Religon

Religion is not inherently evil. I don't think God deserves to be called a 'delusion' as Richard Dawkins does. The vast majority of humanity identifies with some religious faith, and they have good reason. Religion has for centuries tried to answer those final questions for the human mind: Why are we here? Where are we going? Is there a deeper purpose?

So indeed those who turn to religion aren't generally out to be intolerant, kill people, cause strife or harm to anyone. Its not really important that science disproves god. Science serves humanity. Humanity has a desire for meaning and understanding and many find that in a God. All science can do is be true to its mission of truth seeking, at explaining reality through evidence. Perhaps this is all that needs to be said on the topic of religion, but these two paragraphs are really a cop-out.

I find the whole matter of a divine God ugly. How is it that I am not divine? Why are imperfections everywhere treated as imperfections if a perfect God created them? I don't feel esteem for this perfect figure that is apparently separated from everything else by its perfections.

Then there is the matter of all of God's prophets being arrogant, self-centered, power hungry men. Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, L Ron Hubbard; whoever, they are all arrogant men. Does it seem only coincidental that in male dominated societies the only prophets 'chosen' by god were men? Does it seem odd that the largest religions in the world rely on ancient stories for their divinity? Why hasn't someone arrived to lead the oppressed people of the world today to their promised land?

The next thing about most religions that is unpalatable to me, and that is indeed illogical, is the concept of eternal afterlife. I think the well known Muslim story is most humorous in this respect. Most people know that a martyr of Mohammad gets 70 virgins when they go to heaven for eternal happiness. Well damn, 70 virgins sounds nice. That's like being on a commuter flight filled with virgins all to yourself. Then one thinks about the time scale of it, and one gets the suspicion that a horny but rather stupid 6th grader has been writing scripture for Islam.

70 virgins over 70 years would be pretty nice. One per year, yeah that'd be sweet. 70 virgins over 700 years, that'd be OK I guess. I mean one new one every 10 years, I'm well above that pace here on earth but it ain't to bad. How about 70 virgins over 70,000,000 years? well damn, thats not that much fun, I need to wait a million years between virgins? Its pure stupidity from the culture that invented algebra. Any finite number of anything over an infinite number of years leads to an average of exactly ZERO virgins per year.

Ultimately , I find it tragic that people are wasting the gift of such amazing fortune that atoms, molecules and elements arranged through natural processes to allow them to feel joy, hope, love and all the other emotions of humanity. There's no reason god had to do it. Live in the moment, who cares if we are a cosmic speck of dust with utter insignificance. Live for beauty, wonder, passion, humanity. Who needs anything more than that?