sending natural calamities-quakes, tempests, cyclones, floods, volcanic eruptions, famines, plagues of all kind to kill millions of people with all their dreams each year.  God has been sending horrendous diseases like cancer, diabetes, BP, cardiac arrest and so many others and He has released deadly viruses like AIDS to make man suffer, suffer and suffer.

Why did He reveal Himself to a small tribe of semi-stupefied nomads to the exclusion of all the others? He killed entire armies of Canaanites in the worst ethnic cleansing ever witnessed in the history of the world to settle His chosen tribe.  Where is the universality of God’s love in this story? He should be a mad demon to kill His own children for the sake of a few others He had chosen as His own. Only a stupid person will reveal what he wants to a minuscule tribe leaving all others in the dark. How does this God expect people to do His will when they do not know what He wants? Muslims believe their religion and their god is the true one. Jews believe theirs is the truth. Christians think Christianity is the way to God. Buddhists, Hindus Jains all follow their faiths thinking theirs are true.

There cannot be anything more foolish than the teaching that God Almighty sent His only son (who is his wife?) to die for the sins of man. A simple nod of His little finger --if He is anthropomorphic--was enough to do so. Much easier, he could have simply forgiven the first parents’ simple disobedience and the entire mankind would have been free of the Original Sin. It’s more foolish to think Almighty God walked through the rugged terrains of Palestine to get struck, scourged and crucified! I do not think any writer/poet or dreamer has ever woven more fictitious stuff than what is in the Bible.   

Religions have only harmed mankind

Religions have done more harm than good to man Even in today's world, religion does more bad than good. A considerable percentage of man’s resources and time have been wasted for religions. Moral principles would have evolved anyway as they are essential for the peaceful co-existence of man. Religion has not contributed much even to this and each religion enforces different moral standards. 

Why people still believe? The answer is childhood indoctrination. If you are religious it is overwhelmingly clear that your religion is that of your parents. If you were born in Europe or America you would probably think Christianity is true and Islam false. You would think the very opposite if you were born in an Arab country.  If you were born in India you would say both Islam and Christianity are falsehoods. You are the victim of childhood indoctrination.

Most of the religious texts are creations of men. The Bible is an ancient fiction. So are the texts of many other religions. There is no scientific evidence to test what is written in them. That could be the reason why the priests of the different religious sects dread the advance of science.

All religions, without exception, discourage rational thinking and critical thoughts.
Each religion insists on an afterlife and belief in it stops people from making most of this life. 

Millions of innocent people have been tortured and killed in the name of religions and holy fight.  This is still going on and terrorism is still rampant. Major religions, although they deny accepting this fact, ill-treat Women.  There is, I think, no reason to believe in the superiority of the male although this is extolled by the major religions for their own selfishness. 

Does mankind require such religious texts anymore? As Richard Dawkins says, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” We read in the Old Testament that it was a religious duty to exterminate conquered races completely, and that to spare even their cattle and sheep was an impiety. Based on some Bible falsehood, the Inquisition courts haunted witches and burnt them. They tortured people who spoke the truth like Bruno (the martyr of science) and Galileo who spoke against the geocentric theory of the Bible. Why should we waste our time reading such nonsense?  

If there was no religion, there would have been no Anglo French war, no suicide bomber, no 9/11, no Crusade, no witch-hunt, no Hindu Muslim rivalry/war, no Arab Israeli war, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacre, no persecution of Jews, no gas chamber, no honor killing, no Jihadi, no terrorist, no Taliban, no Osma Bin Laden, no oppression of women, no beheading of blasphemers and no persecution in the name of religion.  Millions have perished in each century due to religious conflicts alone. The danger of religious faith is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to become mad and commit acts of terror considering them holy. 

A believer is like a drunken man. A non-believer is like a sober one.  Religion has actually convinced believers that there's an invisible power - living in the skies - watching everything they do. He has given his directions though his prophet/son for the ordinary mortals to obey and follow. If people don’t live accordingly, the power has prepared a special place for them full of fire, burning and torture. He will send them there to suffer, burn, and scream forever. Still religious believers say this power is love. Where else will we find such stupidity? A temporary disobedience or sin deserves only a temporary punishment. But this power gives eternal, horrendous and irrevocable punishment! I wonder how people believe such bull shit.   

Why am I an atheist?

Theists and religious believers have never defined what god is.

