Atheism and happiness

“The most henious and the must cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives.”  Mohandas K. Gandhi

The guy has a point. But beyond the crusades, Jihads, fanatical sect violence, the inquisition, and faith-driven terrorist attacks, religion causes most of the day to day prejudice in the world. Though the countless bloody wars that have been fought for imaginary friends may seem to be a thing of the past, people today are still dying for this shit.

When you take what guys in hats and robes tell you blindly as fact, you become severly restricted in free thinking and even in personality growth. These guys in hats, by the way, being the religious leaders who compete with one another like businessmen in a common market, trying to sell their product as the most genuine. The second you subscribe to one of these products, you rebuke the others, further dividing humanity. Why does god have to be so discriminatory? There is even division within each religion between those who interpret scripture differently or who practice with varying degrees of strictness.

I also believe religion slows down humanity as a whole, the most obvious reason for this being that some of those who died in the name of religion probably had a lot to contribute to society. But with democracy so widespread in the world, a large religious majority has an effect even on those who take no part in it. Stem cell research and other fields of study have been slowed drastically because of the opposition from believers. The evolution theory has been downplayed and hidden from children in favor of a fundamentalist teaching in places. The Catholic church, being such a large body, makes itself a lagging factor on all of humanity by taking a longer time to adjust towards tolerance than everyone else. Examples of this include racism, religious tolerance, and sexism (You have to have a penis to be a priest? Hmm?). You can see this same transition in effect today with the strong anti-homosexuality stance held by the church.

Make no mistake, I have nothing against people of religion. As people, you are just as interesting and varying as anyone else. However, I do take issues with what you believe in because in many cases which are stated above, you make it my business to do so.