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A friend sent this to me and i thought i would share it but its not compleate i don tthink, this is not my work, but i do agree with it:

Religion represents a huge financial and work burden on mankind. It's not just a matter of religious believers wasting their money on church buildings; think of all the time and effort spent building churches, praying, and so on. Imagine how that effort could be better spent.

Many theists believe in miracle healing. There have been plenty of instances of ill people being "healed" by a priest, ceasing to take the medicines prescribed to them by doctors, and dying as a result. Some theists have died because they have refused blood transfusions on religious grounds.

It is arguable that the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control -- and condoms in particular -- is increasing the problem of overpopulation in many third-world countries and contributing to the spread of AIDS world-wide.

Religious believers have been known to murder their children rather than allow their children to become atheists or marry someone of a different religion. Religious leaders have been known to justify murder on the grounds of blasphemy.

There have been many religious wars. Even if we accept the argument that religion was not the true cause of those wars, it was still used as an effective justification for them.

Many atheists feel that it is simply a human weakness to want to believe in gods. Certainly in many primitive human societies, religion allows the people to deal with phenomena that they do not adequately understand.

We also have the theodice problem, stated by David Hume: If the evil in the world is intended by God he is not good. If it violates his intentions he is not almighty. God can't be both almighty and good. There are many objections to this, but none that holds since God is ultimately responsible for the existence of evil. Besides, if only God can create he must have created evil. If somebody else (the devil) created evil, how can one know that God, and not Satan created the universe?

It is necessary that God is a being that is worth worshipping, so if there is no being worth worshipping there cannot be a God. Not any of the existing religions can provide such a God. Well if there is a being that has either failed or not tried to communicate with us that being is not worth worshipping either, so the ontological evidence against God holds, even without complete knowledge of the world.

There are things that are impossible to do. For example nobody can cover a two-dimensional surface with two-dimensional circles, without making them overlap. It is impossible to add the numbers two and two and get 666. You can not go back in time (without passing an infinite entropy barrier). The number of things that are impossible to do are almost infinite. If God were to be almighty he would be able to do them, but it's impossible to do so.

Some people say that he can only do things that are logically possible to do, but what is? Is it logically possible to walk on water? Is it logically possible to rise from the dead? Is it logically possible to stand above time, space and all other dimensions - and still exist? I'd say that everything which violates the laws of physics are logically impossible and thus omnipotence is logically impossible. Besides if omnipotence is a relative quality there is no way to tell omnipotence from non-omnipotence. For omnipotence to be a valid expression it must be absolute, but we have no objective criteria to measure omnipotence so the word itself is useless.

Also, if God knows everything, he knows what he will do in the "future" (in any dimension, not necessary the time dimension). He must have known that from the very start of his own existence. Thus God's actions are predestined. God is tied by faith, he has no free will. If God has no free will God is not omnipotent. Another way to put it is that to be able to make plans and decisions one must act over time. If God stands above time he can not do that and has no free will. Indeed, if God stands above all dimensions God is dimensionless - a singularity, nothing, void!

If somebody would pray to God and God would listen, the laws would change to achieve the desired result. Thus the world would be different and the prayer would never have been said. Besides God would already (in an "above time" sense of view) know that you would pray, and already have changed the world. Prayers would be totally meaningless. We would already live in the best world possible, and any prayer would be to doubt the wisdom of God.

If God is so mysterious, how can we know anything about him? Through the Bible? How do we know that the Bible and not the Koran or the Vedha books, for example, are the words of God? (or the Bible if you believe in any of the other two books). Considering the cruelties that have been made in the name of God, how do we know that not all religions are made by Satan?

I'm sleepy so I'll just mow through this quickly before bed.



Yes, great works of architecture, art, music and beauty are total wastes of time. Man does not live on bread alone, and in the old days the Church was one of the greatest patrons of the arts. People require beauty in their lives, and beautiful monuments are part of every civilization. This has nothing to do with religion at all, since societies which were carefully atheistic (Russia, China, etc under communist rule) built massive statues and monuments.




This point is too stupid to even bother looking up. Whoever wrote this must have been really scraping the bottom of the barrel, desperately trying thetactic of "if I sling enough s**t at the wall, some will stick".

This clump kinda slides off all easy.



Now this I will agree with.



blah blah blah and plenty of non-religious folk do the same thing.

Evil people will use religion like a theif will use a knife. The knife isn't bad and does a lot of good, but they get their greasy paws on it.



And many more non-religious wars. I think we should get rid of farming, since battling over croplands has caused a lot of wars. Pffft.



So?



And many religious people feel that atheists simply possess a lack of communication with their spiritual nature, since the vast majority of human beings in every single culture seem to have an inexplicable belief in some kind of higher power.

So what's your point?



yes, that is ONE purpose of religion, but there are many more. To foster intelligent theology (Plato, St Aquinas, Lao Tzu would never have graced the world with their beautiful philosophies if not for THE EBIL RELIGUN.





That's not a problem of theology. For the love of sweet zombie Jesus, anyone who has taken a first year philosophy course knows that's not a dilemma at all. Let me spell it out for you.

Pretend you can save the lives of ten thousand people or you can save the lives of one hundred people. Obviously, you choose the lives of one thousand people since it results in the greater good. Same thing.

Evil in the world is here because we create it. It's called free will. The only reason there are wars, killing, starvation, murder or despair is because we as a species haven't pulled it together yet.

"Well," you say, "Why doesn't God just remove our abilityt o choose evil or stop us before we make poor choices?"

