How Civilized Are We? -- Religion

Man the self-deceiver

It may truly be amazing to some that in these days and age modern man still seems to believe in such imaginary beings as God, gods, angels, devils, demons, ghosts, souls, etc. -- all conjured up by primitive man during the infancy of the human race.

The truth, however, is that no one who is sane and sensible really believes in his heart of hearts such abject nonsense. It is just a hypocrisy or at worst a self-deception. Their behavior in the serious matters of life and death shows they are just paying lip service and acting it out while sticking to the dictates of reality in practice.

Religions are mostly primitive cultures and a way of life based on the belief in the existence and involvement of so-called supernatural beings -- spooks in common parlance -- in our everyday life. Religions are cultural, emotional, social and psychological affairs, generally cobbled together by lying and deceiving gurus who claim familiarity with these spooks. 

The most important thing to note about religions is that they have nothing whatsoever to do with reality, facts, truth and reason. Also, the common denominator of all religions is the virtual worship of a guru who is really the maker, mentor, minder and "spokesman" of spooks in the first place.

The so-called believers are living a lie. Besides the three international pop religions, there are thousands of other religions out there keeping a low profile. Each religion considers itself to be the "one true religion" and sometimes goes to war against other religions to prove their superiority. 

Now, how can one consider a society or a nation based on a culture of lies, make-believe, myths, self-deception and primitive customs as being civilized -- even if it's all pretended?

If truth, knowledge, worldly wisdom, maturity and sophistication of thought are some of the principal components of true civilization then we have failed miserably since truth implies conformity with reality and facts while religions are notorious for their emphasis on blind faith and unquestioning beliefs.

So can we abolish religion? Yes, if we can abolish human nature and superstition!

*

Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool.
-- Mark Twain.

There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious.
― Niccolò Machiavelli

The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.
-- Walter Bagehot

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
-- H.L. Mencken, as quoted in James A. Haught's 2000 Years of Disbelief

Religion is all bunk.
-- Thomas Edison

"The world holds two classes of men -- intelligent men
 without religion, and religious men without intelligence."
-- Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri (Syrian poet, 973-1057)

Religion is a weapon of mass delusion. (Me)

The origin and purpose of religion arose from mankind's attempt to understand himself and the mysterious and terrifying world around him.-- (Me)

Religion is the spiritual grog of the masses. (Me)

How Civilized Are We? -- Animal Slaughter

The slaughter of the innocents

Animals are born losers.They are willing to do almost anything for us in exchange for whatever (cheap stuff) we give them to eat. But we are hardly content with using them for labor. We want to kill them and eat their dead bodies also. So much for human gratitude! 

Dogs, cats, rats, horses, snakes, tigers, insects -- you name it, we eat them all. Some of them for health, some for human ailments, and some for rip-roaring sex. We even used to eat fellow humans in our cannibal past, and still do -- as in war, famine or as a cultic practice -- in some places around the world.

We make animals carry us around, go to war with us, plow our field and do menial work for us. We put them in cages in zoos, rob them of their milk meant for their young, eggs to hatch their babies, and finally slaughter them and feast on their flesh.

We rob them of their habitat in order to make golf courses, hotels and resorts. We even decorate our drawing rooms with animal heads and tusks.

Some religions add salt to the wound by claiming their boogeymen created animals for us to use and eat. Other religions say it's a sin to kill any kind of life but then nonchalantly look the other way to the slaughter of animals in their own backyards. Doctors chime in with the pronouncement that we need animal protein to be healthy, never mind the millions of vegetarians who get on well without meat. .

Whatever the feelings, there's certainly no way to justify the slaughter and slavery of helpless fellow beings. It's just that we are hooked on meat since we were raised that way from childhood -- an addiction just like getting hooked on a particular kind of food, language, music, race, country -- in addition to alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and religion. For all we care, meat grows on trees! As a kid, ever been told to shut up and finish your pork chop?

The meat industry is a multi-billion dollar business and a country's cash cow -- just like prostitution which attracts sex tours. And it's not just the meat but also animal products -- shoes and handbags for instance -- that rakes in millions.

Even if we stop slaughtering them for food, where do we set them free? In an ever-decreasing habitat full of predators? And we still have to control their numbers by culling. A lose-lose situation for them.

It is encouraging that meat substitutes are on the horizon, but they are expensive and made in insufficient amounts for mass consumption. In fact, they were created to supplement the meat industry. So animal slaughter is here to stay no matter what. No pious lip service to civilized or humane behavior will ever likely put an end to it.

Sure, we get occasional pangs of conscience but we get used to brushing them off each time.

An old colleague once said he only ate chicken from outside his home -- not from his own garden since he regards them as something like family members.
(Nice way to still your conscience!)

A cook at a night market sea-food eatery once told me: "I beg forgiveness from the crabs for doing my job."
(Nothing personal, eh?)

Nice excuses, but a blot on our civilization nevertheless.

***

Most people would probably go without meat if they have to kill their prospective meals with their own hands.
 -- (Exact words and author forgotten.)

Any animal friendly to man usually ends up on his dinner plate.
-- (Exact words and author forgotten.)

 Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
-- Thomas Edison

Most people see a documentary about the meat industry and then they become a vegetarian for a week.
-- Jason Reitman, Canadian-American film director, screenwriter, and producer

Man takes pretty good care of his animal charges -- until it's dinner time.
-- (Me)

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarian.
— Paul McCartney

How Civilized Are We? -- War

War -- the bane of civilization

Man can neither live with nor without each other. We are our best friends and worst enemies. And we can never live together in peace and harmony for long. It's got to be cycles of war and peace, peace and war. Always. It's in our blood, our DNA, in our animal instincts and in our savage impulses. And we can hardly do much about it.

We learn to be two-faced. We engage in wars while at the same time praising peace. We sing hosannas on the incalculable value of life and then march off our youth to war. We set aside big war chests with tax-payers' money, denying much-needed funds for the welfare of the people.

We keep thousands -- and even over a million -- of men and women under arms and teach them how to kill people. We make bigger, better and deadlier weapons, especially those of mass destruction, to kill and maim the greatest number of our enemies and lay waste to their lands.

We show off our spanking new and shiny weapons to impress our friends and intimidate our prospective foes, and even make a money-spinning business out of it. And we talk of using robot armies in the not too distant future.

We drop bombs from thousands of feet up in the sky, we launch missiles from distant seas, and we send killer drones from the safety and comfort of our war rooms hundreds or thousands of miles away from ground zero.

Like unconscionable vandals, we turn cities and homes -- even schools and hospitals -- into rubble and skeletons, rain bombs and bullets not only on armed enemies but also on innocent civilians. Most shocking and heartrending of all, we kill, maim, inflict pain and suffering upon innocent little children.  