What is god? How did he originate? Where does he live? What has he to do with man even if he exists? He does not seem to interact with the world in any way. If god interacts with our universe, the effects of his interaction must have some physical manifestation. Or, his interaction with our universe must be, in principle detectable. There is no physical manifestation or anything detectable. If god is essentially non detectable, it must be that he does not interact with our universe in any way. If god does not interact with our universe at all, it is of no importance whether he exists or not. A thing which cannot even be detected in principle does not logically exist.

Different religions have very different ideas of what god is like; they even disagree about basic issues such as how many gods there are, whether they're male or female, whether they have children or not. 

Every religion is different too; their similarity is superficial. It's worth mentioning that religions such as Buddhism and Taoism lack any sort of a concept of god. In the correct sense of the term they are atheistic religions. Christianity has a trinity of Gods. Judaism and Islam have one supreme God. Hinduism is pantheistic; there are thousands of gods. Some others are animistic.  In short, there is no consensus among religions as to what god actually is.

Even the ultimate purpose of life is different in each religion. Buddhism speaks of Nirvana-the cessation from attachment. For Christianity it is spiritual life with god in heaven. Islam’s heaven is a material one full of worldly pleasures. Hinduism promises Moksha- escape from life and rebirth cycles. There is no consensus here too. Even morality is altogether different. What is good in one religion can be bad or no good in another. What is strictly enforced in a faith has no meaning in another. In short their gods are different, their purpose of life is different and their morality is different.

Major religions have a number of conflicting sects too. Look at Christianity: there are many competing groups with different beliefs. Catholics, Protestants, Calvinists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Orthodox-each one having a number of sub sects with their own theology and liturgy and each one convinced that it is true. Islam has Shiites, Sufis,and Sunnis and their denominations.

Religions have waged thousands of wars and their different sects have fought and killed each other. How are we supposed to decide which religion or sect is the true one? 

Theists should question their beliefs because of the very real harm they can cause to everyone. Religion represents a huge financial and work burden on mankind. It's not just a matter of religious believers wasting their money on churches/temples/mosques/pagodas and so on.  Think of all the time and effort spent building them, for praying, attending religious liturgy, sermons and classes. How all that effort could be better spent! This is a wrong focus of the resources of man. If the wealth and effort so earmarked is spent for poverty alleviation or for helping the orphaned, the crippled, the retarded and the imbeciles, this world would have been a better place  to live in.

Many religious people believe in miracle healing and they refuse to take the medicines prescribed to them by doctors, and dying as a result. Some of them refuse blood transfusions on religious grounds and die.Religions divide people and instill hatred and mistrust among them. Even people kill others in the name of their god probably to establish his superiority. Religion and gods have done more harm than god to man.
    

Atheists live their lives as though there is nobody watching over them. But their lives are not pointless. Many of the atheists live a purposeful life. They decide what they think gives meaning to their lives, and they pursue those goals. They try to make their lives count, not by wishing for eternal life, but by having an influence on other people who will live on. For example, an atheist may dedicate his life to a political or social reform movement, in the hope of leaving his mark on history.There are others who live loving and helping his fellow travelers or devote themselves to the service of mankind.

How do they find comfort in times of danger? That may sound like rather an empty and vulnerable way to face danger, but so what? Should individuals believe in things because they are comforting, or dodge reality as it is harsh?  Or should man believe in something because it is widespread? The thinking that a majority of the world population believes in some sort of a religion does not make it true or meaningful.

There are many scientists who are religious too. Recent surveys typically find that around 40% of scientists believe in God. (The most recent survey was done by Edward J. Larson and Larry Witham in 1996, and was reported in the journal "Nature.")  Many respected scientists have made themselves look foolish by speaking on subjects which lie outside their fields of expertise. The believing scientists are a minority anyway. Childhood indoctrination and programming their fertile minds from day one could be the real reason why people continue to believe in religions. Religious beliefs are passed on from parents to their progeny. If this indoctrination is stopped for one generation the death of religions is almost certain.

Please search for what is true, even if it makes you uncomfortable. It is no good to believe in an external power you do not know or understand. Just because something's popular doesn't mean it's good. Many of us believe things just because we want them to be true.  If you want to find some meaning for your life, it is up to you to find it.  It is worth trying to make the most of your life as it's probably the only one you'll ever have.

Christ was made a god out of sheer necessity

The OT God was an incarnation of revenge, ethnic cleansing, murder, beheader of firstborns, anger, rape, incest, sex, oppression of women, loving animal and human sacrifices and lover of nudity of His prophets. Modern day terrorists and serial killers must have learnt a lesson or two from the OT practices like stoning adulterous women, raping, oppressing women, beheading firstborns, massacring people and animals and annihilating entire opposition armies even by throwing heavy stones from heaven. What kind of a designer or a creator can be so cruel and indifferent? What kind of a god will choose to reveal Himself to semi-stupefied peasants in the desert regions? 

