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.