ATHEISM IS NOT ANTI-RELIGION, BUT I AM!

WHETHER GOD EXISTS OR NOT IS TOTALLY IMMATERIAL TO ME.

I am an atheist. So what? Everybody hates an atheist except other atheists. That's because we disavow the existence of a creation in peoples' minds that has been touted as the most important creation their minds can conceive of. When we atheists do that, we create enormous discomfort in the minds of believers.

God probably exists, if he/she/it exists at all, in the minds of believers that god exists. It is impossible to convince any believer that it is impossible to prove a negative. Like, "Prove to me that god doesn't exist." So forget that discussion. I really don't care if there is such a thing as god or whether god exists or not.

What amazes me is the gullibility created by people's need to believe in the existence of god. What is of major concern to me is that religion has exploited, from earliest times and continues to exploit for nefarious purposes, people's need to believe in god.

Questions, anyone? Like, "What specifically, are those nefarious purposes?"

The concept that the need to believe in god is exploited for nefarious purposes must be shocking to many and laughable to others. Allow an explanation and then the history.

God is a higher power, ineffable - incapable of being described in words, mighty and almighty, a provider of comfort for the inexplicable and terrible events of life, a being to whom one gives attributes above all the attributes of which humans are capable, the Power to whom one turns for retribution to be visited on one's enemies, and the haven (heaven) to which one's loved ones go in death. There's more, but you get the idea. These are intimate personal beliefs and feelings, raw and sensitive in time of need, providing forgiveness for earthly failings called sins, and the source of all good that befalls some believers. This is the power of ALL.

There are two ways to reach this higher power.; private prayer and prayer in religion.

Religion is the door through which one can reach god, in the words of the tradesmen of religion, the purveyors of religion, the ambassadors of god, the representatives of god on earth. Once a believer goes through the door of religion, one word is added to the personal belief system, "Obey." Now, the believer has a larger belief system to which others conform, giving validity and support to the individual. Two prices must be paid for admission to this wonderful new order; money if you have it - no matter how little you have, and obeisance to the god of the system as demanded by the self-proclaimed representative of god here on earth. That obeisance generally is exercised in wartime, to enable wars to take place and to "know" that god is on our side. There's lots of money to be made in war. Remember that!

Because the variety of scoundrels is as unlimited as is their creativity, so too the variety of obeisance is unlimited. It ranges from the manner in which you cross yourself or kneel in obeisance, to the obedience demanded that you kill the non-believer. The "non-believer" is anyone who does not adhere to the particular religion to which you adhere. The religion is whatever someone, not god, in the past said or now says it is. The idiosyncratic nature of religionists, past and present, demands that you bang your forehead on the floor or flagelate yourself with whips and chains, or you put your womenfolk believers behind a wall to separate them from the men in prayer to almighty. You may even thank god for not making you a woman.

If it were possible to quantify all of the comfort that belief has provided to all of the believers on the face of the earth and if it were possible to quantify the pain and anguish, the slaughter, dismemberment, torture, poverty, and loss of loved ones, that religions have caused on the face of the earth, AND if it were at all possible to suspend that belief in their religions long enough to enable individuals who adhere to the religions to weigh those two quantities on appropriate scales, I believe it would be extremely unlikely that any change would take place on earth in religiosity or adherence to religions or their leaders.

To achieve that desired (by me) state of non-religion and proceed to a life of caring ethical humanism, education of their children to that end by all peoples must be made mandatory to the same extent that religious education has been made mandatory in life on this planet.

And that is another session.