A considerable part of the Bible-the Old Testament-are narrations regarding their lives, animal sacrifices, rituals, wars, cruelty, social life and relationship with their tribal god. The choosing of a small tribe, at a particular period of human history, to reveal His mind and His grand plan to redeem man from the pits they had been thrown into  with the original sin, is against the universality of any Supreme, all-loving Being. Those who lived before Christ and the vast majority of those who lived later have not even heard of Him. Why should man read this stuff intended for a minuscule tribe and accessed by a minority of the world population even after the coming of Jesus? 

Thomas Paine in his “The Age of Reason” has amply shown that most of what is in the OT has been stolen from pagan sources. The story of Adam and Eve comes from Babylonia, its flood, deluge, Arc and Arafat come from deluge myths and even the names of Noah and sons are copies. Moses is fashioned after the Syrian Mises. Its laws are from Hammurabi’s code. Its Messiah is derived from the Egyptian Mahdi (savior).He mentions that certain verses are verbatim copies of Egyptian scriptures. 

 Gerald Massy (1828 – 1907, an English poet and writer on Spiritualism and Ancient Egypt) has found 137 parallels between Jesus and Egyptian god, Horus which he details in His book, ‘The Natural Genesis.’ Both Horus and Jesus were born of virgins on 25th December and they died by crucifixion and were resurrected three days later. He also finds a parallel between Biblical Lazarus raised by Jesus and El-Asar-Us a title of Osiris.

 “The Jesus Mysteries: Was the Original Jesus a Pagan God?” is a 1999 book by British authors Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy. It is an    investigation of early Christianity prior to the 4th century CE, when direct political intervention by the Roman Emperor Constantine forced various competing Christian sects to unify under ‘the Nicene Creed.’  There persisted manifestations of a single cult of a dying and rising ‘god man myth,’ known as Osiris-Dionysus. The authors maintain that Jesus was not a historical figure, but a re-interpretation by Gnostics of the fundamental pagan god-man. 

Freke and Gandy base their thesis partly on a series of parallels between their suggested biography of Osiris-Dionysus compiled from the myths of ancient dying and resurrecting god- men, and the biography of Jesus as in the four canonical gospels.

Kersey Graves (1813-1883), compared Yeshua's (Jesus’s) and Krishna's life. He found out what he believed were 346 elements in common within the Christian and the Hindu writings.

 But it could be possible that Jesus Christ’s stories as portrayed in the gospels were more influenced by the Greco Roman gods- than Krishna. Parallel between the story of Jesus Christ in the Gospels and the Greco Roman god Dionysus, Egyptian God Horus, Persian Mithras, Greek god Apollonius of Tyana and other pagan gods is so strong that his life could have been fashioned after theirs.

Dan Brown, the author of the DaVinci Code, says “nothing in Christianity is original” and he promotes the idea that these mythological figures served as the basis for the Gospel accounts of Jesus Christ. The similarities between the stories and characters in the Bible and those from previous mythologies are both undeniable and well-documented. Jesus’s Story is an obvious rehashing of the numerous Pagan gods. He demonstrates these concepts in his book, 

Mithras had 12 disciples, and when he was done on earth he had a final meal before going up to heaven. On the final day he will return to pass judgment on the living and the dead. The good will go to heaven, and the evil will die in a giant fire. His followers called themselves “brothers”, and their leaders “fathers”. They had baptism and a meal ritual where symbolic flesh and blood were eaten. Heaven was in the sky, and hell was below with demons and sinners. This is what St. Paul taught the early Christians. St Paul gave a meaning to Jesus' death-that he died for the sins of man- and St. Paul established a Religion. Christ was born, lived and died a Jew.

The writers of gospels, for obvious reasons, introduced a number of miracles into the life of Christ; as many of the young gods of the cults walked over water, cured the crippled, gave sight to the blind, made water into wine in a marriage party and rose up the dead. All the gods of the mystery cults resurrected and the founder of the new religion, Jesus Christ, could not be an exception. The evangelists introduced the story of the empty tomb, disappearance of his body from his grave and his apparition to some women and disciples. Jesus had been made to resurrect on the third day.

Against the Greco Roman background, a new religion had to have a god as its founder and not a poor man-Nazarene; hence the evangelists elevate him to godhood. This god, like all the gods of the mystery cults, had to be born of a virgin mother. Thus the writer-preachers adopt the story of Immaculate Conception with god’s angel appearing to Mary and so on. 