Overnight, wives turn into widows, children become orphans, and families join lines of  homeless refugees. People get so used to burying the mangled bodies of the dead almost every day that they suffer from dry eyes and numbness even to the loss of their loved ones. Even peace comes at a price -- the peace of a cemetery.

Amidst all the lightning and thunder of war, a cool, silent and impersonal spectator with an insatiable appetite for dead bodies keeps busy, doing its dirty job as the toll mounts higher and higher. Finally, it's peace again -- the peace of the cemetery.

So can we stop wars? Dream on!

*

He who joyfully marches to music rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once.
-- Albert Einstein

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
-- John F. Kennedy

One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.
-- Joseph Stalin

One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic. Joseph Stalin
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/joseph_stalin.html

One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic. Joseph Stalin
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/joseph_stalin.html

You can nuke people, but you can't nuke wars! (Me)

Is war an interrupted peace, or is peace an interrupted war? (Me)

The path to peace is often lined with dead bodies. (Me)

Truth is the first casualty in war -- just as in politics and religion.

How Civilized Are We? -- Civilization

(Three Reasons That Burst Our Bubble)

We, of course, like to fancy ourselves as civilized creatures, flaunting our scientific and technological achievements and our perceived humanism, sophistication, worldly wisdom and our wonderful sense of morality. We blithely assert that to be human is to do all the good things humans do or are capable of doing. We stress our angelic part.

At the same time we tend to downplay the other inseparable part of our makeup: the ugly side, the devil in us, our destructive nature. And we have come up with a a good excuse for all the bad things we do, we say "I'm only human," "To err is human," "I just couldn't help it."

They say the meaning of civilization changes with the times and also depends upon whom you ask. So let's not waste our time buttonholing people and asking questions which they themselves may not be quite sure of the right answer.

Instead, we shall use this word in its most general and commonly employed sense, that is, to mean "not savage, not barbaric, not an animal, not superstitious." etc. Civilization is a moving goalpost or an ideal towards which we strive but never fully attain. This is because our human nature, genetically fused to our savage past, gets in the way.

Human nature is what causes wars and the slaughter of our fellow creatures the animals. It's what make us believe in religions and other kinds of superstitions. Human nature is the source of greed, ambitions, murder, rape, theft, lying, vengefulness, discord and destruction. In fact, human nature is the driving force of our behavior -- both for the good and bad.

Civilization is the product of what man has learned during his long march from primitivism to modernity. Civilization promotes worldly wisdom, sophistication and maturity of thought. It gives rise to a humanistic outlook, and it is the engine of our creativity.

One of the main goals of civilization is to tame or rein in the undesirable aspects of human nature and make our world a peaceful, happy and livable place. This is the most important factor in determining how civilized we are.

One last characteristic of civilization: It is achieved in stages and is not evenly distributed throughout the world. Different nations reach different stages of civilization or cultures inviting a violent clash of cultures.

Some people take an easy way out by claiming that since there is no consensus about what civilization, including morality, amounts to, everything is really up in the air. But I beg to differ. 

There are sane and sensible ways to tackle this problem by the use of knowledge, worldly wisdom and a sophisticated, mature and rational way of thinking that could point to better ideas and yardsticks of a civilized way of life. 

Unfortunately, our history and human nature tell us that our quest will likely be just a goal and a dream as long as we remain human beings. 

Here are three important and glaring examples of our irrational and anti-social behavior that man has always been guilty of:

1. War
2. Animal slaughter
3. Religion

***

Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.
-- Arnold Toynbee

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Civilization is a moving goalpost towards which we advance but never fully attain. (Me)

With Religion, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

(Why people don't give up superstitions easily)

Breaking up is certainly hard to do when it comes to religion. The price for ditching religion and leaving the comfort zone is rather steep.

They might not be able to run for certain state offices, such as that of a president or prime minister. They might get thrown out of their job, or they could be targets of sniping by other members of their profession and their social milieu.

That's not counting religion's wrath against those who forsake it: ex-communication, social exclusion, condemnation, pressure on parents and family members, death threats, and even murder. The state also gets into the act, handing down jail sentences for saying the truth.

Giving up religion could even be a kind of self-ostracism, since they won't be going to the "House of God," which also acts as a kind of social club for meeting friends and relatives there.

Further, they won't be celebrating religious holidays and visit each others' home on those occasions, disrupting the family's social life, especially the children (they love new clothes, presents and special treats that go with it.) It could be pretty hard for the kids to live without any religion to identity themselves and be like every other children.

Moreover, atheists face a host of other problems, such as answering embarrassing questions from their own parents, family members and relatives; explaining to their children why you're an atheist father, and the children's complaint about their classmates' snide remarks at the school, and so on.

And as if that's not enough, there's the culture and traditions which used to be your comfort zone slip out from under you. The skeptic may suffer from the loss of culture he's been used to, not to mention a lingering feeling of nostalgia for the rituals, ceremonies and celebrations that come with religion.

He may feel left out, especially when abroad where not only nationality and ethnicity count but also a shared faith and a social and cultural milieu in which one could move around and get help in matters such job prospects, friendship, company, protection, and even getting a spouse.

Besides, some people can't imagine navigating life on their own, or even with the help of others. They also need an emotional crutch to lean on in the form of religion, especially during bad times.

Small wonder then that people would rather keep their feelings about religion under wraps, stick to the herd and avoid stirring up a hornet's nest. Any skepticism that one may have is safely locked up in the closet. Surely, breaking up is really hard to do.

***

The origin of religion lies in man's attempt to understand himself and the mysterious and terrifying world around him. - (Me)

When all are wrong, everyone is right. -- La Lehaussee

If religion is true you don't need religion
If religion is false you don't need religion
-- (Me)

(First line based on skeptics' comment that if religion were true it won't be a religion but a fact of life, a natural scheme of things and a part of reality. Religion, after all, is just a blind faith that requires no proof whatsoever and has nothing to do with reality and facts.)

You don't question religion, you are born into it and accept it as a default culture. -- (Me)

An irony: We learn bad things from the "good books." (Me)

Religion addles your brain, and when the brain addles, reason skedaddles. (Me)

4 Facts About Atheism That People

 Don't Really Know

1. Atheism is about cleaning up the cobwebs

Yes, atheism is negative in that it cleans up the cobwebs
religions have planted in our minds. When you clean up the
house you have to sweep the dirt, dust and grime, and throw
away the rubbish.

That's exactly what atheism does to a mind filled with a lot
of religion's dangerous garbage, especially supernaturalism
which is a primitive and childish belief in the existence of
imaginary worlds and supernatural beings.

Atheism leans on reality. Atheism is innocence lost. And atheism
is genuine enlightenment. That is all there is to real atheism.

