RELIGION HAS SOMETHING TO HIDE WHEN IT DOES NOT LIKE BEING DISCUSSED CRITICALLY

Many expect everybody not to say a word against any harmful beliefs and against wrong religion. They would not be so “understanding” if they were on the receiving end of maltreatment from these abominations. Do they want nobody to criticise and try to convert the person the person who believes that God tells them to cut their throats? Do they want people to waste their lives in the service of gods who don’t exist? They are the worst kind of carping bigots for they condemn opposition to evil to promote worse evil.

They would not tolerate persons who believe that nobody exists but themselves and that they can do whatever they please with others for others are just an illusion like the people they see in their dreams. There are people who advocate non-criticism of religion on the grounds that religion has a right to be treated as totally sacrosanct. These people would force children in school to believe that what they are told by religion is true. So organisations come before people. This is sick. Yet even their attitude implies that truth should be intolerant in some ways though not in any overly cruel way.

If it does not matter what religion one belongs to you are being a bigoted fraud if you call your Church the true Church.

Cults that hold that it does not matter what religion you belong to may only think about how they are going to make more money.

If a religion thinks it is right then it has a duty to try and lead outsiders to its “truth”. To have the true religion is to have the best thing this side of Heaven. Error harms and wastes much time. Being opposed to Atheistic or religious evangelism is not love. It isn’t love for the Protestant who knows that a Catholic friend is making a mistake by entering the priesthood to say nothing. The friend needs to know. That friend could do lots of wonderful things without the needless burden of being a priest. Promoting superstition is always bad.

To refuse to try and enlighten those in error is approving of their error for it is encouraging it. The erring should be grateful if they are told the facts for they can go to their clergy if they are worried about being led astray. If you really believe in the rightness of silence that unlawfully and willingly causes delusion then you are believing that there is no good and evil. The erring should not degrade you by getting you to promote error by saying nothing. You have a right to say. What they are doing is saying their rights are more important than yours.

To invite people to adore the wrong god to worship with you is to approve of their worship. You cannot encourage it without approving of it and so it isn’t caring if truth exists or not. It is apostatising from your own God and if you are Christian you are one no longer. Pope John Paul II has held prayer services with pagans.

Nothing is sillier than people saying that one religion is as good as another. When Christians say it despite Christ’s stating that he was the truth (John 14:6) ask them do they think that their hypocrisy is as good as every religion? The religions of the world are not the same. They don’t agree on right and wrong so it is inevitable that one should be better than the rest.

There are some religious organisations that have one creed which is simply, “Believe and teach what you like if it harms none”. The Universal Life Church founded by Kirby J Hensley is the most famous of such cults. There is no such thing as a harmless wrong belief. If I mistakenly believe in a deity I will waste time over him that could have been better spent. If I help X for a fictitious god, say, Zeus, then I am only doing it for Zeus. I should be doing it for X. I have done good but that good was only a side effect. It is a vice to tell people to believe whatever they want for they should be told to search for and believe in what is true or ought to be believed. This cult advocates the abomination of blind faith.

Humanists hate the view that they should not spread their beliefs.  For those who say they know that Humanism is the truth they are horrified at being asked to be silent as if error and lies and half truths should matter not the truth.

Error has no rights - do we have the right to believe that two plus two is five? – and truth has the right to overcome it. If people have the right to err then do you have the right to lock your mother up for an hour every day because you believe it is good for her and she is not keen on the idea but puts up with it? If people have the right to err then people have the right to err as they wish. There is no middle ground. To say you have the right to err privately and not to carry out your error makes no sense. That would mean you can err thinking God exists but have no right to go to Church!
 
When we claim to have the truth we also claim we have the right to be critically examined to see if we do have the truth. We are telling others they have the right to tell us if we are wrong. Fact. Therefore anybody that won’t listen to criticism of his or her worldview is doing wrong. If we have the right not to listen then newspapers and the news cannot have the right to say things we find offensive either. We all want people to tell us what we want to hear. We are offended when they do not. But there is no denying they are right to do that.
 
Nobody encourages scepticism or Pyrrhonism which is the belief that we can know or believe nothing. The sceptic or Pyrrhonist can be happy and live a normal life and act say as if poison can kill in case it will but he or she denies knowing that it will kill. We oppose scepticism. We do not oppose scepticism just because we want people to be safe and happy but because we acknowledge that all have to investigate the truth about the central things in life. We want the sceptic to believe we exist for we find it insulting when he or she says they do not believe one way or the other. This implies that all should investigate main truths of life and that religion is a disgrace for it does not encourage this. It implies that all should propagate the truth as they see it and be open to correction.
 
Believers have to say that atheism or agnosticism is faith for they can hardly say it is anything else. They accuse us atheists of faith because they want to hold that we are wrong or not totally convincing for it is possible for faith to be misplaced which they believe our so-called faith to be. They need to be fully acquainted with our side before they charge us with having faith. If they accuse us of having faith then it is their duty to hear our side. We should not be afraid to tell them that either. They know fine well that we might have more than faith. We might have the might of reason on our side. We might have principles that refute God and their claims that are as certain as any mathematical theorem. And that is the claim we make. If you are going to listen to reason at all you will believe what we teach when you understand it. We will not have people manipulated to ignore us by allowing ourselves to be falsely accused.

There are random forces that kill and harm. They strike when accidents happen. Given the power to redirect these forces people would make them strike people who were in error or who were considered immoral on the basis that it is better for the wisest and best people to survive. This shows us the utmost importance of being right for being right and living in accordance with it is necessary for our human dignity to be fully respected rather than get two-faced respect. You cannot divorce concern for truth from right and wrong.

To state that somebody should do something and to state it without careful thought and logical evaluation and to state it while believing in free will is to declare that that person should suffer if he or she does not do it. You do have a right to your opinion but that does not mean you can say whatever you like. Therefore to suppose there is a God on slender evidence and then to say people should go to Church every Sunday – everybody’s different and some people can get loads of spiritual benefits with going to Church say once a month – is to vent hate towards the targets of criticism. It also threatens their confidence in themselves and increases the propensity towards doing evil and being cruel. To believe in a God who can punish means that if a person does what you consider to be wrong your condemnation of them is calling on God to attack them. It is more likely they will be punished if there is a God than if there isn’t so we see how thoroughly nasty belief in God is.

Nobody has the right to ask you to help them to teach what is against your conscience or to form opinions without looking at all the facts with an unprejudiced mind. Opinions are based on evidence. To have an opinion is to tell yourself and others that you are dedicated to evidence. If you are then you will listen to what the contrary evidence says and not be offended no matter what comes up. Being offended is being anti-evidence. You will not insult other people by turning your nose up at the evidence.
 
The Church claims the right to disapprove of our actions and beliefs. Disapproval entails discouraging actions you think are wrong. For example, if a community frowns on atheism, the atheist will feel forced to hide her unbelief. She may hide it to fit in for the desire to belong in the community is overpowering and we are all conditioned to have this desire. There is no doubt then that no matter what kind of world view you have you will be trying in some way to force it on others. You will want it enforced. And even more so if you regard evil as an offence against an all-good God for that makes it more serious. Therefore atheism and agnosticism are necessary if you want to enhance tolerance and acceptance in the world. Atheism and agnosticism will not be perfect but they are the best that is on offer.