Because we have received the blessed gift of Free Will. If someone came and stopped you before you did anything wrong, your will wouldn't be free. You would only be allowed to choose the "correct" path, so the choice of committing evil isn't even there to begin with.

We have free will, which elevates us above animals--and animals can only obey instinct, not reason.

So to answer your false dilemma, yes evil exists and God is still good (since we create evil, not Him), and yes, God is all-powerful, He just chooses not to exercise His power because by destroying our Free Will that would destroy what makes us good as His creatures.

It is necessary that God is a being that is worth worshipping, so if there is no being worth worshipping there cannot be a God. Not any of the existing religions can provide such a God. Well if there is a being that has either failed or not tried to communicate with us that being is not worth worshipping either, so the ontological evidence against God holds, even without complete knowledge of the world.

Do you even kno what the word "ontological" means? I'm thinking you don't, and neither does the author.

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There are things that are impossible to do. For example nobody can cover a two-dimensional surface with two-dimensional circles, without making them overlap. It is impossible to add the numbers two and two and get 666. You can not go back in time (without passing an infinite entropy barrier). The number of things that are impossible to do are almost infinite. If God were to be almighty he would be able to do them, but it's impossible to do so.

It's impossible for us. You're right, we can't break these rules because we are mere creations, creatures, animated things of earth.

God MADE these rules. She can break them.

There is no conflict.

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Some people say that he can only do things that are logically possible to do, but what is? Is it logically possible to walk on water? Is it logically possible to rise from the dead? Is it logically possible to stand above time, space and all other dimensions - and still exist?

Now you've confused two style of rule-breaking, my dearest. There are, in fact, two ways to circumvent a rule--through a loophole and through direct contradiction.

There is a rule on Earth that anything heavier than air will be pulled in closer to the gravitational field (the ground). A rock is heavier than the air, so it falls to the ground. Steel is heavier than the air, so it falls to the ground, too. People, obviously, are heavier so we cannot fly. We fall.

But human beings have managed to circumvent this rule--we fly in airplanes all the time, though the original rule that Heavy THings Fall Down still holds.

You see what I mean?

Probably not, but I'll continue on anyways.

These feats are not "logically" (that word is overused) impossible at all, just as an airplane isn't "logically" possible.

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I'd say that everything which violates the laws of physics are logically impossible and thus omnipotence is logically impossible.

Stop saying "logically" since you don't know what it means.

First of all, which physics are you referring to? OH SNAP you just used "physics" as a catchphrase to sound smart! Things that are impossible at the macro level of physics are entierly possible at the quantum level--and then that even depends on which theory you're applying.

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Besides if omnipotence is a relative quality there is no way to tell omnipotence from non-omnipotence. For omnipotence to be a valid expression it must be absolute, but we have no objective criteria to measure omnipotence so the word itself is useless.

This is a ridiculous point since you're simply saying "nnnngh, I don't know what this means and the concept of omnipotence is HARD so therefore IT DOESN'T EXIST"

Bzzzzt, wrong.

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Also, if God knows everything, he knows what he will do in the "future" (in any dimension, not necessary the time dimension). He must have known that from the very start of his own existence. Thus God's actions are predestined. God is tied by faith, he has no free will. If God has no free will God is not omnipotent. Another way to put it is that to be able to make plans and decisions one must act over time. If God stands above time he can not do that and has no free will. Indeed, if God stands above all dimensions God is dimensionless - a singularity, nothing, void!

God, this same problem again and again and again... I think they should just post this in the halls of high schools so the 15 year olds will stop reading and thinking that they've Figured It Out.

Let's get somethng straight: knowing something will happens does NOT mean that you CAUSED it to happen or that you have POWER over it happening.

You know that the sun will rise tomorrow. You did not cause this nor can you stop it.

God KNOWS what you will do, every possible outcome of everything you think and do--but She doesn't cause it, and She chooses not to exert power over it.

So God sees all, but humans retain free will.

*yawns*

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If somebody would pray to God and God would listen, the laws would change to achieve the desired result. Thus the world would be different and the prayer would never have been said. Besides God would already (in an "above time" sense of view) know that you would pray, and already have changed the world. Prayers would be totally meaningless. We would already live in the best world possible, and any prayer would be to doubt the wisdom of God.

Free will, dude. God knows, but God chooses not to control so that we might retain our gift of free will.

Also, think of praying like this: when you get down on your knees and apply all your mental energy to your passing a test tomorrow or gramma getting better, you are exerting a certain amount of force.

"What can so little force do?" you ask. Well, I only need a little bit of force on a helm to change the course of an entire ocean steamliner. Same principal.

Third purpose of prayer ISN'T for God. It's for YOU. Praying and becoming attuned to your spiritual side is good for YOU. Not all prayers are "I want I want I want". Some are "Thank you." or "Forgive me." or "Forgive her."

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If God is so mysterious, how can we know anything about him?

God reveals Himself through various books are various times and in various cultures.

God is like a beautiful jewel of unimaginable perfection and brilliance. Sometimes God will reveal a facet of Herself to us through a prophet or a Manifestation. People like Jesus, Mohammad, Zoroaster, Baha'u'llah, Krishna and Abraham are a few examples of them.

Though many of these religions differ in unimportant details (which day to rest on, which day to work on, what to eat and how to dress) they all reveal the same basic truth: love thy neighbor and love God.

There IS no conflict between the religions--only the ones which humans put there.