Theist -- Your atheism is mere negation.
Atheist -- Not so, except as the affirmation of any truth negates
the falsehood it contradicts.
-- Charles Bradlaugh - A Theist and an Atheist

Atheism is part of the growing up process. You grow up and grow
out of religions -- just like with fairy tales. Atheism is innocence lost
and maturity gained.

 

2. Atheism is in your face, and unavoidable

There's no getting away from atheism. That is simply because you
cannot get away from reality no matter how hard you try. Only the
dead can afford to do so. The living are forced to face the facts of
life whether they like it or not.

Nature does not allow imaginary creatures and their shenanigans to
mess around in the serious business of life. Nature is no respecter
of religions.

Small wonder then that spook worshipers turn to various mind tricks,
such as self-deception, paying lip service and going through the
motions to hang on to their superstitions.

3. Atheism sets you free from superstition

Since atheism is the affirmation and recognition of reality that is the
natural world, there's nothing in atheism that conflicts with reality, truth
and facts. 

Atheists simply turn to science to learn about our world while at the
same time laughing off the stupid, childish and silly fairy tales that the
godfellas try to foist upon them.

Thus, atheism liberates your mind from superstitious beliefs and forces
you to look at reality in the face. Atheism also frees you from the fetters
of religion, unchains your reason, and enables you to think outside the
box.

4. More people are choosing to face the truth

Through the ages, man has ignored warnings from his saner self about
the lies and deceptions of the gurus of religions. But then he couldn't do
anything about it since he was a prisoner of a way of life imposed upon
him by his parents. And, incidentally, that is how religions mainly bolster
their numbers -- through procreation.

But times and values have changed and more and more people have
gained their hard-won rights to free themselves from the shackles of a
primitive, lying and deceiving culture and way of life called religion
-- even if that means facing unpleasant consequences.

And even the "men of God" are abandoning their boogeyman in droves
now, at least in the West. Surely, conscience has caught up with the
guru's spin doctors. No more lying, deceiving and defrauding the sheeples
by the shepherds any more. They want to make an honest living for a change.

The winds of freedom from superstitions are now blowing across the world.
The powerful genie of atheism is out of the bottle and there's no way to put
it back in.

***

The desert guru raised his goblet brimming with fresh and frothy camel pee and 
shouted: Here's sand in your eyes! Millions throughout the world have become
confused and purblind ever since. (Me)

Religion is the spiritual grog of the masses. (Me)

Contrary to our regular intuition, intelligence and stupidity are not really mutually
exclusive. How's that, one may ask.

Simple. Because intelligence is about the head and higher faculties while senseless
and irrational behavior is about the heart and it's feelings and emotions -- something 
not always reconcilable.  

A truly intelligent person gives free expression to his higher and realistic faculties while trying
to rein in his undesirable feelings and emotions. (Me)

They Said It (Some selected quotations for you)

We are all murderers and prostitutes -- no matter to what culture, society, class, nation one belongs, no matter how normal, moral, or mature, one takes oneself to be.
R. D. Laing (1927-89), British psychiatrist. The Politics of Experience, Introduction (1967).

We are only fabulous beasts, after all.
-- John Ashbery, US poet

The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know."
-- John Heywood, English writer (c.1497 – c.1580)

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)

Falsehoods not only disagree with truths, but usually quarrel among themselves.
-- Daniel Webster, US statesman and orator

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.
Lenin (1870 - 1924)

...it is a telling fact that, the world over, the vast majority of children follow the religion of their parents rather than any of the other available religions.
-- Richard Dawkins

One man's religion is another man's belly laugh.
-- Joseph Campbell, author

I do not believe in God because I do not believe in Mother Goose
-- Clarence Darrow, US lawyer, Scopes Monkey Trial , 1857-1938

If there were gods, how can I bear to be no god.
-- Nietzsche

If, as they say, God spanked this town
For being much too frisky,
Why did He burn His churches down
And save Hotaling's Whiskey?
 -- Poem on 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, in which the city's largest whiskey distillery was left unscathed

God is OK, it's some of his fan clubs that worry me.

"No efficiency. No accountability. I tell you,
 Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a universe."
  -- Calvin & Hobbes comic

The Holy Father is neither.

If you talk to God, you're praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
-- Thomas Szasz

I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.
-- Emo Philips, US comedian

It’s easier to seek forgiveness than ask for permission.
- Proverb

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”
-- Philip K. Dick, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon

God, to me, it seems, is a verb not a noun, proper or improper.
- Albert Einstein

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
-- George Orwell

"The world holds two classes of men -- intelligent men
 without religion, and religious men without intelligence."
- Abu'l-Ala-Al-Ma'arri (973-1057; Syrian poet)

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
-- Edward Abbey

“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it.”
--  George Bernard Shaw quotes (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. (1856-1950)

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.
-- Lillian Hellman, physicist

Trial by combat of wits in disputations has no attraction for the seeker after truth; to him the appeal to experience is the last and the only test of  the merit of an opinion, conjecture or hypothesis.
-- J. W. Mellor - Modern Inorganic Chemistry, Longman's Green & Co., 1924

Faith without facts availeth nothing.
-- J. W. Mellor

No one is fit to encounter an adversary's case successfully unless he can make it for the moment his own, unless he can put it more forcibly than the adversary could put it for himself, and take account not only of what the adversary says, but also of the best he might say if only he had chanced to think of it."
--  William Hurrell Mallock (1849 – 1923), English novelist and economics writer.

Had I been there at the Creation, I would have given a few useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.
-- King Alfonso X of Castile

My creed is this:
  Happiness is the only good.
  The place to be happy is here.
  The time to be happy is now.
   The way to be happy is to make others so.
-- Robert Ingersoll

Men will wrangle for religion
Write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but -- live it.
-- Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832), English cleric and writer

When men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilised, become humanists.
-- Walter Lippmann

God is a conjecture: but I should like your conjecturing restricted to the conceivable.
-- Zarathustra

When all are wrong, everyone is right.
-- La Lehaussee

The Beast (2)

(Six more ugly things that perhaps you've never noticed)

You've seen six of them. Now here's half-a-dozen more to round off the dirty dozen.

1. He is a fool who argues with a fool!

Debates about God and religions are an exercise in futility. Nobody ever comes out the winner. Nobody ever changes his mind. Debates are unproductive, a waste of time, and they try your patience. They're just playing games and spewing out a lot of hot air.

So why get down to their level and engage in childish squabbles over imaginary beings -- whether it's God or Santa Klaus -- which any sane and sensible person knows do not exist.

What's more, your opponents don't really believe in such ridiculous nonsense either. They are merely trying to win arguments to defend and hang on to their crazy and superstitious lifestyle acquired since childhood. They certainly know that without the spooky, airy-fairy foundation and castles in the air, religions don't have a leg to stand on.

