Abandon Religion
Abandon Religion
By Punkerslut
Why Abandon Religion?
It is so commonly believed today that religion is a source of
goodness and charity for so many people. It is also believed
that to oppose religion is also to oppose the goodness and
charity stipulated to be with it. When I ask others to abandon
religion, they will reply, “Why would you want to abandon
something that has produced so many helpful things?” But I am
not asking people to give up the affectionate and tender ways,
laced with gentleness and humanity. I am not asking that they
give up mercy or justice, things which are just as easily
attainable without religion, if not easier. I am asking people
to give up their fear of hell and daemons, their belief in a
soul and ghosts, their hope of an afterlife and a god, the
creeds founded on the credulous superstitions of their
ancestors. I am not asking the human species to relinquish the
things that are good and accompany every warm heart — I am
asking the human species to ameliorate the ideology that a god
exists that will punish nonbelievers and reward believers, that
will smile at the sufferings of the damned and fortunes of the
saved. I am asking others to abandon religion, which has been a
never-ending source of intolerance for those who have harnessed
any sort of bigotry.
There may be those who persist in the assertion that religion
is inseperable from goodness, and goodness from religion. Would
any religionist be honest to state that without god, they would
allow themselves to be heartless and brutal — to become the
epitome of savage behavior, of unspirited meanness and sincere
hatred? Would anyone who called themselves close to god, and
with good intentions, if this individual were to suddenly
discover that there was no god, would they find themselves to be
less considerate, less hopeful, less charitable? If any
religious person can honestly say yes to this, then it would
only be right to be suspicious of the claim that they are
hopeful, kind, or charitable now. God, this mythical being who
lives apart from the physical world, and his existence are only
questions of science: he either exists or he does not. If he did
not exist, it would hardly deprive anyone of ethical or moral
behavior. If a city, a road, a mountain, a lake, or a natural
formation did not exist that we had believed to exist, at
discovering this, would we abandon all humaneness and all forms
of goodness? Only those who had reveled in hypocrisy and deceit
can truly say so. There is nothing innately special of the
mythical beings called gods that means their existence gives
privilege to moral behavior.
There are, though, the genuine claims that we should not
abandon religion on the grounds that religion has portrayed a
truthful and honest view of the world. Though this claim made be
made on the foundation that we ought to pursue the truth, it
often fails short of that, because religion has universally been
the opponent to investigation and inquiry. There have been times
and eras where the church had disallowed the public from reading
or writing, and had made it punishable by death to be found with
a Bible written in local languages. In 391, Christians burned
down one of the world’s greatest libraries in Alexandra, said to
have housed 700,000 scrolls. [The New Columbia Encyclopedia, 61,
and Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade.] The tale of Galileo
should not need repeating, but perhaps the tale of Giordano
Bruno or Francisco Ferrer need repeating. Though Galileo was
only threatened with death for his claims, Giordano Bruno was
burned to death for his ideas in 1600 and Francisco Ferrer was
shot to death for his beliefs in 1909 — both executed by the
Roman Catholic Church. Giordano Bruno, the great thinker, and
Francisco Ferrer, the great educator; a day does not go by where
their grave loss is mourned by Rationalists and Humanitarians
world wide. Gregory the Great had the library of Palatine Apollo
burned “lest its secular literature distract the faithful men
from the contemplation of heaven.” [Barbara G. Walker, The
Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper
& Row, 1983) 208.] The history of Christianity and organized
religion runs parallel to the history of oppression and slavery.
Examination and inquiry have been restrained, and this can be
found in the evidences that every historian ought to be well
aware of. Even today, we find the same radical fanatics, burning
Harry Potter books, and on the same exact claim that it will
deprive children of the religion of Christianity. We also find
Christian fanatics working to ban books in public libraries,
including works by Mark Twain, J. D. Salinger., and Maya
Angelou, sometimes on the exact claim that these works are
“unChristian.”
But asside from the fact that religion tends to disallow
Freethought and investigation, inquiry and science, can it at
all be permitted to call itself truth? As well as having a long
history of suppressing honest and sincere attempts at sciennce
and truth, religion is also founded on superstition and myth.
When man did not understand the origin of the rainbow, he
postulated that it had divine origin. When man did not
understand the origin of the human female, he made the same
claim. When man did not understand anything that was of natural
phenomena, he often times ran to the easy and simple belief that
it was created from a god or a spirit or a ghost. Even beyond
that, though, the evidences and claims of religion are
synonymous with many cultural myths. As I have discussed in
other works, Santa Claus and god both have a remarkable amount
of similarities: both are mystical beings, both live far away,
both have no evidence, both are only believed because they are
taught by community and elders, both have not been demonstrated,
both have supernatural powers, among an enormous amount of other
similarities. But if one is not content to believe that a man
exists who delivers billions of presents to children on one
night of the year, then why would one be content to believe that
a man exists who delivers billions of souls to heaven or hell?
Upon the hundreds and hundreds of fallacies and errors, we find
that religion itself is something deprived of both merit and
science. It has, for ages, worked against the instruments of
truth, often times denying the population the right to think and
believe as they wish. We also find that the foundation for the
belief in religion is identical to the foundation for the belief
in many cultural myths which have also been abandoned. There is
little truth to be found in religion, once an open-minded
investigation has been allowed to examine its institutes.
