Perhaps the argument that there is or is not an actual god is somewhat misplaced. God is most often placed in the minds of men as a substitute for the fear and lack of understanding brought on my things we do not understand. It also is a banding of the brotherhood of those too stupid or uncaring to study that of which they know little about or are frightened by. Snakes, poison frogs, earthquakes, fire, and other dangerous natural wonders promoted this original god concept. "It can't hurt me if I worship it".

Whether I am intelligent enough to understand it or not, I am afraid, so I have learned from my ancestors to make the appropriate supplications that I hope will keep the demon black pig from brutally attacking me. Such is the original cry of the worshipers in forest tribes where white man has not brought their special sins of Catholicism or Christanism for others to suffer under.

However you dish it, pan it, seal the vice, or push bad religion, it's all the same. Our group hates your group because you don't like our god. C'mon man... get into the information age. Goddites have been responsible for nearly every war...and for sure the bloodiest ones. Is this your god? Perhaps you chase another beleif? What difference does it make when the head on your wall matches that of the other tribe.

Now, instead of taking the belief road, how about opening your mind and dropping your foolish superstitious beliefs while you look with open eyes for the truth. Truth seekers have no wars because they don't have idols to protect. If you discover a truth, they will be happy to hear it from you so they can evaluate it in private and return to you a small gift, an improvement on your initial hypothesis. No stealing, no demanding, no greed, no desire for power, just a simple but intense search for reality.

Where is their god? Isn't one... Don't need the crutch cause he's got a brain. A difficult thing to develop unless you carefully choose an intelligent atheist wife and raise children so they can learn and don't fear the idiot bead pushers.

Yes, I am absolutely down on religion. It holds us in the dark ages and is 100% folly. Strange how few have the brains and the whavos to admit that religion is little more than a large stupid club of idiots.

Could I invoke a law it would ban all religion. Those caught worshiping a book or a stone or a ghost would have to report for two years of incarceration in an atheist camp where the good folks would politely wash that bullshit from betweeen your ears, open your mind, and teach you to say "What's that?" then how to find out.

Best way to state it is that religion is like a huge red nipple where people who need attachments over understanding can suckle away in public. There you could look as silly as you do in church.

I love to open a church door, walk inside, and facing the preacher, go into my understanding of the five contenders for the job of Jesus, and when completed, ask it that would change anything if Asklepios got the job, or maybe Hercules or the very popular Dionysos. Of course not they say, they would still worship Jesus. Bullshit! I say. Jesus could have finished fourth or fifth in this popularity contest. You wouldn't even know of him--just as you had not considered these others who demonstrated similar miracles. But think? Not these religious guys. They are fine as they are. They know where they stand now and who they hate--also, they got their big dumb gang to cover their back. Thinking is more than hard, it's scary too.

Somehow, they are better off dead and He, he,.he...with their idiot fucking god.

Even if I use my best powers of logic and consider the relative sizes and shapes of solar matter to be little more than more visible atoms of a much greater scale, perhaps we are children of a god...of sorts. This universe might just make the atomic level construction of a small part of our god. Maybe we exist to be a small part of his anal spinctor and our position is to tighten that spinctor so we don't get shit-on. Then we would really be doing our job for god, wouldn't we.

Think about prayer... What a bunch of crock! I once prayed every day for a new Cadillac. Prayed and prayed and prayed--every day, every night, all the living day and half the night for twenty six years steady. And, my belief was strong too. Damn strong. Did god give me a Cadillac? No, I had to drive a broken VW bus. Now you tell me about the power of prayer? Hmmmm? Bunch of crap. I tried and I guarantee that god crap is bullshit for suckers in the second gang. The damn catholics are the first gang--get 'em!

[name deleted]
Proud former methodist minister.

You know, I really hate letters like this. They sound like a rally cry to some atheists, they reaffirm some theists' preconceptions about atheist intolerance, and they don't convince anyone of anything. If your point was to let off some steam, you met it well -- but any larger point got buried in the process.

Let's look at a few things here.

You start off by saying that religion is a substitute for fear and lack of understanding. You then say that it's a mark of people "too stupid or uncaring to study that of which they know little about or are frightened by." So are you saying that if people do not understand modern scientific explanations for the universe they are either stupid or willfully ignorant? That's a pretty broad statement -- particularly since some of these issues (how life began, what set off the big bang, some details of evolution) are still debated by scientists themselves. I wouldn't call someone who doesn't understand how the big bang could have started stupid.

I also wouldn't call someone stupid just because they feared death. Or had a feeling that "there just has to be something out there". These are common emotions, and I'd say it's a bit arrogant to look down on those who can't easily get over them.

And what if someone was, say, a minister and then had a change of heart and became an atheist. Would you say that such a person was stupid but got better and isn't stupid anymore? If so, I think you need to reexamine the definitions of "stupid" and "ignorant."

You say, "Goddites have been responsible for nearly every war...and for sure the bloodiest ones." Well, yes, most of the people involved in war are religious, but then most people are religious. But are you saying that religion has caused most wars? Even in modern times? World War I, Vietnam -- both pretty big and, I think, not terribly religious. Going back through American history, I can't think of a lot of wars that were really about religion. World War II had a gigantic religious element (obviously), but I would argue that if persecution of the Jews hadn't been available, Hitler would have come up with another rallying cry for his insanity. And I don't think the U.S. put Japanese Americans in internment camps because of their religion.

"Truth seekers have no wars because they don't have idols to protect." If I recall correctly, Marx also thought that removing religion would help remove the impetus for greed and violence, but I don't think the Soviet Union invaded a lot of countries in God's name. You sound like you think there are no atheists in prison, and I don't think you'd want to have to defend that point.

"Don't need the crutch cause he's got a brain." Very nice. And you follow that up with, "A difficult thing to develop unless you carefully choose an intelligent atheist wife" -- thanks for implying that whomever you are speaking to is male and that it's the man who does the choosing in a relationship.

Yes, religion can hold back progress. Yes, it can perpetuate ignorance. But saying that it's "100% folly" is, again, overly broad. There are benefits to religion for some people, and I wouldn't call them stupid for valuing ceremony, community, culture, or tradition.

Outlawing religion? Do you really think such a thing would be moral? Is it any more moral than legislating the "correct" religion or requiring that everyone at least have some kind of religion?

After some more bitterness, you end with a complaint that prayer is stupid because you prayed for a Cadillac and didn't get it. Can't you come up with a better argument than that? I doubt that there are a whole lot of religious people who would say with conviction, "anyone who prays for a Cadillac gets one!" It's a complete straw man.

You close with, "The damn catholics are the first gang--get 'em!" What's with singling out Catholics? You mention or refer to them several times. I'd think that you'd want to first go after, say, a religious group that blows innocent people up in God's name. Or maybe one that was trying to get laws passed to insert religion into science classes. Catholics just don't appear near the top of my list of religions that need to be changed ASAP.

To sum up, your letter makes you sound like you have a lot of personal issues with religion and are letting them interfere with your thinking. I don't think you are truly examining the issue from everyone's perspective, but instead appear to be looking down upon those you disagree with from a position of assumed superiority. Frankly, the over-the-top language and ranting does nothing to give me confidence in your intellectual rigor and makes you sound -- I hesitate to even use the word -- stupid.

Sorry about that.