They are also dodgy, steering the debate towards other totally irrelevant matters -- such as morality, and whether religion is good or bad for humanity -- instead of a discussion about  what actually exists and what doesn't in the real world. The question of reality is the basic foundation of atheism and nothing else matters. So there's not even a need for arguing or discussing about religion.

2. Religions put up a false front

Don't be fooled by appearances.

Religions are two-faced. They put up a false front of unity, tolerance, and a live-and-let-live attitude while keeping their real feelings of hostility and contempt towards each other under wraps. That's because they can't beat the hell out of each other, try as they might, as history attests. So they are forced to live in uneasy peace with one another.

They hold inter-faith tete-a-tetes, desperately looking for the elusive common ground. They paper over the irreconcilable, unbridgeable differences between them, naturally. That's just to keep up appearances. But we know that behind the facade of plastic smiles, weak handshakes, pious utterances and a show of peaceful coexistence lies a hidden, suppressed feeling of confrontation, denigration and competition.

Fact is, religions are mutually exclusive. The believers are indoctrinated that there is only one true religion, not two or more. It's the pot calling the kettle black. But that's how the guru taught them and that's what they're supposed to believe.

3. Religions are really guru worship

Notice that it's the guru, a human being, rather than an invisible and immaterial spook that people really worship. Devotees even study the guru's life to ape or draw lessons from it. They also like to think with the guru's brain.

In fact, didn't they learned of their god's existence only through the guru? And isn't this dodgy "holy man" the one that taught them how to worship their big bwana in the sky through his spanking new religion?

The wily, scheming guru styles himself as the "savior," "messenger," or "teacher" and try to foist his crappy tales of the supernatural on us ordinary mortals. And the brainwashed dummies believe in everything the guru says and does! Moreover, they also believe that the guru is infallible and the possessor of some esoteric knowledge and unworldly powers.

The devotees quote the so-called holy book, enact laws based on it, and enforce them on the clueless masses. They build shrines and statues to the guru, light candles and incense, pile up flowers, recite his "virtues" in their chants, rituals and prayers, and make pilgrimages to his homeland. The guru is thus a human being who is worshiped as someone akin to a god.

Worship is an exaggerated and ritualized form of respect, flattery and meaningless talk reserved for imaginary gods and dodgy gurus alike.

 

4. People only swap religions

It is in the phenomenon of conversions that one can clearly see the definitive proof that people do not really regard their religion as "one true religion," sent from the heavens above to honor, cherish, and sacrifice their lives if necessary -- as they like to boast. Conversions give the lie to such pious and idle talk.

Instead, their religion, their god, and the well-thumbed holy book just get thrown out the window in order to usher in another equally absurd one. That means different rituals, different mantras, different beliefs, and, holy crap, an entirely different bunch of spooks. With some religions, even the spouse -- almost always the female -- is obliged to give up the religion of her birth and join the religion of her husband. So much for faith and fidelity!

Conversions can only be properly understood as a change of cultures. In fact, that's really what ALL religions are about: a culture, albeit a primitive one, and a way of life that has nothing to do with reality and a civilized and rational way of life.

Religious conversions show that our claims about having unshakeable faith in the sacred and the holy are just a hypocrisy and that there's no problem in dumping a religion by the wayside in favor of another equally ludicrous and moronic belief.

Conversions can also be described as the hair of the dog job!

5. Gurus are apostates, revisionists and copycats

The gurus and religious nutters like to brand atheists and other skeptics as apostates but did you ever thought about the fact that the gurus themselves are out-and-out apostates? Haven't they been chucking out the religions of their parents or forefathers, their community and their childhood and substituting them with plagiarized ones cobbled up by themselves?

Also, it didn't seem to occur to the devotees that their parents or forefathers were actually non-believers in the "one true religion."

Truth is, no religion is original and purely from the mind of the gurus. They're knock-offs of earlier ones or even existing religions, with added bells and whistles.

Many researchers also point out that followers and interpreters of religions are wont to add their own two cents and redact unsavory passages, thus turning religions into a hodge-podge cooked up by many authors. 

To add insult to injury, the gurus even denounce mother religions as false -- a case of biting the hand that feeds them.

6. Science is the nemesis of religions

Despite their denial they know in their heart of hearts that science and religions are diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive -- with religions resorting to superstitions and guru worship while science engages in the serious and systematic pursuit of knowledge.

(Yes, knowledge is neutral, amoral and mechanical. It's the humans behind it that need a morality in order to use their knowledge for the benefit of mankind -- and not to kill people by the thousands by pushing buttons.)

Religious junkies like to stress what science doesn't know or cannot do. They then mumble either their religion's cock-and-bull stories to explain things, or make such stupid remarks as "God only knows" or "God works in mysterious ways."

Further, they assert that science is materialistic whereas religions are "spiritual" affairs, and that the two can live side by side without any problems -- a compartmentalized way of thinking. A doublethink, a dissembling and a perversion of reason to have your cake and eat it too!

Fact is, both science and religion deal with everything that exists -- life, humanity, the universe. Both of them dig into the origin of mankind. Both of them explain about what makes the world tick. Just like religion, science pokes its curious nose at anything and everything that concerns our life and existence.

The difference is that science does the hands-on job and spends a lot of time, effort and money on wresting nature's secrets while religions childishly turn to fairy tales and superstitions of the distant past.

And lest we forget: Science is a God-free zone. This fact alone speaks volumes about the pariah status of religion vis-a-vis science.

But of course, spook addicts will never get it.

Ruminations 1: the Western dilemma, Starry Starry Night

In the US

After a tiring and insanely expensive, long-winded gabfest, many voters in the US have found themselves between a rock and a hard place -- and there's no way out. A truly bumpy ride awaits the country's journey ahead. That's what you get when you have elections -- insanely expensive, massive preparations for a circus and a gabfest.

In the UK

There's a serious political divisiveness created in the wake of the Brexit referendum, and it looks unlikely to be easily bridged. Some voters may even be regretting about having chosen the Yes vote. Unappeasable Londoners are on the warpath against Brexit, and major economic problems loom ...

Elsewhere

Referendums? Forget it! Just when the exit idea appears to be picking up among other EU denizens, their leaders are taking no more chances of opening a Pandora's box by staging pesky referendums that may turn out against their wishes.

However, chances are more disaffected countries will follow the British lead in good time. So how about taking some tips on doing referendums the Asian way? Need I say more?

It's just a piece of paper kicking up a storm, stupid!

Blame the politically correct, popular vote-crazy West which turns to the ill-informed and emotional masses to decide national issues.

Which is not really surprising since it's in consonance with their rigid political religion called democracy which regards the ritual of elections and voting as an integral part of choosing a country's leaders and making decisions on national issues.

