I became totally disillusioned with religion many years ago as a result of something that happened to a very good friend of mine. He was subjected to total hypocrisy at the hands of some so-called religious sages that caused him untold grief when getting married. I'll go no further than that.
I became a fervent religious cynic some 20 years ago, and adhere more than ever now to Atheistic principles when I look back over the years where wars, murder, unrest and bigotry have all come about pretty well as a result of religion. That all these have resulted from one person's belief in the unprovable versus another persons belief in something different that is also similarly unprovable, to me, defies not only logic, but goes against pure common sense.
According to recent estimates, there are some 4,200 religions on earth at present. It is said that to believe you have to have faith, and to have faith you must believe. 4,200 religions means an awful lot of individual faith. And an awful lot of believing. That's 4,200 disparate groups, all following some inane belief, all without a shred of evidence or scientific proof to back up their claims. Cynics might remark that on a psychological level, this is actually not normal behaviour.
But on a more practical level, not all of the 4,200 can be in any way all be right! In fact, "not many" can be right.
I'm certainly very sceptical of the more modern religions, those altogether recent offshoots from the long-established Judaeo-Christian religions. The Methodists, the Plymouth Brethren and many more besides. These very much smack of some strong-willed, big-mouthed people simply not liking their lot and deciding to start their own brand formulated on their own perceptions of what their religion adherence should be. Whether there was just an element of Indians wanting to become Chiefs, or whether, like Scientology or many of the other current evangelical and happy-clappy TV-religions, it was born out of a desire simply to make money, I'm not really too sure.
Cardinal Richelieu, the Spanish Inquisition, witch-hunting, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Islamic Fundamentalism are, as a few examples, not exactly the stuff people-enrichment initiatives are made of. Yes, those in charge make - or made - a good living, but the end-user is stuffed totally. And often terminally.
The famous 'mystery horror' film The Wicker Man, the original with Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward and Britt Ekland, portrayed a group of potty Scottish Islanders who sacrificed a man (police sergeant Edward Woodward in the original, Nicolas Cage in the remake) and an assortment of farm animals, by burning them to death in a wicker structure on a hillside as homage to a sun god in an attempt to avoid crop failure the following year. Meanwhile, on a purely scientific level, their land and location had been proven as not actually suitable to guarantee any form of sustained year on year crop-growing in the first place!
If you are looking for anomalies and things that don't make even common sense, let alone just sense, look no further than religion. Virgin births, reincarnation, dividing major seas. And taking 40 years to travel 1,200km, now that's a good one (that's about 80metres a day, or perhaps a lengthier 100metres a day if you take the Sabbath and High Holy days of rest into account as the Israelites were wont to do - I mean Olympic superstar Mo Farrah runs 20km in about an hour!) and help to preserve the mystery of religion. They mystery that people actually believe it all with a single shred of evidence.
Then there's building a boat from wood capable of accommodating two of every species on earth (I'm sure the two woodworms must have had a field day with that huge wooden boat all to themselves) to avoid the entire planet covered in water (er, excuse me science, but where did the water go to afterwards?). Or finding 72 Virgins in heaven awaiting the arrival of the latest human pieces from a blown-up and murderous homicide-bomber. I mean, if you were a respectable, attractive virgin, would you want to the the hand of a murderer - although being in pieces following self-explosion, I suppose it would be easier to take just the hand.
But where is the proof that 72 virgins are awating? And who reassembles the dismembered murderer so he can have his way with the 72? And if indeed it is his member that is the dismembered, and it doesn't make it nto heaven with the rest of his body parts, how does he indeed then have his wicked way? And anyway, to these holy former hit-squaddies, pure Muslim women aren't actually allowed into the company of strange men without their families' permission, so how do the reassembled murderers, who are altogether more strange than normal strange men, get access to the 72 virgins in the first place?
I'm sorry, but this is all unprovable nonsense, takes the 'have faith to believe and believe to have faith' get-out clause to somewhat of a rather cheap show-business level. "We can't prove any of it, but you'd better believe it or you'll be transported to hell".
And that's another one. 'Hell'. Where precisely is 'hell' and has anyone proof of the place? Or are people just referring to their misadventures in a nightclub in Doncaster or Scunthorpe? But then North Korea has often been describes as hell on earth. Is that where all the naughty people of this world actually go. To the land of banned hairstyles and banned Western TV and music.