Is God a Demon who kills children like insects and make people suffer?

Demographists suggest (there are no statistics) that the death rate among medieval children in UK was around 25% in the first year, 12.5% between one and four, and about 6% between five and nine(Nicholas Orme, University of Exeter). It works out to around 44% before the age of ten. The same pattern could be assumed elsewhere: 44 children out of 100 died before reaching puberty. I think it could be reasonable to assume that half of them did not become adults. If we project this to 2000 years and more backwards we can easily see that one out of two of all children born so far died before the age of ten and only about 40 out of 100 children reached adulthood. They had been dying like insects.
  

Later on death rates have come down as man developed medicine and technology without any help form God. But even now millions of kids are dying every year in the whole world as per UN records. Malnutrition is the underlying cause of death for at least 3 million children under the age of 5 per year in the world. Millions are born into inhuman conditions of filth and dirt, more than half of whom will die giving just pain to all concerned. Why is God creating them? Will this monstrous drama of the Almighty ever end?  

  In the quakes of the 20th century more than 1,250,000 people died. (Source: Wikipedia) People have died likewise in all the 4000 centuries man has been here on this earth. Death by floods alone is around a million a century. Those who die in volcanoes, tempests and hurricanes will be more. Due to various epidemics since the birth of Jesus, may be more than 200 billion have died. In the 1918 flue pandemic, 75 Million died worldwide. Certain plagues have obliterated human societies and others like cholera and small pox decimated them. Is this the outcome of a loving God’s Providence?  

So many different types of cancers are haunting man today as before. Brest cancers affects women, prostate cancer afflicts men, stomach cancer, lung cancer, pancreas, throat, mouth and so many other cancers affect both the genders. Even as I write this, there are millions in the world who are in agony. They suffer, suffer and suffer. Is there any help coming from above? And still Christians speak about the abundant love of their God.

There are so many other afflictions that haunt modern man: heart diseases, diabetes, pressure, urinary problems, kidney and liver failures, and innumerable other ills. There are those who are blind, deaf or mute. There are the physically handicapped and the feeble-minded ones. Many of the imbeciles, the psychotic and the mentally retarded cannot prolong their existence without outside help. Why does the Almighty create them? Are they sent down here simply to suffer and suffer from birth to death? They cannot even use their freewill to merit heaven or hell.

According to UN statistics  2.8 billion people live on less than US$2/day and roughly 1.2 billion people live on less than US$1.25/day. There are at least 300 million people in India alone who live with less than half a US$ a day.  3.4 million die every year from water related diseases around the world, and roughly 768 million people do not have access to clean water.  Around 35 million live with AIDS today. 67% of them are living in Sub-Saharan Africa. A woman dies every two minutes due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Only 1/2 of all the women in the under developed regions receive recommended medical attention. See how the omnipotent God enjoys torturing His special creation.  His choicest creation has been suffering from the beginning of time till now and this will, in all probability, continue till the end of time.

Why does the Almighty God allow children die like insects make people suffer and suffer for the last 400,000 years or more? Is He a demon who enjoys His creatures’ pain, suffering and death?    

Glimpses of Hinduism

Hinduism is perhaps the world’s oldest religion and in many of its writings ahimsa-nonviolence has been considered the highest duty of the followers from the beginning of time. Jainism and Buddhism that grew out of Hinduism also believe that people should strive to practice ahimsa as an essential step on the way to personal salvation.

Hinduism is the only religion, which is not founded on a single historic event, person, prophet or god. It precedes recorded history and many consider it is the cradle of spirituality or the mother of all religions. It has influenced every major religion and it has absorbed all other streams, honoring their scriptures, their saints and their thinking.

It gave birth to Buddhism, and many feel Buddha was born and died a good Hindu. There are scholars who believe it also gave birth to other religions of the East, like Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism and others.

It does not exist outside the mind. Hindus can understand, acknowledge, accept and love all religious people. The Hindu does not believe that only one religion paves the way for salvation. All religions reflect truth. Naturally, a Hindu feels that his faith is the broadest. Hinduism believes all the religions of the world are expressions of the one Eternal Path.

Still, Hinduism is extremely adamant in some of its beliefs. It does not compromise on its doctrines of karma and reincarnation or rebirths. It does not demand of any soul perfection in this life as belief in reincarnation gives the Hindu acceptance of any level of life. One will be reborn until one’s karma is washed away and the soul merges with the Eternal Being. Many people in the world today, whether they call themselves religious or not, are not coming to terms with this concept.