In fact, elections and referendums are unnecessary exercises and an insane waste of taxpayers' money and time as well as one of the major roots of a country's problems.

They are like unscrupulous and obscenely expensive whores whose currency of business is a piece of paper called the vote and who promises power and ecstasy to the winner of the highest number of votes -- cast on the basis of religion, ethnicity, political loyalty, populism and everything else except neutral, well-informed and expert judgement.

More goodies  on the way

Now electoral democracy has more goodies for the politically-correct West. The infestation of the West in general and Europe in particular.

The West is swarming with old and new immigrants -- legal and illegal -- of a different ethnicity, religion, culture and economic status. In time their ever-increasing numbers will be counted as votes and send the West down the medieval drain.

The take-over of the West will be startlingly accomplished not by the sword but by just a piece of paper called the vote! And it's all legit.

It's a case of the camel pushing its master out of the tent. It's already happening and it's going to seriously affect the rest of the world since the flow of science, technology and all modern ways of life and ideas start in the West and flow to the rest of the world -- a one-way street.

Also, the West is the last refuge from political or religious persecutions and an opportunity for a better standard of living.

Will the West wake up, find its feet and take serious action to prevent the subversion of their culture and hard-won freedoms and be ruled by non-native people who originally came to the West from poor, violence-ridden countries for economic reasons?

Yes, distance lends enchantment,  but there's hell out there!

You lie underneath the canopy of thousands of twinkling little stars and look up to the "heavens" in wonder and amazement at the "creation" of the Big Bwana in the sky. How breath-taking and beyond words, says your "spiritual" feelings.

Yes, distance lends enchantment, as they say, so let's leave our friend alone to enjoy his wonderment and "spiritual experience" -- really an emotional state of mind, a poetic sense of joy and elation, and nothing much more.

Just a small reminder though: the billions of "cool" stars you are gazing with so much "spiritual" feelings are really unimaginably hot burning stars just like our sun, and that for the really cool ones you need to go to a disco and tank up on the "spirits" there.

And there's always a time to take off the rose-tinted spectacles and enter the full glare of reality. And does reality bite!

The universe may be an awe-inspiring and mind-boggling sight but it certainly isn't your picturesque little village in a peaceful valley for you to go and live there. In reality, we know that all is not "calm and quiet" up there.

Fact is, there's veritable murder and mayhem going on out there. Just ask the astronomers. Here's some of the goings-on we don't normally see in our day-to-day life and only notice them when things get all too violent to ignore:

Asteroids and meteors
They are the cause of pock-marked, disfigured planets quietly crying destruction, and the reason why Mars' blooming life abruptly came to a halt. More ominously, they -- and gigantic comets -- could one day be the cause of the death of humanity. Remember the dinos?

Occasional strikes, like in Chelyabinsk, Russia; huge craters on earth due to their earlier visitations, hair-raising close shaves with meteors are some of the reminders of what could happen to us one fine day.

Besides, there are burning towers of gases, intense heat, hazardous rays, big stars gobbling up smaller ones in a life-and-death struggle, galaxies and constellations on collision course -- all indicating the dangerous, hostile and terrifying nature of our universe.

In short, it's more like hell dressed up as heaven up there. And remember, heaven and hell are right here on earth -- not out there.

Sorry about bursting your spiritual bubble, but of course, distance certainly lends enchantment.

Mankind: Devils or Angels?

(Man imitates nature - not the other way around)

Of devils and angels

I once asked an acquaintance what kind of people lived in his country. 

"Devils and angels," was the terse reply.

That made me think. OK, so what happens when the devils and angels get together for sex romps? What would their babies be like, I asked myself, trying to keep a straight face.

Suddenly the bulb flashed: Why, humans of course! A chip off the old blocks -- part devil, part angel. We're truly daddy and mommy's children!

*

 

Or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

Man has never been known to keep on the straight and narrow for long. Man has always been up to some mischief or the other. One moment he's like the kind Dr Jekyll, and in another moment he's the vicious, brutal Mr Hyde.

Always flip-flopping, unpredictable, changeable, vain -- and treacherous. Even man doesn't trust man!  But then who can blame him for being so? After all he's made, or rather evolved, that way. It's in his very make-up, his DNA, and he just can't help it.

*

 

A magnificent mongrel

Enter science into the fray. Man is really and literally an animal -- of the highest order, it says. Man is therefore a hybrid creature -- part human, part animal. Small wonder some wits aptly describe man as "manimals."  Some even think, with a good reason, that we are actually worse than animals!

No matter how hard man tries to be human, there's always the ever-present animal lurking underneath. And it has to be put on a tight leash.When law and order breaks down and chaos reign, man truly exhibits his animal nature: killing, looting, raping, etc. The tight leash imposed on his animal instincts by civilization is broken, at least for quite a while.

But the wildly amazing thing is that with all our litany of failings, we have achieved something even Mother Nature can never hope to accomplish: we have radically altered and embellished our world to make it a livable and exciting place -- something entirely different from the bare-boned and desolate one into which we were born.

What's more, in case we get bored with life and the exquisite pleasures of the flesh, we have also spiced things up with crime, wars and genocides. And that's not counting the mass slaughter of our fellow animals which we insist were created for us for food, labor, fun and sports.
 
If only our primitive ancestors could visit us, they'd be wide-eyed, lost, and knocking on the nearest police boxes to ask for directions ...


*

Biological trash from nature's lab

Some scientists, such as James Lovelock, unkindly describe mankind as vicious viruses out to destroy the Earth and themselves ultimately. Others say life was seeded on Earth from elsewhere (panspermia) and therefore non-native to Earth.

All this made me wonder whether we couldn't be a discarded biological trash from the blind and mechanical Mother Nature's lab.  But whatever our provenance, we have survived and even thrived. We live because we have come to exist, and that's all it matters.

And in a brazen display of one-upmanship, we have returned nature's favor by showing her how to make our home livable, safer, interesting, and exciting. We have thoroughly and radically engineered and embellished our home beyond all recognition -- with just the raw materials we could scrounge in our neighborhood! And abracadabra, we have created an opulent and a well-furnished home.

It's an incredible triumph of man over nature.

*

 

When mother doesn't know best

If only Mother Nature could understand. But she couldn't, could she? The simple fact is that she doesn't even know what she has done!

You see, Mother Nature is blind, deaf, dumb, and mechanical. She only follows the mechanical laws of nature which is her "religion". You can't really blame her for anything, for Mother Nature knows not what she's doing.

That is why we can imitate, wrest secrets and learn from the mighty but mindless and machine-like Mother Nature -- and not the other way around.

*

First the bad news

If it's any comfort to us, there could possibly be other unwanted trash from Mother Nature's workplace which landed and created life elsewhere. And alarmingly, many experts think aliens couldn't be all that different from us.

