RELIGIOUS FAITH DOES EVIL BEST

Blaise Pascal said that there is nothing better at getting good people to do evil than religious conviction. The belief that God is with you and behind you and supporting your cause can lead you to harm people, especially those of a different religious persuasion. I would add that God and Christianity have sinister and dangerous implications and are corrupting. They are subliminal poison.

Religious preachers show little concern for what a person has to go through when they find out that their religion is wrong or absurd. A Catholic can suffer guilt and fear for years after realising the faith is wrong. They are conditioned to feel bad and evil for changing their minds about the veracity and correctness of the religion. They have an addiction they are resisting. Secularists should promote secularism. If it upsets believers it is better doing it now than later. What if a person who needs comfort from their religion discovers it's a trick while they are fighting cancer? What about vulnerable children? A person who uses faith as a crutch has not dealt with the reason they need a crutch. It would be better for them if they were helped to throw the crutch away and deal with their issues without it steaming up their glasses. Religious faith is an addiction to some degree. This is easily seen from the theologians who when confronted with proof that their faith is wrong absorb it and seem to keep believing. If there was real sincerity there, if there was no fear, if there was no psychological problem they would have little difference between them. For example, Catholic and Evangelical theologians would have few theological differences because they would really be listening and really learning and really thinking. But they differ greatly and many Evangelical theologians do not consider Catholics to be Christians. THE CRIME IS: PEOPLE ARE LEFT WITH A WAY TO COPE WITH THE HARSH REALITIES AND FEARS OF LIFE BUT NOT WITH A WAY TO CHANGE THEM. Those who promote religious faith to people who are troubled do not have those people's true concerns at heart. The person who tells a person with commitment issues and who has promiscuous sex to pray instead of seeing a therapist is cheating that person. They are manipulating that person to dull pain with rationalisations. If they tell the person to prayerfully go and see a therapist they are encouraging that person to believe that prayer is only using the therapist as a tool to heal and that the therapist in herself or himself is useless. That is dangerous if prayer does not work. It is making the progress less effectual. Christianity's scriptures teach that suffering is something to be boasting about (Romans 5:1-5) for sufferings bring patience etc. The scriptures forbid us to boast about our good deeds (Ephesians 2: 8 - 10) so nobody can pretend that it means that we are to boast about how we handle suffering. It means we are to boast about suffering but not boast about the good results it brings. This is masochism.
 
Religion encourages us to look for meaning in suffering. If you believe in God you simply have no choice but to believe that he lets us suffer for his reasons. People like to feel their suffering is going to be used by God to do good and so it has value. But they have been misled. What we must do is not pretend that suffering serves a purpose. We must see it as useless and despicable. But what we should do is look for the good that appears in the midst of it and try and use what we can to make the best out of the situation. If we feel that we must suffer for a purpose, that is giving away our sense of being in control. It's degrading. If we look for the gems amid the rubbish and use them we will feel in control. It will help us more than condoning suffering by saying it is useful. If we think that we will not fight as hard against suffering when we suffer and we will be less keen and fighting suffering for others. Belief in God is evil. How believers handle suffering and sufferers looks good but it is a mockery of the right way to take care of it.