Here are thoughts about Religion by some fairly dumb people Part One:
“Religion . . . comprises a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find in an isolated form nowhere else but in amentia, in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion.” Sigmund Freud
“Religious creeds encourage some of the craziest kinds of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and favor severe manifestations of neurosis, borderline personality states, and sometimes even psychosis.” Albert Ellis
“I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind.” H. L. Mencken
“Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion – several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven.” Mark Twain
“The great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights . . . not only for acquiescence in poverty, inequality, exploitation and oppression, but also for enthusiastic justifications for slavery, persecution, abandonment of small children, torture, and genocide. . . . Moreover, religion enshrined hierarchy, authority, and inequality. . . . It was the age of equality that brought about the disappearance of such religious appurtenances as the auto-da-fe and burning at the stake.” Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
“There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as the Dark Ages.”
Ruth Hurmence Green
“Not material or economic conditions in the ordinary sense, but perverse religious ideas explain the suspension of civilization in Europe from the 5th to the 12th century, and in the Mohammedan world after the 15th century.” Joseph McCabe
“Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.” George Washington
“For more than three thousand years men have quarreled concerning the formulas of their faith. The earth has been drenched with blood shed in this cause. . . .” Felix Adler
“[M]ore wars have been waged, more people killed, and more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history. The sad truth continues in our present day.” Charles Kimball
“Religion is the brainchild of fear, and fear is the parent of cruelty. The greatest evils inflicted on humankind are perpetrated not by pleasure-seekers, self-seeking opportunists, or those who are merely amoral, but by fervent devotees of religion.”Emmanuel Kofi Mensah
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal
“As editor of the largest newspaper in West Virginia, I scan hundreds of reports daily . . . and I am amazed by the frequency with which religion causes people to kill each other. It is a nearly universal pattern, undercutting the common assumption that religion makes people kind and tolerant.” James Haught
“When I hear from people that religion doesn’t hurt anything, I say, really? Well besides wars, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, 9-11, ethnic cleansing, the suppression of women, the suppression of homosexuals, fatwas, honor killings, suicide bombings, arranged marriages to minors, human sacrifice, burning witches, and systematic sex with children, I have a few little quibbles. And I forgot blowing up girl schools in Afghanistan.” Bill Maher
“The man who is always worrying about whether or not his soul would be damned generally has a soul that isn’t worth a damn.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 at 1:37 PM and filed under Articles. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.
2 Responses to “Here are thoughts about Religion by some fairly dumb people Part One:”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Did Michael bring you on board solely to bash religion? LOL.
”More wars have been waged, more people killed, and more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history. The sad truth continues in our present day.”
I have already pointed out that this is patently false.
“The greatest evils inflicted on humankind are perpetrated not by pleasure-seekers, self-seeking opportunists, or those who are merely amoral, but by fervent devotees of religion.”
Similarly, I have pointed out that the “greatest evils inflicted on humankind” were those inflicted by Lenin, Stalin and Mao – all committted atheists. The Crusades killed perhaps 250,000. Lenin killed 9 million, Stalin 40 million, Mao over 20 million. Not even close.
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
Really? So how does every mass murdering psycho whose names we all know – Dalmer, Gacy, Bundy et al – fit in, since not only did they NOT do their evil from religious conviction, but they were not even religious men?
“I am amazed by the frequency with which religion causes people to kill each other. It is a nearly universal pattern, undercutting the common assumption that religion makes people kind and tolerant.”
The presumption here is fallacious: religion is not meant to “make” people be “kind and tolerant.” Anyone can self-proclaim anything, including faith and religion. The question is whether one actively attempts to live within the precepts of that particular belief system. A self-proclaimed Christian is not “Christian” at all if s/he picks up a gun and murders someone.
Peace.
Posted on 09-Feb-12 at 7:20 pm | Permalink“What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof”
Did Michael bring you on board solely to bash religion? LOL.
I am not even an atheist so much as an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually true…. There may be people who wish to live their lives under cradle-to-grave divine supervision, a permanent surveillance and monitoring. But I cannot imagine anything more horrible or grotesque.
About bashing religion: NO ACTUALLY I JUST LIKE TO MIX IT UP. I’VE BEEN DOIN THAT SINCE I FIRST MET MICHAEL BACK IN 1969.
”More wars have been waged, more people killed, and more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history. The sad truth continues in our present day.”
I have already pointed out that this is patently false.
I THINK YOU NUMBERS ARE IMPRESSIVE-I AM NOT SURE THEY ARE ACCURATE OR COMPLETE, BUT THE ACTUAL NUMBERS ARE INCONSEQUENTIAL TO THE REASON BEHIND THEM-THE BIGOTRY, THE HATRED, ISN’T THERE ENOUGH OF THIS?
“The greatest evils inflicted on humankind are perpetrated not by pleasure-seekers, self-seeking opportunists, or those who are merely amoral, but by fervent devotees of religion.”
