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I have hope for the human race that at some point, before we ever completely destroy ourselves and the only world we have in the name of religion, that humanity will rise up in unison and finally recognize the lack of logic and acceptance of ignorance all faith based ideologies must by their very nature embrace and decide once and for all that religion itself is in essence one of the most divisive factors to ever achieving peace in our world.

Anyone who truly embraces the concept of peace with a real knowledge of history and religions hand in it should be ill equipped to defend any religion. Religion has claimed literally millions of lives over the course of humanity. Nearly every armed conflict since the dawn of man up to current times ever undertaken has always been in the name of one religion or another. If this weren't such a stark and sad reality this would be comical, since of course every single religion claims they are, "a religion of peace".

If religions truly were by nature peaceful I'd have a much easier time accepting peoples faith in them. With my own sense of logic, and real hope that one day all humanity will achieve peace with one another, I do understand with absolute certainty that until humanity sheds the cloak of inhumanity and intolerance of one another all religions wear so proudly, world peace will always remain an unattainable goal. I view this idea in grave sadness as world peace is something nearly all of humanity would like to see, yet in using religion as their spiritual and moral guide and compass toward that goal, it will always remain just out of reach.

Kim

Religions are not the problem it is the people who fallow the religion. Most all religions are great Utopian ideals of peace, love, and faith, but the people who fallow them are flawed just like you and me. Try reading and understating what the religious beliefs are about not the failings of the followers. And by the way, there are a lot more Mother Teresas in the faith than there are Osama bin Ladens. It just doesn't make good press to here about the food bank feeding the hungry or the church sponsored housing giving shelter to homeless families. No the media and historians love to report on the horrors of the world.

Seek evil and you will find evil

Seek good and you will find good

Seek nothing and you will find nothing

Religions are not the problem it is the people who fallow the religion.

Uh, ok .... so try disassociating the religion from the believers and see how that works out. All you get is lost sheep.

Personally I find the concept of any god intellectually irreconcilable in the face of logic and all religions thusly improvable. When you tell me "you have to have faith to believe" it only points up that you have no proof to offer

Religion is faith, if you have faith in your religion then you will follow that religion anywhere... religion is brainwashing generations of people, the next time you're watching TV think about what they are really selling to your kids.

[www.adl.org]

That's Pat Condell - one of the few people who actually tell the truth about life and existence.

It sounds to me like many atheists would like to follow the path of religion and eradicate all followers of faith. How is that any different then the radical Islamists who are trying to convert by the sword? How is that any different then the crusades of the past? If you use a "crowbar to free the minds" of those following faith and religion how are you any different? You can talk and use your worlds but when you use violence to promote your message then you become the same as those who cut people's heads off for not believing in Islam. We have just as much right to believe in God as you have to not believe so trying to aggressively trying to change us is just as band as those in religion aggressivly trying to convert others to their belief.

We atheists as a group are more likely than not viewed with either total disgust by the rest of the world for our ideas, or as if we were some poor misguided souls so bereft of intellect, that we're viewed with an air of pity like that given to an idiot child because we seem simply incapable of "getting it" when it comes to religion. Even stranger to me however is that of all the atheists I've ever met, all of them were well spoken intellectuals and in total truth I doubt any of them have possessed an intellectual capacity less than bordering on if not in excess of genius level by IQ standards, a mental capacity I could hardly relate in regards to a great many of the people of faith I've met and known in my travels.

At least to my way of thinking if people of faith could somehow mute the self righteous dialogue that seemingly plays as the background music to their thoughts and actually listened to their priests, pastors, rabbis, imams and all the other parroters of faith based ideologies with an ear based in logic, instead of the illogical mind numbing dogmas of whatever religion they embrace instead, it would shake their superstitious beliefs to the very core of their beings, which might even encourage something akin to actual freedom of thought and deed.

The above is an excerpt from an email I sent to one of my Christian friends/business contacts yesterday as was the 1st post I entered above also. After having taken a huge risk several months back in relating my opinion on religion to him (in business here in the US that is a VERY dangerous revelation to make), he continued filling my inbox with cutesy lil jeesus tales on a near daily basis.

Out of respect for his views I would never have sent him links to atheist based info or such but even after relating my thoughts he felt perfectly Ok with sending me this crap which I truly find offensive. This is essentially the equivalent of saying "Your opinion doesn't count and there's no reason I should extend respect towards your views." Even worse to me is this was all comin from a guy who I knew the 1st time we held a conversation that I'd found a good friend, which made this insult even less appealing overall as it was coming from someone I personally held in high regard.

What you "people of faith" seemingly can't begin to comprehend is how atheists have theology shoved in our faces continually, and though we have the right to our opinions and thoughts the same as everyone else, as a group that's a minority even among minorities (somewhere around 5-10% of the global population) we get NO RESPECT for having this view.

Most of us are perfectly content with all the religious practices and have a live and let live philosophy when it comes to peoples beliefs, but that same attitude is more than rare in coming back the other way and every fucking bit of it is ALWAYS coming from the pious self efacing self serving religinuts.

Maybe it's just that as I've gotten older I've grown way tired of this shit and find myself far less accepting of it than I once was. I can say one thing with complete certainty though and that is I'm goddamned tired of seeing all the self righteous fighting, discrimination, hate and wars that are promulgated by all the religious factions of the only world we all have to live in.

If all the religious folks of the world could just open their all too closed minds and see what I see in how they continue to rip apart the social fabric of the whole planet with their BS, then maybe, just maybe, we could actually achieve a level of global peace that's never been known. So go ahead and call me aggressive, despise me for my views, roll your eyes when I ask how much more good all the religious clusters could do in the world with the billions upon billions of dollars they instead spend on supporting their temples to themselves and their chosen god, tell me how silly I am in wanting all the shit slinging every religion does about all the others to stop, and while your at it, go ahead and tell me again how world peace can't be reality because religion A,B,C or D doesn't "get it".

But ... don't expect to try and stand over me from one of your halloed bully pulpits pissin your religinut BS all over myself and the rest of the world and try and tell me it's rainin

The obvious solution is to make fun of $ciet0l0gy, and then have a drink.

I think the problem lies in organized religion and not so much in the belief in God and Jesus. I have no problem with those who do not believe as long as they have no problem with me. I have a problem with anyone trying to tell me how to believe and what to believe which means I have a huge problem with radical ilsam and door to door Bible thumpers.

I believe in God and Jesus but do not and never will believe in any organized religion. It has always been organized religion that has always caused the troubles in the world not the belief in God. I do not follow any religion because I do not want anyone trying to tell me what the bible means or how I should interpret what I read. That is religions failure, man's interpretation of God's word to align with the policy of organized religion. I believe God is in each and everyone of us in this world. My belief coexists nicely with science which is part of which drove me away from organized religion. Unfortunately there are not many like me in the world and I get the same reaction you get from organized religion and it's supporters. I get many offers to join friends and associates churches. I just turn a deaf ear to them when they speak. When they start holding a gun to my head I will no longer ignore them and fight back, but only when they try to force me.