It is also one of more experience than of doctrine. There is no strict dogma or commandment. It tells its followers: this is the nature of truth, and these are the means by which that Truth may be realized. It shows traditions which have withstood time and proved very effective. Now you may test them in your own life or prove them to yourself. The scriptures like the Vedas,written thousands of years ago and the great saints and seers explain how we should live. 

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Hinduism is so broad: there is a place in it for the insane and for the saint, for the beggar and the rich, for the believer and non-believer. There is a place for the intelligent person and plenty of room for the fool. 

Unlike Buddhism, Hinduism is a theistic religion. People believe in gods and semi-gods and different sects worship different gods. Many say there are millions of Gods in Hinduism although only a few major Deities are worshiped in the temples. Monkeys, snakes, stones and trees are all also worshiped as parts of God. Everything is a manifestation of the Underlying Principle. Everything is one. Everything is contained in the Absolute Brahma. There is no duality. It is an illusion that one does not realize this truth.   

Hinduism has a grand diversity among its many sects and many feel the diversity is itself a strength. These various sects and divisions are springing from the same source. There is no person or spiritual authority that stands between man and God. Essentially you are God himself. Hinduism is unique because God and man, mind and God, can merge as one.  

Hinduism, also called Sanatana Dharma, is very different from the western religions. It is a code of ethics, a way of living through which one may achieve moksha (enlightenment, liberation). The end of the birth-death-rebirth cycle is the ultimate goal of life in Hinduism. This is how one  attains moksha- a life of perfect bliss- by total release from the attachments to worldly possessions and desires and merging with the Eternal. The Hindu concept of moksha is very similar to the Buddhist concept of nirvana

 Sanatana shows it is an eternal path, without beginning or end. It is an all- pervading truth. Dharma stands for righteousness, compassion, morality, truth, teachings and tradition. Hinduism is more experience based rather than belief based. It is more introspective. 

There are nearly a billion Hindus in the world today. That's roughly four times the population of the entire United States. Every sixth person on the planet is a Hindu and there are temples in Europe, in North and South America, Australia, Africa and throughout Southeast Asia. 

Hinduism the great peaceful religion

From what I know of Hinduism, it advocates that you don’t harm another person for whatever reasons. There is mind-blogging number of gods, many sub sects and a plethora of associated religious practices, but the liveliness that they enthuse among the population appears so very peaceful. Buddhism is peaceful too and so is Jainism; but the history of Hinduism show that it has accepted various faiths and lived with them all in peace and harmony. Hindus had been converted at gun point or with a sword placed at their necks, but still they tolerated those militant faiths and go on tranquil  and quiet like the Ganges. So many new religions and isms tried to usurp its place in the hearts of the billions and still Hinduism remains unruffled and absorbs everything in its meandering flow. 

There are a few religions in the world that commit violence in the name of their god. But Hindus don’t hold a club, a sword, a gun or a bomb. They move about silently with inner peace.  Non-violence is ingrained in the religion and it guides people towards inner peace.  Each hymn 

Hindus chant is followed by peace, peace, peace.

Their temples are noisy places with ringing of bells and chants in high pitches. The smell is often strong from the burning incense but smoothed by the fragrant fresh flowers present everywhere. There will be a simple lamp or a multitude of lamps burning before the statue. It's full of jostling people, telling their personal problems to the gods or asking for a blessing. They give them great peace of mind.

Hinduism is not dogmatic and it does not bind its followers with commandments or strict rules. Hinduism has no central organization or authority to decide anything for Hindus. No church like institution exists that dictates any rigid, frozen dogma on the masses. People have never been persecuted or even reprimanded for not doing this or that.

It gives you broad guidelines without really enforcing anything. Being a follower is like reading a great text on how to live a life and what to look up to. It's like a great teacher, who does not hand out an answer but encourages you to explore and search to find out your own answers. Hinduism does not enforce a ruthless god who demands his followers to prove his superiority.  It never tries to disqualify or reject anyone and there is nothing like converting to Hinduism.Full customization is allowed depending on the attitude and constitution of the person. You can be an atheist and a Hindu!  

There is a core peace mantra:  “May we all be protected. May we all be nourished. May we work together with great energy and vigor. May our study be enlightening without giving rise to hostility. Let there be no Animosity among us.” Hinduism does not consider peace and prosperity as two exclusive states of life but simultaneous and integrated ones. May everybody be Happy; May everybody be free from disease; May everybody have good luck; May none fall on evil days.