Similarly, I have pointed out that the “greatest evils inflicted on humankind” were those inflicted by Lenin, Stalin and Mao – all committted atheists. ‘COMMITTED ATHEIST” THERE IT IS AGAIN- A LABEL BASED ON A RELIGIOUS POINT OF REFERENCE. The Crusades killed perhaps 250,000. Lenin killed 9 million, Stalin 40 million, Mao over 20 million. Not even close. IAN-THE CRUSADES ARE STILL GOING ON TODAY-YOU THINK THAT 9/11 WASN’T A RESULT OF THE CONTINUING HATRED-UNFOUNDED AS IT MAY BE, BETWEEN EASTERN AND WESTERN RELIGIONS?!
Now is as good a time as ever to revisit the history of the Crusades, or the sorry history of partition in Kashmir, or the woes of the Chechens and Kosovars. But the bombers of Manhattan represent fascism with an Islamic face, and there’s no point in any euphemism about it. What they abominate about ‘the West,’ to put it in a phrase, is not what Western liberals don’t like and can’t defend about their own system, but what they do like about it and must defend: its emancipated women, its scientific inquiry, its separation of religion from the state. Loose talk about chickens coming home to roost is the moral equivalent of the hateful garbage emitted by Falwell and Robertson, and exhibits about the same intellectual content
I AM SURE YOU KNOW THIS BUT FOR ALL OF THOSE READERS OF THIS ONGOING ARGUMENT WHO DON’T:
If there is an explicit biblical explanation for this animosity, it goes all the way back to Abraham. The Jews are descendants of Abraham’s son Isaac. The Arabs are descendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael.
SO THE STORY GOES THAT SARAH COULDN’T HAVE CHILDREN-SHE TELLS ABRAHAM TO ‘LAY WITH HAGAR’ THE SLAVE, HE DOES-SHE HAS ISHMAEL. THEN LOW AND BEHOLD, SARAH GETS PREGNANT, HAS ISAAC AND CONVINCES OLD ABRAHAM (WHO BY THE WAY IS SOME 400 YEARS OLD) TO KICK THEM OUT. (Genesis 16:1-16) (Genesis 21:1-3), (Genesis 21:9), (Genesis 21:11-21). (Genesis 16:11-12).
IT IS BULLSHIT-IT IS HATRED BY FANTASY-IT GIVES BOTH SIDES PERMISSION TO KILL. AND IT’S BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER 5,000 YEARS!
THIS IS PATENTLY EVIL-THAT IS WHAT IS SO DESTRUCTIVE OF THIS ‘HOLY’ BOOK. IT IS NOT SO MUCH WHAT IS WRITTEN (AND WHAT IS WRITTEN IS INSANE) BUT IT IS ALSO HOW FALLIBLE, GULLIBLE, UNINTELLIGENT HUMANS MANIPULATE THESE WRITING TO THEIR OWN ADVANTAGE-WHETHER IT WAS THE CHURCH THROUGHOUT THE AGES OR TV EVANGELISTS. IT PROMOTES BIGOTRY AND PREJUDICE AND IT GIVES BOTH THE PERMISSION TO DO SO-
Look, it must be stated plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody-not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms-had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion, and one would like to think-though the connection is not a fully demonstrable one-that this is why they seem so uninterested in sending fellow humans to hell
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
Really? So how does every mass murdering psycho whose names we all know – Dalmer, Gacy, Bundy et al – fit in, since not only did they NOT do their evil from religious conviction, but they were not even religious men? GOOD POINT-NOT EVERY NUT IS MOTIVATED BY RELIGION. THAT IS TRUE. BUT ALLOT OF NUTS COME OUT OF THAT CAN!
I MEAN HERE IS ANOTHER PERFECT EXAMPLE OF PAINTING THE WRONG PICTURE BASED ON CONNECTION TO A RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT: How close are we to her being sainted?
“[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction”
Sick.
“I am amazed by the frequency with which religion causes people to kill each other. It is a nearly universal pattern, undercutting the common assumption that religion makes people kind and tolerant.”
The presumption here is fallacious: religion is not meant to “make” people be “kind and tolerant.”
Mid-1800’s estimates reported 80,000 slaves owned by Presbyterians, 225,000 by Baptists and 250,000 by Methodists. Anglicans probably owned most of the rest of the nearly 4 million blacks held in serfdom in the United States at the outbreak of the Civil War. The slave trade flourished with the approval of the Church, and in Britain and America it was the established churches that fought most vigorously against abolition. . . . Bible texts . . . were used constantly to support slavery. Opponents of slavery, including Wilberforce and Paine, were savagely attacked by the churches for presuming to know better than the Bible, and the antislavery attitude of the Quakers made them unpopular with orthodox Christians. Wilberforce . . . complained that his supporters were nonconformists and atheists, while church people generally opposed him
Anyone can self-proclaim anything, including faith and religion. The question is whether one actively attempts to live within the precepts of that particular belief system. A self-proclaimed Christian is not “Christian” at all if s/he picks up a gun and murders someone. NO, THE PROBLEM WITH RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION IS THAT IT PROVIDE PERMISSION TO THINK AND FEEL BAD THINGS TOWARD OTHER THAT DON’T HAPPEN TO AGREE WITH YOU.
Posted on 10-Feb-12 at 2:06 pm | PermalinkOne last really important point here:
“Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.”