And that's bad news!

The last thing you want is for aliens out there to act like us untrustworthy, whimsical, warring and two-faced humans. If aliens have got our silly and stupid messages and stopped ignoring our persistent efforts to contact them, we may be heading for a squabble and a right royal Star Wars over our clashing ambitions and civilizations one fine day.

*

 

Now the good news

But there's also good news of sorts. As far as we are aware, aliens, if they exist at all, could be light years away from our physical, and so far technological, reach. (Forget the nutters who say aliens have not only reached us but are even living among us. Wonder what kind of grass they're smoking!).

And that's good news.

Vast distances between nations and civilizations make good friends and neighbors -- just like high walls and fences. And don't we have enough troubles with nature and fellow humans to contend with?

*

 

The scary "gone" date

If all this make us feel proud, powerful and exuberant, there's an unshakeable something in our makeup that could give us a very sobering thought: our expiry dates. And there's no happy hunting ground out there somewhere to go to.

Death is the innate and inalienable property of life. The price of life is death. You can't have one without the other. Death stalks mankind from womb to tomb. Death is unavoidable -- unless you want to live inside a computer or a robot. (Dream on, devotees of immortality!)

This much is certain though: one day we may all be history -- extinct, obsolete, kaput. Mother Nature has put all her eggs in just one basket; we stick together and get fried  together. The Sword of Damocles is hanging over us. It's just a question of when it will become unstuck!.

If nukes don't finish us us all, asteroids and meteors will. When the big one comes along, we're just sitting ducks. And no one will miss us -- unmourned, unnoticed; just another unwritten chapter in the history of the universe.

In case those methods don't do their dirty job thoroughly, there are more ways to close the curtain on humanity, as some morbid researchers pointed out. (Just Google it.)

*

 

Barbarian inside

Back to the other half of us which we call "the animal within." For all his monumental accomplishments, man is sadly also a destructive creature. Man creates, man destroys -- even his gods!

As mentioned earlier, some scientists think man is a virus which could eventually lead to the destruction of this whirling ball of earth we call our home. They say only man's extinction would prevent this from happening.

But then, without man what is the Earth but an uninhabited wasteland, an unfurnished, abandoned "home" in the boondocks of the universe. Even gods cannot live without man, hah!

And who needs a virus when there are so many other ways to screw up our home and kill us all?

Some Witty Quotes

Many a true word hath been spoken in jest.
-- William Shakespeare, King Lear

A light heart lives long
-- Shakespeare

Most people die at 25 and aren't buried until they're 75.
-- Benjamin Franklin

Creditors have better memories than debtors.
– Benjamin Franklin

It has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain when awake.
 – Mark Twain

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
--  Winston Churchill

Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won’t expect it back.

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. Otherwise they'll kill you.
-- Oscar Wilde

If there were an afterlife, Isaac Asimov would have written a book about it by now.

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
-- Winston Churchill

When I came back to Dublin I was court-martialed in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
-- Brendan Behan

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
-- H. L. Mencken

When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.
-- William Wrigley Jr.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them
-- Arthur Schopenhauer

His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.
-- Mae West

Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
-- Emo Phillips

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
--  Winston Churchill

My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.
-- Jack Nicholson

Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
--  Dave Barry

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
--  Emo Philips

If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you.
-- Groucho Marx

If your plan A doesn't work, don't worry. The alphabet has 25 more letters.

Nun: Sister Augustine believes in things that aren't real.
Dr. House: I thought that was a job requirement for you people

The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative
- Winston Churchill.

War doesn’t determine who’s right. War determines who’s left.
-- Bertrand Russell

I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial.
- Irvin S. Cobb

In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.
-- Count Talleyrand

A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
-- Voltaire

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
-- Proverb

Don't spend all your money on a safe.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday
-- Don Marquis

You can tune a guitar but you can't tuna fish. Unless you play bass.

Anyone who told you that you should be yourself gave you the worst advice you've ever received.
-- Billy Wilder.

Reader, suppose you were an idiot.And suppose you were a member of congress. But, I repeat myself
-- Mark Twain.

To Haw-Haw Is Better Than To Jaw-Jaw (4)

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Hatchet man
During a slack period, a junior editor (some unkind people call them hackers and hewers) appeared to be absorbed in the "holy book" and holding a red pencil in hand. A friendly colleague smiled at him and remarked: "Nice change from boring politics, disgusting crime, bloody wars and heart-rending disaster stories, isn't it?"

"Uh, uh", said the studious young editor without taking his eyes off the book. "Actually, I'm just trying to see how much the holy book could be edited down. There's a lot of tautology, euphemisms, double entendres, sexually explicit passages, graphic depictions of horrendous behavior -- like newborns being bashed against rocks -- incitement to violence and murder, pandering unrealistic hopes and fantasies -- the list is endless.

"Who knows, I might even end up with just a paragraph or two when I'm through with it!"

*

An irony: We learn bad things from the "good book."

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A word to the wise
There's a saying that we shouldn't discuss politics, football and religion (not necessarily in that order) in order to avoid murder and mayhem. Well said.

One for the wardrobe
A cross-dresser could be someone who had received the wrong laundry bag -- and deciding to keep it!.

The guru knows best
Devotees of religions think with their gurus' brain. This saves a lot of wear and tear on their own brain tissues.
(Inspired by a similar quote on the internet)

Manimals
Man, while looking down on his fellow creatures, is constantly haunted by the striking similarity between man and beast.

It is a well-known fact that humans are the highest of the higher animals.That makes us "manimals." And we thought we were just "sheeples" led by holy shepherds wielding hooks and using sheep dogs to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Carnivores
Some people seem to think hamburgers, sausages and roast chicken grow on trees. Nice way though to not lose your appetite!

Faith is STD
Religions are sexually-transmitted cultures -- and a disease. We don't choose our religions. They are passed down by our parents who also got theirs from their parents, and so on. It's all in the family tree.

Religions belong to the fiction department. That's a fact.

Up to no good
An irony: You learn bad things from the "good books."

The "holy" books need an unholy skull and crossbones warning on the cover: "Danger -- read it at your own risk. Needs counselling after reading."  They also need a disclaimer: "The characters and events portrayed in this book are mainly a work of medieval fiction and bear no resemblance whatsoever to actual persons or events."
(Inspired by something like that on the web.)

Oh, by the way, there's also a danger you might fall off the chair laughing your guts out.

Godfellas
Bald, toupee-wearing salesmen peddling "miracle hair restorer."

A bum and dog biscuits
A bum was munching some stale, discarded dog biscuits at a garbage dump. When passers-by stared at him, he growled: "Just because it's not fit for a dog doesn't mean it's not fit for a man."

