My Views on Religion

Written by B. L. Jilek, 20 Apr 2002.

First of all, this is only my views and opinions. This is the result
of my personal experiences and informal research throughout my life. This
document is not referencing any other person or organizations works or views
in an official manner. Perhaps someday I will include this kind of information
but I currently do not have the time for the research that this would require.

Now that thats over:

Lets start of with a simple yet to-the-point statement that sums up my
views. Religion, or mysticism as I like to refer to it, is simply a crutch
for weak people at best and a means of control or a mandate for atrocities at
worse.

Theism is relied on by the weak minded of us to fix what we cannot or
will not fix ourselves. Or to explain away that which we cannot explain
ourselves. For these people who cannot bear to stand up on their own and face
real life and all it's rewards and punishments turn to religion as a crutch
to carry them through. If something goes wrong with their lives it's explained
as "gods will" and they grovel and pray to this "supreme being" to make their
lives better for them. Instead of taking all that time they waste and working
to fix their own problems and making their lives better. This is the worse
case for most people. Many who profess to be religious are working hard to
make life better for themselves and others. This is to be commended. Many,
on the other hand, will sit years and wait for god to do this for them.
watch people, this is one of my favorite things to do, just watch people.
And some people I have watched for years. I have seen folks just sit by and
let life pass on by without ever grabbing a handhold and jumping on for the
ride. They have problems with unhappy marriages and finances and just eek
out their unhappy pitiful lives hoping that someday god will deliver them
from the madness. They waste sometimes as much as half of their weekends
gathering together, giving up some of their hard earned money, and worshiping
a mythical being steeped in blood and atrocities throughout history. Some
people I have come across spew this theism so much when you talk to them
that it's hard to keep track of what they are trying to say between sickening
references to "god".

I am an atheist. I finally came to this very UN-fettering realization
in my mid twenties. I say UN-fettering because it is very freeing and
uplifting to finally not have to feel guilty. Guilt is the mainstay of
religion. Especially the Christian religion. Feelings like "I have not
been doing well at my job because I've done something to anger god" are gone
forever. Now I can look for the reasons I am not doing well at work and
fix the problem with myself or whatever else may be causing it. Not that
I have ever been very religious. I grew up in a religious family and was
beat over the head with it when I was younger. I was like most people and
believed in the back of my head that there was a god and I had to answer
to him for everything I did. That I was baptist, in my case, and should
be going to church and praying or my life would go horribly wrong and I
may go to hell when I die. Now that I have left it behind and have started
living and enjoying the only life that I have to the fullest that I can
I am truly happy. I have been able to understand people better. I no
longer put people into categories, baptist, catholic, sinner etcetera.
I can empathize with people and my job as a supervisor has become much
easier. One of the most difficult aspects of giving up religion was to
live with real guilt. I don't mean guilt that religion sets up in you.
I mean real guilt over doing something to hurt someone physically or
emotionally. The guilt that you have to bear with no easy outlet but
to come to terms with it and attempt to make amends as best you can.
You cannot just "pray" and ask forgiveness of "god" and everything is
made good. You have to live with it every day for the rest of your life.
And this is as it should be. No easy out. Because there should never
be an easy way out for bringing harm to someone. I came to the decision
to give up the superstition and mythology after years of thought on the
subject. In my travels around the world I have sought out and talked
to people of many different religions. I have listened to their beliefs
from their point of view and I can understand. But it has led to me
not believing in religion and just believing in myself and the general
goodness of man.

Many theist people falsely believe that atheist people are evil and
even devil worshipers. This could not be further from the truth. Atheists
are usually very logical people who respect other people and their views.
They do not believe in a devil for that would require the belief in
a god. I take people on their own merits and respect their views. It
comes easy for me to understand people and what they think and how they
operate.

I have had many a discussion with "god fearing" people. One of the
things that I find most disturbing with these "god fearing" folks is their
total lack of acceptance of others and acceptance of other views or life
styles. They refuse to believe that anything other than what they believe
could be right or correct. The live and let live philosophy is nonexistent
with many of these religious people. These people who profess to love everyone
cringe and even become hostile when face to face with a homosexual. Or
even when face to face with a member of another religious belief. They
try to stifle every point of view that is not theirs. They want to
make it impossible for others to watch movies or television shows that they
do not agree with. They bomb each others churches or temples and beat and
sometimes kill each others members. They stifle scientific research and
technological advances because it's against their god. They kick a five
year old out of school because her mother is a stripper. They kick another
stripper out of college. People who are trying to earn money in order to
make their lives better. These people who profess to love children think
nothing of making a five year old girl pay for what her mother is doing.
If there ever was such a thing as 'evil' then that is truly 'evil'. Not to
even mention, what the hell is wrong with her mother working as a stripper?
From the standpoint of this Christian religion that says everyone is made
in "gods" image? These people think that the human body is dirty and
especially a woman's body is evil. That would mean that their god is
disgusting, right? If there was a hell then these people deserve every bit of it.

Religion, and in particular the Christian religion, has been the cause
of more bloodshed, persecution and suffering than any other force in history.
Christianity is based in blood and sacrifice. These people who profess to love
and help one another go to war over minor differences in each other beliefs.
Take the protestant and catholics in Ireland who are both of the same branch
of religious beliefs. They fight and kill one another over these minor
differences. Then you have the Christian's and the Muslim's or the Jew's and the
Christian's and the Muslim's. When Christianity is an extension of Judaism as
Islam is an extension of Christianity. These people are so busy trying to find
faults in other people in order to make themselves feel better about themselves
that they can't see the common good in each other. It's disgusting. Truly
disgusting.

