Read This Article if You Despise Religion

First, before I start realize that religion is only a concept. Therefore, if you despise a religion, you may as well despise Harry Potter’s latest novel, or Hollywood’s latest movie. Do you see that point? Now you might despise folks of a certain religion who have adopted a way of life or believe in something to the point that they have impeded upon your rights, as you see them. Just despising a religion is kind of silly, and may I ask who gave you the right to choose other people’s thoughts – what are you now; the thought police, a one-person Don Quixote windmill attacker, and if so, may I ask to what avail? Let’s talk about this for second shall we?

First, an FYI; I am not a follower of any religion, even at age 3 this whole theory of Santa Claus didn’t make any sense to me, and I question all the stories, tales, myths, and religious works regardless of denomination, and I find them all fascinating, and an integral part of human history and the human endeavor, but I certainly don’t want them for my own life experience, but to despise any of these concepts is not an intellectual thought, and perhaps it is the wrong tact altogether. If you recognize religions as culture, the glue of society, and/or a control mechanism then more power to you, at least you are observing what you see in the real world.

Are religions necessary for human civilization? Probably not. Are they a net negative or net positive? It’s hard to say, they’ve been around so long, we hardly would know what would be if they didn’t exist, things would be much different, so who is really to say? There’s no real empirical evidence one way or the other, and even if you took a supercomputer and looked at every civilization that has ever risen and fallen in the history of humanity, you probably couldn’t get a definite answer. You might find one religion which has done better than others for the society, depending on the culture, region, and many other factors, but you could never come to a foregone conclusion.

To assume that you could would be laughable, erroneous, and in itself a “hardened opinion” akin to a religion itself. Now then, it probably goes without saying that if a bunch of humans made up the story about a God or gods, chances are it isn’t true, the odds are so against that potential eventuality, it’s probably not even worth discussing, but that doesn’t mean you should despise the concept. In actuality you should be intrigued by it. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.