I promised myself I wouldn't keep on writing about religion - but this web link touched a nerve. Again.
When People Ask Why I Have a Problem With Religion, It's Hard To Come Up With a Single Answer......"
The linked page shows graphically what religion is doing to the world and gives so many, many reasons to be proud of totally rejecting organised religion.
Whilst the core reason for rejecting religion is disbelief in religious dogma, a powerful secondary reason is to examine the human misery and injustice which religious dogma produces. The link above displays just that.
From wishy-washy Anglicans to hard-core Catholics, fundamental Evangelists, Jews, Islamists and the rest of you: the buck stops with all of you who actively promote your religion.
You teach tolerance but you do not practice it.
You teach love but your hatred shows.
You teach the need for truth but you are prepared to 'lie for Jesus' and you practice deception to promote your religion.
You promote support for vulnerable people whilst plundering and destroying them.
Your desire to educate is secondary to your need to indoctrinate.
You call for love and understanding of all people yet you practice bigotry, violence and discrimination against minorities.
You invoke human rights but then you trample on the rights of others.
You say you protect children but you also take sexual advantage of them.
You wage war for six days then on the seventh you pray for 'world peace'.
You say you are helping the poor but you bask in the wealth and grandeur of your cathedrals, mosques and synagogues.
You seek meaning in the Universe yet you reject the plain evidence placed before you.
You say you are owners of morality but your history is strewn with disgusting and bloody acts.
You seek to ignore or deny your cruel history yet you actively try to return to it.
You reject a separation of church and state and you seek undue influence over governments.
Intolerance, bigotry, hatred, violence, deception, discrimination and falsehoods are the results which follow your organised religions, wherever you go. World wide misery is your legacy, not mine.
Atheism has always been a minority and you have always used the might of your religions, in a bid to ruthlessly conquer it. Yet finally, belief in your dogma is slowly waning and soon religion will become the exception, rather than the rule. I hope that future dominant secularists will tolerate your minority nonsense without treating you as improperly as you have treated us (and still do).
Religion can point out it's many good deeds and it can point towards it's many good people. Despite this, the scales of goodness & justice do not balance the violence and intolerance which your religions have spawned; and the religion you promote cannot deny responsibility for it.
It is sheer ruthlessness which keeps religions going. Stubborn reluctance to work within a fair secular framework; an expectation that your own world views should overide over all other; a desire to dominate those who live different lifestyles and who hold different beliefs; and your double standards; these - together with religion's gross intellectual weaknesses - are what I expect will ultimately be it's downfall. It can't come too soon.