faith, fear, or mental illness?

Throughout my life I, like most of us, have grown accustomed to being bombarded with signs assuring us that Jesus Loves us or that God is watching over us. What’s more, forever are we overloaded with warnings of fiery perdition and punishment if we do not believe in God and live according to his law. Behind the scenes, powerful evangelists have a say in censorship matters that lead to the control of what we read and watch. The reproductive rights of women are taken away because the religious side of society makes the decision that no one else should have a choice. We are told all other religions are wrong, merely the worship of false gods. Homosexuals are not only told that they are wrong but their freedom to choose is removed because ‘god says gays are wrong.’ People would knock on my front door and ask me if I knew I was going to hell unless I accepted the lord Jesus Christ as my saviour. Outside of pubs I was approached and asked if I was a winner or a sinner and that sinners will all burn in the fiery depths of hell. Then, suddenly, after approximately thirty five years of life on earth, whilst peacefully walking down the street of the town in which I live, I saw a bus go by with a slogan on the side reading: ‘God may or may not exist. Stop worrying about it and enjoy life.’ I laughed out loud and punched my fist in the air with joy. This glorious moment of rational thought had finally pierced the public domain and openly proclaimed ‘stop force-feeding me your religion. Stop obsessing over your religion.’ I felt proud but, at the same time, I felt as if I was in danger for I knew all too well that this would make the Christians very angry (argument against their beliefs it not something that is tolerated and they become very dangerous – and irrational – when their beliefs are questioned) and I felt almost uneasy. Needless to say, a couple of weeks later the banners had been removed from all local buses and the local churches had put up such a flutter of banners that they resembled a garden in bloom… a very unsightly one that hurt the eyes.
                Today I noticed an article that pointed out a bulletin board in Denver, Colorado reading: ‘God Fixation won’t fix this nation.’ It goes without saying that there was an instant backlash from the Christian crowd saying things such as:
'God Bless all the misguided atheists who always use national prayer days to blatantly seek out the attention they so crave!’
And:
'Personally have no argument with what you do (or do not) believe in, except for activist atheists telling Christians what that they believe in, is wrong, and continually push their BS in front of anyone disagreeing with them.'

Not in favour of activists pushing their ‘BS’ in front of anyone disagreeing with them? Hmm, does this not sound like familiar behaviour?

I’m not in Favour of any militant groups and any movement that becomes extremely fanatical is a dangerous group. However, I do understand a response to religion being forced upon those who just want to live life freely based on humanist and secular ideals. Having said this, I’m not willing to waste time in a war between those who believe and don’t believe in God, there are far more important fights in life such as that to conserve life and to protect this planet from destruction. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in god or not... there will be nothing if we don’t work together to take on the real issues. The sad thing is that, once more, we have a situation where many Christians tend to sit back and do nothing but throw their hands in the air saying ‘it is in god’s hands.’ Wrong. Only we can save ourselves. It is ironic that the non-Christians make up the majority of those fighting to save the earth. It is a similar paradox that Christians tend to believe that only they  know the difference between right and wrong... mainly because their wrongs are punished (in the afterlife, of course) and they live in constant fear of this. The atheist does not need to fear punishment from a God, and does not behave according to fear, for the atheist understands the difference between right and wrong... as does any logical and rational person.

Fear, punishment, control... religion is founded upon these things. It is founded upon insecurity. A friend of mine said to me in an email this week: ‘God did not create man, man created God.’ It is accepted by those who are educated. It is the only rational explanation; religion is a man made science. All religions differ dramatically. All religions are wrong. All religions are designed to cushion the blow of death, loneliness, fear, isolation and weakness. Man is taught never to fear for he is never alone. Children are taught not to be sad when someone dies for this person goes to heaven. It is a wonderful fairytale but, sadly, it is not true.

These days I have come to equate Christianity with mental illness. The only people i know who are not able to offer any rational argument or any form of logical thought process are those who are mentally ill... and those who are Christians.

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