Religion isn’t bad, it is words in a book just like Harry Potter. It is how it is applied. Good men can take a religious book and do good things and bad do bad. Yet both will say they did it in the name of the creator. God had nothing to do with it of course, humanity had everything to do with it. Humanity is capable of greatness, generosity, compassion, and spirituality. Humanity is also capable of great destruction and hate. I guess you could say that religion is like a gun. Neither one will kill someone on its own but put into the wrong hands it can be lethal. It can also be used to keep peace on its terms to a degree but there is always some threat such as soul goes to hell or a bullet. For those who use it as a private matter and don’t inflict their views on others through government control, oppressive means, apartheid, injustice or death, I have no problems with it. I dislike people who stick their head in the sand to the atrocities outlined in all these books and make excuses for them. Those who try to justify such things as murder, rape, torture, apartheid, hatred for not believing in Islam, Judaism , Christianity or the big bad cause. All of which has been done or is being done in the listed religions. I dislike people who lie about their religion, cherry pick it as if horrors or injustices didn’t or currently doesn’t exist. I have no problems with most religious sects practiced in the civilized areas of the world to an extent as they have been forced to face most of their issues on violence and have thrown out the biggest atrocities by not giving it any weight. They have accepted that the doctrine has this violence and it should not be adhered to. A few are now going through another transition to level the gender apartheid as a means to stop the violence, injustice, and apartheid against women that it caused. A few religions are putting back aspects of the female contributions that were taken out, hidden or blatantly changed. The fact is that the religion has been forced to change for the better and people have demanded that they be allowed to accept it on their terms. Of course, many people are saying I just won’t adhere to certain provisions of religion and if I have to then I will leave. In my view people are growing up and do not need a hateful fairy tale book to guide them. My personal belief is that if there is a God, God would not have anything to do with religion. Religion would sicken God on its inhumanity, degradation, hatred and injustice.
Anything that calls itself divine or that claims it came from the divine deserves great, great scrutiny particularly if the hand of mankind touch it. I have yet to find a religion that wasn’t written by the hand of man. If God wanted something to be adhered to, then God could have made the instruct know to all, all at once and updated the language immediately without man’s help. After all isn’t that what a omnipotent being is capable of? You now have my opinion that all religion is manmade. Full stop.
bigstick1
