Religion

I have been posting on FB quite a lot recently which may seem anti-religious although I would like to think it’s more a challenge to faith. I hold to no religious doctrine religion is something I really feel should not be “ring fenced” and not open to question. If you ask a Christian to describe God he will make him out to be a kind, merciful omniscience and omnipresence celestial being who watches over his flock….but my argument is he is not!!! By any description you can find in the bible. God has killed more people (well a larger percentage of the population at the time as written in the bible) than Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin or Ghengis Khan surely he should be held accountable and at least be brought to trail, a kind of Nuremberg type trial perhaps or has he already done a runner, the absent landlord that friedrich nietzsche mentioned? I think there is enough collaboration and written evidence in the bible. This is a Christian country (well supposedly but that's perhaps a post for another time but yet this is the same God as other faiths at least up to a point) so we people do believe this sky fairy is real so I call for him to answer for his crimes on humanity. But of course I don’t believe in this fictional character so how can he possibly be answerable for his crimes, and as a fictional character would deserve blame as much a Willie Wonker to blame for Augustus Gloop falling in the chocolate river. Now religion I know is not the root of all evil but it is the cause of much. Let me give you an example (and a url to read http://www.americancatholic.org/News/StemCell/ ) This is mostly about the Catholic churches view but is shared to certain degrees by most religions (I dislike all religions so not picking on one or favouring another) Basically as you can read from American Catholic new (and pope’s speeches) they want to ban embryonic stem-cell research which could offer therapeutic break throughs for every injury and disease that a human can suffer including cancer. Yes it means the destruction of a three day old human embryo which has a collection of about 150 cells but let's put this in perspective...the brain of a fly has 100,000 cells. If the excuse is that a human cell has the potential of being a fully developed human-being then every time you scratch your nose you commit a holocaust of potential human beings. Now lets consider that every three day old human embryo has a soul which many religious groups will have you believe and these souls are worthy of our moral concern. Embryos at this stage occasionally split becoming two separate people (identical twins) so is this a case of one soul becoming two? Two embryos sometimes fuse in to a single individual (google chimera) what becomes of the extra human soul in this case? My argument here is that the naive idea of souls in a Petri dish is intellectually indefensible. Where is the morals when you try to ban this research thus prolonging the possible misery of tens of millions of fellow humans. Religious metaphysics which gives a clump of cells in a dish rights which supersede the interests of a child with a spinal cord injury. Even the catholic Vatican being opposed to condoms even to prevent the spread of AIDS (I know this has changed slight since but the damage has been done) Opposing abortions is a world where millions of little babies die of malnutrition or even in some cases by the deliberate will of Mothers. It’s not all Catholics, I am not pointing my finger at any single interpretation of this book of fiction, Protestants are just as bad, burning abortion clinics and killing doctors!! In El Salvador abortion is illegal under any means and all circumstances. There is no exceptions for rape or incest! Woman there are now serving 30 year jail sentences for terminating pregnancies. Now imagine this is a country that also stigmatizes the use of contraception as a sin against God!! Read about the Vatican perpetuating the “blood libel” against Jews in its newpapers as late as 1914. Both Catholics and Protestant churches have a shameful record of complicity with the Nazi genocide. Now what about Islam? Lots being said about Islam these days, people claiming it's a religion of peace hijacked by extremists. Well I don't follow any religion, they are all dangerous in my eyes but none more so than Islam. These so called extremists are seeking to implement what is arguably the most honest reading of the Koran and it's faiths actual doctrine. If you are going to try and convince me it's a peaceful religion then try convincing me that Jihad is an inner spiritual struggle ....it's a doctrine of holy war. This is a religion which has not evolved. Changes need to come from within. Oh I agree there are peaceful practicing Muslims but let me also point you towards a Muslim public opinion poll conducted in 11 Muslim majority countries (2013 PEW poll) asking if it's OK to use suicide bombing against non-combatants in defence of Islam. 16% in turkey agreed that it's justified, 33% in Lebanon, 25% Egypt, 62% in Palestinian Territories, only 3% in Pakistan (still 3% too high) Not all Muslims are terrorists,( I wish people would stop posting pictures with such captions as if to prove this point on social media sites such as Facebook, it really is an insult to our intelligence.) My points is that Islam is very dangerous,and an alarmingly high proportion of terrorists are Muslims. One such danger of Islam is that in other religions (mostly and generally) when someone are paranoid, depressed or deeply devoted they don't butcher fellow humans whilst shouting religious slogans whereas such a person with such mental problems who is in regular touch with a jihadist "spiritual leader" has already got his ready-made script to offer him paradise in exchange for homicide. I can respect people wanting to follow a faith but I respect human life much more and we can't just turn around and say it's just a few bad apples, read about the London bombers, these were well educated men, how many more people will die in this game of interpretation of my imaginary God is better than yours? Islam is the most dangerous but imho the world would be a better place without religion, and if you think we need religion to keep people in check or murder and mayhem would rule then it worries me your lack of "faith" in humanity that you think people need the "cctv" omnipresence to not commit evil. if asked who we think is the biggest murder in fiction I wonder who you would say? It appears it's a fictional character called God from a fictional book called the bible. Why do people revere the bible so much and present it to our children? The first suicide terrorist? Samson, his little rampage of strength cause the death of 3000 civilian men and women. Do you want to hear the score of deaths caused by God in the bible? The estimated total is around 25 million, now Satan only has credit for around 60 deaths. Oh god loves to kill children too, remember how he "smote all the first borns in the land of Egypt"? Or him sending two bears to "rip apart" 42 children who made fun of a guys bald head? What about 2 Samuel 12 14-18 where God slowly kills a baby having him suffer for 7 days? Back again to 2nd Samuel, 18.27, read how David bought a wife with 200 philistine foreskins (not on eBay), a charming bedtime story for your little ones as they are safely tucked up in bed (did you remember to paint a cross on your door with lambs blood, don't want the Angel of death visiting you tonight) If you do believe the bible to be the true word of a true God then why do you get down on your knees and worship such a bloodthirsty murder? Fear? Then you learn your children to fear this same monster!! The true story of Moses, that nice man we teach our children about from a young age. Visualize Moses, a righteous man (according to the Bible, in spite of his lies, deceptions, and acts of violence, not to mention his incredible stupidity as it took him forty years to move his people a couple of hundred miles from Egypt into Israel), and then visualize his troops at his direct command killing babies. I mean real, live babies in their mother's arms. I mean small children, trying to hide behind the safety of their parent's legs even as that parent is gutted. I mean little boys feeling their life flow out of them through a hole that passes through their lungs even as your murderer strips your sister and investigates with a still-bloody finger whether or not she is a virgin, then raping her (either way) before your dying eyes....how explain to me how I should really take this in context! We wrap this horror story up in pretty colours and tell the tales to children in primary schools. Religions...all should be purged from this world!!! Good religious people are dying from cancer this very moment, many of them wee children. It's strange such a loving omniscience God left instructions in his big bible about keeping slaves, stoning adulterous wives and sacrificing a wide variety of animals yet nothing about little children dying of bone cancer! Do you want to get down on your knees to prey to a God that invented such delights as bone cancer in children?? I don’t and that’s why I advocate Secular Humanism, I believe is what can be proved, I believe in people, I believe when catatrophy happens we should not waste time on prayer….we should help each other, donate blood,organs when we die, share resources and work at being the species which me are , believe what you see through the hubble telescope and believe in science and not look through the pages of an antiquated book for strength or wait for a burning bush!