Excerpt #64 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
Priests and priestesses and the like know nothing more, likely less, than any secular counselor.
They are not privy to secrets or answers to mysteries.
The documents of the Bible itself, very far from being the inspired word of ‘God’, are exceedingly human documents; and – as Dr. Eisler says … even the Gospels themselves were falsified in order to bring them into line with ‘Orthodoxy’. They are full of errors, contradictions, unbelievable statements, and are replete with ‘the precepts and doctrines of men’; not to mention errors of translation and re-translation. (Kingsland, p.36)
Many of our world wars have been caused by this phenomenon we know as “religion”.
Why should religions be allowed to corrupt and intoxicate people’s minds causing so much physical and emotional harm?
Should religious claims be analyzed for accuracy by impartial judges?
Why should religions not be subject to as much public scrutiny and investigation as any other phenomenon?
Should religions not be scrutinized because much of them are based on “faith?”
What does that mean exactly?
That one can get away with any preposterous claim if it is based on faith?
Should religious claims be subject to legislation?
That would be quite a spectacle; politicians debating religious claims!
We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. – Bertrand Russell