A healthy advice
Keep your body hydrated and your brain oxygenated .

To Haw-Haw Is Better Than To Jaw-Jaw (3)

To jaw-jaw is better than to war-war.
-- Winston Churchill


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Note: Hope readers realize this is sarcasm.

Wars and alliances
Wars are the last resort in your attempt to force your opponents to STFU.
Alliances are made when small bullies suck up to big bullies and form gangs.
Armed gangs keep in shape by holding "exercises" and occasional gang bangs.
World Wars happen when gang bangs go international.
Peace is when you hold a victory parade with mountains of severed heads lining the route.

Controlling overpopulation
Wars are a great partner to natural catastrophes and normal deaths since they help greatly to reduce overpopulation.

The art of rubble-making
Wars are a great way to reduce cities to a rubble or skeleton buildings so that spanking new modern cities may emerge and keep builders and tenants happy.

Testing WMDs
Wars are also a great way to test the effectiveness of your new-fangled WMDs, never mind if a few thousand innocent civilians become "collateral damage". If the weapons need some tweaking, why, just tweak it and try again --  and kill a few thousand more. Tough!

Peaceful coexistence
When weak handshakes and plastic smiles hide the burning desire to reduce the enemy country to an oil slick. 

God-forsaken commander
A commander's first words: "We don't need tanks and planes to fight a war when God is on our side."
The commander's last words: "If God is with us, who can be against us?"
A word to the wise: "God is usually on the side of big squadrons and against little ones."
-- Roger de Bussy-Rabutin

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The most dangerous WMD
Religion is a weapon of mass delusion. It is more dangerous than other kinds of WMDs since it affects billions of people all over the world.

If God created us in his image, why aren't we invisible and immaterial?

When the going gets tough, the meek gets going -- in the opposite direction.

I used to be dogmatic. Now I'm pigmatic.

An open mind: Make sure people don't put garbage in it. (from elsewhere)

Way to go
The way to a man's heart is below the belly button.
(Also came across this on the web some time ago. Seems to be an old saying. Well, great minds sometimes think alike!)

Some like it hot!
Some people like porn while others pretend to dislike it. Still others enjoy it freely and call themselves censors only doing their duty!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The unkindest cut

Religions don't even leave your family jewels alone.

Heard from a friend:
The young man limped back to his foster parents' home after visiting his biological parents. When the foster mother learned about what had happened, she cried: "They cut off his tiddlywinks. They cut off his tiddlywinks. How could they do this to my boy?" She found some cash in his pocket which they used as a bribe to overcome his resistance to initiate him into their religion.

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"I've found it!"
You don't need to climb mountains, venture into caves, or sit under a banyan tree in a forest to find truth. In fact, truth can even be found in a bathtub! Think Archimedes, think "eureka!"

Worse than snakes
There are animals, and then there are manimals -- the reputed highest of the higher animals. Local wisdom doing the rounds in animal circles say that if you come across a manimal and a snake, bite the manimal first.

Rebirth, reincarnation, life after death
One of the most common bullshit religions foist upon their moronic believers. Listen to the modern primitives  bandying about the "soul" and the "next life," or becoming a previous living being again and many dummies don't seem to have a problem about it. Others just take it as a part of a traditional myth to pay lip service, smile and carry on with the more serious business of life.

Any borrower promising to repay a $1 million bank loan in the next life could either end up under the bus or in a loony bin. Shows banks and religions just don't mix.

The Beast Called Religion

(Six facts that stick out like a sore thumb)

1. Religions are superstitions, pure and simple

Religions are a branch of superstition which itself comes under the general category of falsehood. Superstition is the ignorant man's explanation of natural phenomena.

The kindest thing one can say about religion is that it is primitive man's honest and sincere attempt to understand himself and the mysterious and terrifying world around him. That is the origin and purpose of all religions.

Religions are based on supernaturalism, a super nonsense also known as spookism in common parlance. That is religions' Achilles' Heel. Supernaturalism has not only been dismissed by our own personal experience and the long and turbulent history of mankind but also by science as an unworthy subject for inquiry.

Supernaturalism is primitive man's superstitious belief in the existence of generally invisible and immaterial superhuman beings, or spooks, such as God, gods, angels, devils, ghosts, demons, souls, spirits etc -- all cut from the same cloth -- who are believed to be responsible for everything that happens in the world.

Pop the spooks and religions don't have a leg to stand on.

2. Religions (and God, gods et al ) are as old as mankind

Man and gods are contemporaries. We belong to the same cabbage patch. We were born almost at the same time, and we grew up together. Our common father figure is the primitive man. Primitive man is the creator of man and gods -- he uses his procreation power for one, and his imagination for the other.

Thus, God is the child of man. In fact, all gods and their ilk are the children of man.

Without man there's no God -- just Mother Nature, an atheist.

Religions started off during the infancy of the human race. Gods and "spirits" were dreamed up -- naturally in an anthropomorphic manner -- and ways devised to flatter, beg and appease them by means of mantras, rituals, sacrifices and places of worship.

Born-again "I'll be back" beliefs such as rebirths and reincarnations; an afterlife with an immaterial body double, called the soul, existing beyond the grave; reward and punishment centers somewhere out there -- all these childish, primitive, silly, crazy and ludicrous ideas were also added later down the line.

Religions and gods are therefore as old as humanity.

3. Religions are cultures, not about reality

Religions are mostly traditions, customs, superstitions, myths and legends passed down and refashioned, rebranded and recycled repeatedly from generation to generation since the dawn of humanity. 

They are primitive man's culture, a way of life. Cultures hardly change much even as man's knowledge of the world around him grows by leaps and bounds. Religions are therefore a culture of superstition, an anachronism, and a relic of the past.

They have nothing to do with reality, facts, truth and reason in modern times. A mere glance at how we conduct our serious day-to-day worldly affairs clearly shows that we treat this world as a natural, spook-free one subject only to the laws of nature. 

Religions managed to hang on so far only because they have become a tradition, a custom, and a default way of life rammed down our throats by our parents, society and the men in robes -- a kind of straitjacket. The enforcement also involves ostracism, disownment, legal punishment and even murder.

Truth is the first casualty in religion -- just as in politics and war. (Me)

4. Nobody really believes in religion

No one in his right mind literally and seriously believes in religions and their ludicrous claims and commandments. Religions are simply a kind of hobby that modern man occupies himself in his spare time -- when he has nothing better to do.

The kindest thing you can say about religions in modern times is that they serve as emotional crutch and morale boosters, as well as provide a social milieu, a ceremonial and ritual game plan and a source of controversial -- and sometimes ridiculous taboos as in the avoidance of pork -- and not so well-observed morality.