I believe that religion was born as a means to control people. Maybe
even for a good cause. It has been used for this purpose for good or bad many
times and in many places throughout history. It has been used to subjugate
people. Women during the times of the inquisition in Europe is a good example
of this. Religion instills guilt and fear in people. Make someone feel they
are doing something wrong and will be punished in everlasting fire. Then it
instills a figure-head that you must obey. And then you have this figure-head's
representative on earth that you must follow and obey because he is speaking
for god. Now you have everyone guilty about some sin or transgression that they
have done, afraid that they may spend eternity in agony and they are at the
mercy of whatever this "priest" or "cleric" has them do in order to go to
heaven. What better reason for conquest than to "save" the people they are
conquering from burning in hell forever. What better reason for genocide than
this right?

Some of the most "evil" people I have ever met have been religious.
I have never met an atheist that believes homosexuals are disgusting people.
Maybe they don't agree with their sexual preference but they do not pass
judgment on them, discriminate against them or cause them physical or
emotional harm. I have never met an atheist that puts down someone for
being a stripper or prostitute just because of their chosen profession.
It was not an atheist that bombed an abortion clinic or flew airplanes into
the World Trade Center buildings. The KKK are professed baptists. Adolf
Hitler was a Christian. The crusaders were not made up of atheists. The
list can go on for ever. I'm not trying to say that all atheists are good
people. There are bad people everywhere. But atheists do not have the
religious motivation that provokes many on these horrible acts. Most atheists
are live and let live people. They are also good, compassionate people that
do not like to see anyone hurt.

In general, life just takes understanding. It takes the ability to
understand people with their different ways, looks, beliefs and thinking to
get ahead in life. If you can do this then you can truly have compassion
and empathy. Then you can truly help people or, if needed, just let them be.
Then you will have true freedom. There are "fake compassionate" people that
participate in things like this to prove to their religious brothers that they
are good people. Maybe they are doing good. But the motivation is all wrong
in a lot of the "good doers". I really cannot understand the lack of
compassion that some people seem to have. And religious people, who are
supposed to be compassionate as a rule, have done horrible things in the name
of the very religion that supposedly preaches the opposite. These people
have tortured and burned women at the stake in front of their babies. Who
in their right mind can practice a religion that has caused things like this?
Who in their right mind can do this to another human being?

Religion and freedom seem to be a contradiction in terms. There was
a very good reason our very wise forefathers put separation of church and state
in the constitution. If this had not been done I believe America would not be
a free country. Even now I cannot do some things because of the Christian
influence on our society. I cannot buy alcohol on Sundays in some states or
counties. This is one of the things that I should be able to do if I wanted
to. I do not practice Christianity so why am I forced to not buy alcohol on
a Sunday? One of the greatest "sins" against freedom world wide is to force
one's beliefs on others. When this silly mythology is forced on me it makes
me angry. These despicable Christian's are taking my freedom because of what
they choose to believe. Believe what you wish but do not expect me to
subscribe to your superstitions. Some folks do not try to do this and I'm
obviously not talking about these people. But for the ones who are, get a
a life and pay attention to your self and your own. Leave me out of it.
Now don't get me wrong, with all this talk about how I find religion
frankly disgusting. I still respect everyones right to believe what they wish.
The same as I respect someone's right to do anything else they wish to do. As
long as it does not negatively affect someone else. Drinking and driving is
something that I believe should be against the law and severely punished. This
is because it can kill someone else. Now if this person wants to drink himself
or herself into oblivion, go for it. Everyones right to do as they wish with
themselves or their bodies should be respected. It is their bodies after all.
Again, as long as there is no negative impact on someone else. This all is a
topic of another "My Views" however and I'll leave that stand.

When I state my view on religion to people of a religious standing I'm
usually met with anything from silence to hostility. Some just do not wish
to talk about it at all. Others come back with hostile arguments. This is
one of the aspects that gets my goat. Typical Christian's are so insecure in
their own beliefs that they cannot handle someone with different views on this.
They do not want anyone to be able to read or hear opinions contrary to their
own. The movie "The Last Testament of Christ" is a good example of this.
There was a movement to get this movie banned in the US because of it's
contradictory depiction of Jesus Christ. Why can this religion not handle
something like this? Because it's already based on such shaky ground? I
tend to think this is the case.

I once had a statement on one of my Internet profiles that said I
find religion to be just plain revolting. I had some verbal attacks on my
beliefs by Christian's through email. Some of them were very "un-Christian
like". One of them stated that they have the right to believe what they
want, this is a free country". Well, they are right of course. However, I
had said nothing about limiting anyones right to believe in a religion if
they so wished. I just stated what I thought of religion. What ever happened
to the "non-Christian's" right to believe what they wished? Maybe it's "you
have the right to believe what you want as long as it's Christianity"? This
seems to be the case. Take homosexual marriages for example. Why the hell
does the Christian community care who an individual marries? Because they
will go to hell? Give me a break. And don't even think of bringing what
that insane book called the "bible" says about this. It also has "god"
telling the "chosen people" to destroy every city they came across and kill
every man, woman and child in these cities. Do these people think genocide
is acceptable but same sex marriages are not? I can see people trying to justify
this bloodbath now. They can justify this but cannot accept same sex
marriages. Or they may say, "that was not literal". But other parts,
especially ones about practices they disagree with, are "literal"?
This is why I find this myth disgusting. It makes me want to puke.