I’d like to conclude this Chapter, and this book, with one last observation. We have covered pages and pages of bad religious ideas, but we’ve only touched upon the real and present danger some people do present when they live a life devoted to God. It’s impolite to infer this and illegal in America to […]
Predicting the future has been a part of religion since recorded history. 3000 years ago Chinese fortune tellers inspected the cracks in turtle shells to predict the future. Babylonian priests used the stars to chart people’s destiny. Christians claim the Old Testament Bible prophesied the coming of the Messiah. Even today, countless newspapers and magazines […]
Reports of encounters with spirits, angels, demons, and fairies are recorded throughout history. We will never know if such encounters made people believe in an afterlife, or was it their belief in an afterlife that caused people to think they encountered spirits? In many ways, Religion itself is a reaction to mankind’s hope and fear […]
All religions assume people live forever, albeit most believe only a person’s soul lives on after bodily death. They also claim to offer a way to everlasting happiness—eternal life in heaven. This is the big payoff in Pascal’s wager. The actions required to gain eternal grace is simple, making religion quite attractive. In economic terms, […]
People experience religion in a wide variety of ways. Around the globe we find thousands of faiths and billions of people who have had religious experiences. These can be meaningful and powerful experiences that make people believe in the reality of the unseen. They are the kind of experience that validates an already existing faith. […]
Most every religion believes in peace. Peace with one’s self as much as with one’s neighbor. It is certainly an excellent ideal, however peace eludes those who believe World Peace will come when everyone is my religion. The faithful believe in peace, talk peace, and want peace. But the various religions are so discontented with […]
Western sexuality began in the Garden of Eden. Or to put it a bit more precisely; Judaeo-Christian-Muslim sexual attitudes originate with the story of first two people, Adam and Eve. We all have heard the myth of how mankind fell from God’s grace. The not-so-subtle undertones of these first chapters in Genesis have framed men […]
Every religion charts a moral path for its faithful to follow. Their compass is a set of standards to guide the faithful through life’s sea of moral dilemmas. The teachings of the faiths are filled with thou shalls and shall nots, good deeds and sins. The moral codes of our day, even the secular ones, […]