People nowadays just pay lip service and go through mindless motions in order to hang on to a habit acquired during childhood. Of course they know very well what they're doing but just couldn't help it. It's like the attachment we have for our own country, language, food, music, people of our own race or ethnicity, and customs and traditions. It's also a bad habit like being addicted to drinking, smoking and gambling.

People also understand that they must "do as Romans do" to belong to the family, society and nation in which they were born and grew up. In addition, there are pressures all around him to conform -- or suffer all kinds of discrimination, intimidation, societal displeasure, and even get murdered.

Thus they play it safe by using hypocrisy and self-deception. Additionally, they cannot see any alternatives nor adjust themselves to the rational way of life free of superstition.

The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know."
-- John Heywood, English writer (c.1497 – c.1580)

5. Religions have degenerated into scams

When man grew up and became smarter, aware that religions are not cure-all and know-it-all but a primitive and superstitious way of life, religions degenerated into the longest-running mother of all scams: a multi-billion dollar showbiz.

Bells and whistles were added, such as TV shows (televangelism), stirring choirs, chants and music, grand edifices, colorful costumes and rituals, candles, flowers, incense etc. To be sure, they also engaged in charitable work, such as establishing schools and hospitals, but these acts were done mainly as a means of proselytizing people and gain religious merit.

Besides, there are thousands of minor gurus -- the godfellas, the sycophants, the propagandists -- who depend solely upon man's naivete and gullibility to run the scam. It's the only way they know how to make a living. Religion is their bread and butter and they're not going to give up without a fight, including incitement to violence.


Religions have lost their original purpose; that is, man's attempt to understand himself and the mysterious and hostile world around him. This undertaking is now in the capable hands of science, the true miracle maker. 

6. Religion is a package deal

Religions come with a heavy baggage. No cherry-picking is allowed. You take the whole shebang -- or nothing and be damned!

There are, of course, very important exceptions, such as religious sects. They have disagreed with, thumbed their noses at and fought with mother religions which branded them as apostates and outcasts -- or revisionists in political jargon. But they held their ground and are even thriving.

Here's a partial list of the unwieldy baggage of religion's childish baloney guaranteed to insult your sanity and intelligence:  imaginary beings such as God, gods, souls, "spirits" and demons; imaginary places such as Heaven, Hell and other-worldly types of Shangri-la; imaginary worlds such as life beyond the grave, or afterlife.

Furthermore, to continue with the loony list, there are wishful and ludicrous "I'll-be-back" born-again beliefs such as rebirth and reincarnation; woo-woo ideas laughed off by science; mindless faith in the charlatan gurus' omniscience, infallibility and spooky connections and shenanigans -- in fact a whole bunch of primitive, childish, silly and unalloyed nonsense.

Sure, religions have their glory days in the past contributing to civilization, literacy, music, science, art, uniting people, etc, but that's because it was one of the very limited avenues open to attain them. Times have changed and we now have a more rational, secular and systematic ways to achieve them in our march towards progress and higher stages of civilization.

A beastly affair

Yes, you can never kill the beast.

That's simply because religions, in their most general and non-specific sense, are the product of superstition. And superstition is immortal, as historians Will and Ariel Durant pointed out.

A particular religion may be killed (proscribed) or wither away but the Hydra-headed superstition will just sprout new ones in its place.

To put it succinctly, superstition is the fount of all religions, and superstitions never die. That is why you can't ever kill the beast.

***

Religions are born and may die, but superstition is immortal.
Will and Ariel Durant,  The Age of Reason Begins, 1950

If gods have DNA it would unmistakably prove that they are the children of man. (Me)

Religions are originally mankind's attempt to understand himself and the mysterious and terrifying world around him. (Me)

Truth is the first casualty in religion -- just as in politics and war. (Me)

If there were gods, how can I bear to be no god.
-- Nietzsche

God addicts: The people that religions made mad. 
Extremists: They suffer from religion overload. 
Crisis of faith: A case of religious indigestion 
Conversions: The swapping of one superstition with another 
Atheism: The right but bitter medicine to fix 'em all! 

Gods live in the deep and dark recesses of our mind. You can't get rid of them, but you can keep them mostly under control. (Me)

Most superstitions melt away under the light of science. (Me)

Science is snuffing out one superstition after another but it's a never-ending effort considering that superstitions are immortal. (Me)

To haw-haw is better than to jaw-jaw (2)

She fell in love with a cannibal -- and lost her heart and all.

*

At first he only asked for her hand -- and then helped himself to everything else after the deal was clinched.

*

A wicked-hearted loan shark threatened to beat the grave of a man with a stick to demand repayment of a debt. Crazy? Well, the debtor's relatives promptly paid up!

*

How do you pronounce "jee-oh-dee"?
Answer: Depends on whether you're reading the word from left to right or the other way around!

*

People are funny: they can believe in the wrong thing but do the right thing at the same time. Blame reality -- the self-deceiving nutter subconsciously knows you can say or believe in any baloney as long as you don't act upon it.

*

The modern way of life and death: born in a hospital, died there, buried in a landfill or roasted in an incinerator.

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The "holy book" is full of holes. No wonder cynics call it a "holey book."

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Spookist: I've seen angels.
Atheist: And I've seen God. He looked like thin air.

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Spook nutter: God created the universe.
Atheist. And Mickey Mouse created Walt Disney, Disneyland, and the universe.

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Spook addict: God created mankind
Not sure about that, but I believe babies were delivered to their parents by busy storks.

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Spook junkie: God created the universe.
Atheist: And man made it livable.

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Spook believer: I believe in Heaven and Hell
Atheist: And I believe there are 5-star hotels and rip-roaring red-light districts on Mars.

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They believe their god is like a magician, pulling ribbons and rabbits out of a tall hat! And they call that a creation -- instead of abracadabra.

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"Let there be light,'' boomed a voice. And night turned into day.
(Edison might have said that to demonstrate the magical power of his bulbs.)

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A true story: A friend says he believes in a religious spook whose feet are pointing in the opposite direction. Poor thing, I wish I could recommend a chiropodist for the spook.

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People don't suffer from venereal diseases anymore, thanks to Venus, the goddess of Love, who threatened a defamation lawsuit against the medical profession. People only get STDs now.

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Be wary of godfellas in the "House of God" -- they have a habit of pointing to the sky and picking your back pocket.

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Some people think wearing a condom is like kissing a girl with a plastic wrap over her lips. No wonder we still have overpopulation in an age of condoms!

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Everyone who survives a disaster likes to say "God spared me," never mind if 200 others, including babies and old ladies, have died.

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How do you manage 72 virgin angels?
Do they have Holy Viagra in Heaven?

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Spook addict: I believe in Heaven and Hell
Skeptic: I believe the Moon is made of cheese, and Mars of chocolate. It's part of my religion so you must respect my belief.