Religion is dangerous

I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.

-Thomas Jefferson letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789

Religion is a dangerous drug. It's effect lasts forever. It makes people irrational. It makes normal, law abiding citizens to do irrational acts of violence. But Why? What is religion based on? What is the purpose of religion? Everyone has forgotten the purpose of religion and only use it to decide which team they are on!

All religions try to tell you some weird stories which you would never believe if they weren't forced upon you. Christians laugh at mormons for having ridiculous beliefs but the only reason most of the mormons are following it is avoid being thrown out of their society. It's an easier way out than declaring your opinion about religious beliefs being idiotic. The result of which is being shut out of social circles for being a non-believer.

I mean yeah.. Mormon beliefs, Scientological beliefs all sound funny to others and so on but I find the story that Jesus Christ died and came back.. turned water into wine.. was born to virgin .. all of this is fictitious too. These myths were created by people, who turned a good man into god and built huge churches and Vatican city with the money they collected from naive followers.

In hindu beliefs/superstitions you get a huge amount of literature. Ramayan, Mahabhaarat are all great Stories and that's what they are..."STORIES" ... How the protagonists of the stories became gods is a good question to ask. I mean worshipping raam/krishna it's like worshipping Harry Potter/Batman/Superman to save you from your troubles. Just because the stories were written a long time ago doesn't make them true.

People say events in Ramayan actually happened. The setu between India and Sri Lanka is a proof of that. But why can't they consider a ‘possibility’ that maybe the poet saw the geographical formation between India and lanka and conceived a story of ram building a bridge. That's what authors/poets do. They are creative and imaginative. Minds of people are so closed that they think they know everything.

Let’s say Ramayana really happened. So What? Even in the story he is only human. He made his mistakes, had his downfalls. Why would praying to Ram protect you?

If Mahatma Gandhi had lived 2000 years ago, his story would be told as follows “There was an evil ruler who ruled India. He had no weakness except salt. Nobody was allowed to touch salt. But then came a messiah called Mohandas. He marched across thousands of miles and picked up the magical salt. That destroyed the devil”. Thus summarizing the Dandi March.

Then question is who converted these characters of fiction into gods? People did!

These so-called “God-people” who were smart enough to take advantage of such naivety of common folk made a business out of it.

Even today, Christians believe that evolution is false. The world was created by god in 7 days. Adam, eve and the talking snake and so on. I mean Come ON! They are trying to stop evolution from being taught in schools in USA. Is that stupid or what? 2000 years ago everyone believed earth is flat. They don’t teach that in school. 3000 years ago eclipse was thought to be a wrath of gods. Millions of people still do stupid things during eclipse even though we know better.

There are millions of people who don’t believe in the religious practices. They just don't come out and join a club because thats not an option. Religions are dangerous because they make people think they know the answers, even when doubt is the only rational approach to life. The anti-religionists should quit being timid and take up the cause of shutting down religion in the world. But instead they stand in the shadows and ignore the dangers of religious cults. If we don’t create the doubt in minds of people, the religion-caused apocalypse will surely be imminent. There’s no other way to put this in words. It scares me when decisions are taken on the basis of religious superstitions by world leaders.

What good is a religion if it stops women from leading a normal life at par with men? What good is a religion if it issues death threats against a person who expresses his/her views about religious injustice and irrationality? Why is concept of heaven and hell required for people to obey the law? Why should carrying lethal weapons be allowed because it is prescribed by religion?

Some scholars say religion helps build morality of community at large. Do you mean to say that if people didn’t fear going to hell they would start shooting each other? Is it only because of the desire to go to heaven that people do good things in life? Can’t the morality be spread without having to perform pooja, drinking holy water, praying 5 times a day and such stupid superstitious stuff? These things were invented to earn money. If you really want to please ‘God’ . Why don’t you just do good things to other people? What good is saying shlokas and mantras going to do? How is putting flowers on stone idols going to help?

More deaths have occurred in the name of religion than it has prevented. The crusades, the holocaust, the killings in Kashmir, The killings of Palestinians,Israelis, the religious riots in Mumbai and Gujarath , Killings of Christian missionaries in North India.

If everyone had no religion, people wouldn’t be misled into the idea of killing in the name of god. The preachers of religion justify the killings to save the religion. If we follow just the law of the nation, no killing can ever be justified except for capital punishment. Which is the way the society should be ! One law for everyone. Justice and freedom for all.

It is time we realize what is rational. Stop being a puppet in the hands of selfish holy-men trying to provoke violence. Think for yourself what is right and what is wrong. Not because someone says so but because You know so.
Mark Twain once wrote "surely the ass who invented the first religion ought to be the first ass damned" on the margin of a newspaper report about an earthquake in Italy and how people were fleeing into churches and then the building would collapse in aftershocks killing the followers.


Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.

-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

-M. K. Gandhi