“I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability”. Oscar Wild
Religion:
I can remember when, in small town America the church was the Sunday meeting place; every body in the town belonged to the same church. For the most part everybody would make the trip on Sunday mornings to hear just what a bunch of no-good sinners they were. After the sermon they would gather and discuss all the town gossip, while trying to impress each other with just what good Christians they all where, and how much they loved God and his dearly beloved son Jesus.
The reverend was usually a man of modest means but content with his station in life serving God and his brethren; for the most part this system worked pretty well, it gave the community a central point to air their differences, and brought the townspeople together in a peaceful fashion.
Today, most of small town America has changed and with it the small town church. Most all religious groups are controlled by the corporate church that controls most small churches all over the US as well as the world. The Catholic church the largest of the Christian group, is headquartered in the Vatican, and has complete control of over 1,067,053,000 people, the pope being the supreme leader.
There are so many other Christian church’s that it would take a book to cover them all in detail, the Baptist being the second largest in the U.S. but that pie has to be divided amongst 15 different groups, all preaching basically the same thing with a few kinks thrown in to satisfy the egos of the various founders.
What is difficult for me to except is the effectiveness of all these holy orders. They all demand blind faith to their various doctrine, and feel that all other faith's shall perish in hell for not believing as they do, this in itself is the birth of hatred, which most preach against, now this gives birth to hypocrisy.
The Muslims of today, and there are over 1,207,148,000 of them scattered over 204 countries, hate the Jews and the Christians. With good reason, the most holy Pope Urban the second started the crusades to wipe them out, or at least take over a part of their country.
Today the Jews are trying to do the same; don't get me wrong I'm not defending the Muslims, nor am I bashing the Christians or the Jews, personally I think they are all a bunch of selfish, egotistical, hypocrites. They all profess the same thing a love of God the so called creator of all man, most use the very same bible, the old testament to spew their venom of hate, and to kill each other off by the millions, all with the blessing of God, the same God I should add.
Religion today, and since the beginning of all religion is simply a matter of geography. If you are born in Iran your Muslim, if born in China, you are probably Buddhist, in North Carolina there is a good chance you are a Baptist, in India your probably Hindu. The point I'm making is whatever religion you are has not been embraced by your own personal beliefs. You have been brainwashed since early childhood to except the religion of your family and or peers. Therefore, who has it right and who is wrong. Simple, none of these believers are right. They are all wrong, worse they teach nothing but control of man thru any means, mostly the teaching of hatred of their own fellow man.
As you may have gathered I do not give credit for humans being as intelligent as we have given ourselves credit for. We are a species easily manipulated into believing that life has to have meaning. A supreme being is the answer to many, for the meaning for life, the reason for life, the reason for death, even the reason for sorrow and happiness. It’s all in the hands of God. I think it's time we except that some God did not create man, man created God to give man a answer to the meaning for life; and to control man with an iron fist, and certainly not with love and compassion.
Many religions tell you that happiness only comes after death, they have to be joking or completely insane; you mean I have to put in seventy or more years on this planet only to croak to find happiness? I'm not the warrior type, so I won't even get my 72 virgins that they promise to the Muslims; what the hell, I couldn't afford that much Viagra anyhow.
I have news for those poor misguided souls that believe that life only comes after death. I've found incredible happiness right here on earth; I have also found sorrow and some hard times. The hard times where my own fault, the only real sorrow that sneaked into my life was the death of those I have loved. For the most part, I've had one fantastic life, made a few mistakes, but I paid the price for my own errors, I would not change a thing, well maybe a few less marriages but that's all.
Many use their God to pass on their problems and responsibilities, "it’s all in Gods hands" "God help me", "God save me", God forgive me", a young man prays for a wife, sure enough, he gets his blushing bride. Six months later he's praying for a divorce, God blew it. God help me, you had better learn to help yourself, God save me, again you had better learn to save yourself, God forgive me, that one you had better hand over to your wife or the judge.