Now I realize that there really is no way to insult religion without also insulting the people who follow that particular religion, but I have some serious qualms with religion. I have grown up in a Christian household for most of my life, so I believe that I have the legitimacy to critique certain aspects of religion.
First of all, I have an issue with the whole concept of heaven and hell. I remember when I was a child, in Sunday School, I was told that everyone who did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God would be condemned to an eternity of condoned torture known as Hell that makes Guantanamo Bay look like the candy factory. So suppose that I was a decent person, but I have a fairly minute disagreement with God, namely, let's say, and I do believe this, that Jesus never existed, and that he is not the Son of God. If the former premise is true, then the latter is a moot point. I hold the following position: if there were adequate, plausible evidence that established the existence of Jesus, I would be inclined to believe it. However, since there is not, with much of the supposed evidence being refuted when it was realized that many of the writings that were used to prove his existence were fraudulent interpolations., I think that my lack of belief is a rational position.
Also, there is just the fact that I have never believed in Jesus. The whole story was not credible to me, even when I was a young child. For a fairly long period in my life, I was tormented by the fact that people around me believed in Jesus, and because I did not, I would go to Hell. Now, I'm completely confused because there is no evidence to corroborate the existence of Hell (or Heaven). I mean, if dead people could be resurrected, then maybe they could attest to its existence, but since not, we have no way of knowing. And then, there is just the simple fact that Heaven is not a pleasant place to be. The way Heaven was always presented to me was a place where time did not exist and God would be worshiped forever. I'm sorry, but that sounds like slavery to me. There is no way, and I reiterate, no way, I will want to worship at the altar of anyone's feet. I don't even like myself that much to just worship and exult myself.
This is just my personal belief. I believe that God, Heaven, and Hell are just projections of our desires. We want to be perfect. We strive for perfection, and we believe that this means that we have to be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, etc. However, there is no such thing as perfection, and even if there were, we have no model to emulate. There is also the contradiction, that while we perceive God to be perfect, we endow him with human qualities, such as jealousy, presumably because the human experience is the only one we can relate to. We feel that if we have all these qualities, then we will be more secure and have more control over our lives. The key aspect of religion is control, which is rooted in our desire for security. We not only want control over ourselves, but we want control over others as well. We want to control others' behavior so that we can control how they behave towards us and affect out quality of life.
I think as humans evolved, we began to feel more insecure, more conscious of our mortality and vulnerability. Like a mother protects her infant, so a God protects his children. It is human to want to feel secure and feel like someone will take care of you. We like to have a safety net. And what better way for a safety net to be than omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. What better safety net than one who callously and brutally destroys your enemies. No one will want to mess with you then! God's wrath, more powerful than any nuclear weapon.
And then there arises the problem of bad things happening to good people, and vice-versa. We want to feel that there is a purpose to everything, that there is a reason for suffering. So we say, well, if you believe in this person and follow his teachings, then after you die, you will go to this magical place where there will be no more suffering, and if not, you will be punished beyond comparison. We like to feel self-righteous, and we like to feel that if we are good, we will be rewarded. A problem with this is that so many people focus on the illusory dreams of a no-suffering afterlife, we neglect the present, the only thing we can be really certain of. And of course, if someone wrongs us, we feel vindicated that they will be condemned. Personally, it's a bit childish, but who said that all humans must be mature?
Another problem I have with religion is just the appearance of purpose. Ever since the beginning of time, we have always wanted to discover the purpose of life, so many religious people say, 'Well, we are alive to praise God in his infinite glory, ' or something along those lines. My issue is this : not only is this completely unappealing, it's slavery, and it's letting someone or something predefine your purpose. Others are a bit better, 'Well, we are here to make the world better for other people.' The flaw with this belief is that it is dependent on the existence of people, but doesn't explain why we were created. We should just be honest. No one really knows. And that's fine. The problem arises when people attempt to impose their beliefs on others, and this is inevitable. Most religions need to gain adherents, or else they will die out. Religions have to recruit, many times forcefully. This is why religion is notorious for violence. I wouldn't be so hostile to religion if it were relatively nonviolent, but so many people have been killed in the name of religion. If it were mainly a preference, no problem, but religion had demonstrated a fundamental aspect of human nature. It is a testament to our fear of the unknown and our fear of our demise.
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