Instead of finding a realistic and open-minded viewpoint of the
world, we find flaws, oppression, ignorance, and a sizable
amount of cruelty.
Only a small investigation into the real world would allow us
to discover that many individuals put much stock into the
institute of religion. If we were a free and intelligent people,
without the tyranny of a Capitalist class and government
defending them, people would put less concentration into the
things unseen and put such focus onto the real, materialistic
world. Instead of investing in prayers, people would be offering
their kindest and warmest affections to those around them. We
would not build churches, but homes — we would not ask the gods
for forgiveness for our actions, but those we harmed — we would
not pray for things to happen, but make them happen — we would
not rely on the superstitious myths that have guided so many to
bigotry, or rely on the unseen to do what we must do for
ourselves, or praise anything that was nothing more than an idol
representing cruelty and misguided violence. If a man reserves
his love for a god and for angels, he simultaneously deprives
love from those around him. By giving our kindness and
affection, our sincerest dreams and hopes, desires and
aspirations, to this being without evidence, we are losing focus
of the one thing that we do know: our lives. And by losing focus
on our lives, and those around us, we are ignoring the one thing
that we know for sure: that we, as material beings, do exist,
and that we are capable of feeling joy and suffering. To ignore
this is the greatest of ignorances, and the most grave of all
follies.
Tolerance and Acceptance
If there was a god, I would make only one prayer to him: That
his followers would follow truth over scripture, benevolence
over cruelty, science over myth; to ask his followers to be more
focused and concentrated on the things that exist — their
lovers, their family, their children, their friends — to uphold
truth as beautiful, and kindness as sincerity. There is no other
prayer I could give to such a deity ruling over our Universe. If
I were to make such a prayer, though, it may very well be that
such a god would ask him followers to turn against him. That
would only be so, however, only if the god that exists was the
one of a popular Monotheistic religion. Such gods tend to be
described by their scripture as vicious and unrelenting in their
pursuits to control mankind to devious ends.
Religion and its followers have embraced intolerance and have
called it duty and reverence to their lord. Though the disciples
of the cross have managed to do everything in their power to
destroy liberty and happiness, I would be the last man on this
Earth to say that nobody should be allowed to be a disciple of
the cross, or a follower of any religion. It has been the custom
of religion to oppose freedom of thought, but I certainly cannot
oppose this freedom in any form. Whether a man desires to be a
Christian or an Atheist, a Buddhist or a Hindu, it is their own
decision. It is their actions, and not their beliefs, that ought
to be monitored. My belief that everyone should be entitled to
their belief (as well as beliefs about beliefs) is not derived
from the idea that we should not be like those we oppose.
Rather, it is formed from the idea that everyone deserves the
right to believe as they wish, to consider and investigate for
themselves, that power lies within the individual, and even more
deeper, because I believe in humane and fair treatment, I
believe in justice and compassion. Those are the reasons that
are behind my belief in the right to think and believe as one
wishes.
There are some Christians who I have heard say, “I will not
speak to that man or deal with that man unless he is a
Christian.” There are also many Christians who speak of myself
as though I am the first Atheist to walk this planet. But as
well as speaking of me with that harsh, grave tone, they have
systematically made up lies about myself, claiming that I hate
all who claim to be Christians. It seems impossible to some of
the followers of the divine for Atheists or Agnostics, or any
infidel or heretic, to hold charity and mercy as good values. It
may sometimes even be considered unfulfilling to aid an
nonbeliever in any way, to offer them any sort of affection or
kindness, to give them the fruits of a warm heart. But whether
someone believes that a god exists or not, or in any religion,
there will be one fact about that person that will not waver my
humane treatment of them: that they are a conscious being, that
they can feel pain and suffering or joy and happiness, that
touching their skin gently will produce feelings and emotions of
security and happiness. This is something that will not be
erased, no matter what creeds an individual professes to
believe, no matter what ideologies an individual follows.
The Purpose of a Rationalist Humanitarian
My purpose is not to turn every man an woman into an Atheist or
an Agnostic. Such a proposal would be impractical and difficult
to obtain, at best. My purpose is to offer humane and rational
solutions in comparison to the brutal and dogmatic solutions
offered by others. I would like to convince the clergy and the
ministry to teach their youth how to respect each other, and not
how to respect god. I would like to convince those who believe
in religion that there is no hell. I would like to convince
religionists that there is no need to cry in fear of god’s
punishment, that if there is a god, he is merciful and just.
Offering all of the kindness and affection that can be mustered
from a sincere heart, I would like to offer the world all I can
to make it a better place for everyone to live. To maximize
happiness, to teach people how to treat each other warmly and
thoughtfully, to teach them how to think rationally and
logically, to teach them tolerance and acceptance, beauty and
love, duty and kindness… This is my purpose as a Rationalist
and a Humanitarian.
www.punkerslut.com
For Life, Punkerslu
Punkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has been writing essays and poetry
on social issues which have caught his attention for several
years. His website www.punkerslut.com provides a complete list
of all of these writings. His life experience includes
homelessness, squating in New Orleans and LA, dropping out of
high school, getting expelled from college for “subversive
activities,” and a myriad of other revolutionary actions.
