Deon Barnard

Recently I’ve had a few conversations with Theists who were merrily engaging in reasonably logical conversation until they hit the road block of, “Well that’s not a very nice world to live in – how could you possibly believe that?!”

Uh… come again? The basic argument here is that if scientific evidence gives them the sense that the world might not be a fun and safe place to live then there must be something wrong with the science. Another example of the theistic tendency to create a fantastical image of reality and then modify the “evidence” to fit the picture.

Classic examples of where this argument crops up are:

1. The discussion around what happens when we die. I.e. that there is no evidence to suggest that anything happens when we die, except that our bodies break down into basic mineral components and our consciousness, residing in our brains, ceases to exist.

2. The discussion around free will. I.e. that there is a lot in evolution, chemistry, physics and even the softer science of psychology to suggest that everything that happens is caused by something else… or maybe everything else when it comes down to it. This of course sheds a whole new light on whether there can be anything like free will at all. I admit that much discussion around this topic is theoretical at best, but it’s interesting nevertheless.

3. The humorous idea that if heaven and hell actually did exist, and it actually was the Christian Heaven and Hell, and we actually did go to one of them when we died based on… well, who the hell knows… but if it was all true, then most atheists might chose Hell over Heaven based on things like: who else was there and; what music they played there.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not some unemotional, unattached geek-robo-psychopath who would not like to live forever or have free will; and I certainly wouldn’t enjoy the idea of a real Hell either.

But that’s not the point is it?

It’s like being diagnosed with a disease that could be controlled and managed but instead, denying the diagnosis altogether, because it’s not great news, and carrying on with life as normal. Rejecting the medication and living in denial. I suppose it’s a way to live. Just pretend everything is as you want it to be and Hey Presto! You’re a happy chappy! This is very much the modus operandi for evangelicals, “Name it and claim it!” “All things are possible…” “Let go, let God”. When good things happen, praise God – when bad things happen, God’s ways are mysterious. Whatever happens, it’s never what you think it is, and it’s never logical. If I save a woman from an oncoming train she might praise God, as though I had nothing to do with it. Logical? If thousands die in Haiti, we should praise God for the little girl who “miraculously” survives in a fridge or something… so where’s the miracle for the thousands of dead people?

For me, grappling with reality is a far happier and more fulfilling way to live. For one, there is so much to learn and discover, and as long as you’re not shutting your eyes and ears to everything you don’t like, the pieces start to fall together, and the universe becomes even more awesome than you ever imagined. When I consider that it’s all over when it’s over, I realize just how precious this life is and I live it with more vigor and curiosity than ever before. I think it would be cool if we really had free will, and I hope we do, but I’m working with the evidence I have access to. I do have a few theories about the evolution of free will from present natural laws, but that’s a work in progress.

The bottom line is that I would have never start asking the questions if I had simply accepted the going Christian doctrine – but then again, maybe ignorance is bliss.

There is a branch of fence sitters, ‘Agnostics’ if you will, that insist that there is no argument or antagonism between Science and Religion, or that there need not be, because somehow they’re both doing the same thing in different ways. These people insist that scientists ought not to overlook or belittle the efforts of the religious in their journey to discover the mysteries of God; while the religious need to recognise the achievements and potential of science.

As always, this sort of “let’s all get along” speak, sounds good at first glance – after all, wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all just accepted our differences and strove toward peace? I believe it is disingenuous, and at the very least naive for an intelligent person to think this way. Science is a method of discovery that goes against the very fabric of religious thought – in fact religion sees scientific enquiry as a dangerous threat and would surely disintegrate if all its adherents started to think scientifically and rationally. Religion requires an unquestioning attitude regarding certain key doctrines or it becomes meaningless. Religion can be nothing but fearful and resistant to science if it is to remain what it is. Similarly science is a method of discovery that, to be called science, must adhere to a strict process of self criticism, testing and experimentation, none of which religion does or could subject itself to. Science seeks to build on previous knowledge through actively looking at all empirical evidence and doing its best to disprove its own theories.

How can religion get along with Science? That would mean having to admit that the evidence is overwhelmingly stacked up against that particular religious mythology. That would logically mean that all religious myths are just that, myths, and not reality to base our lives on. Of course, for the religious, logic has nothing to do with it. The religious play the ‘Faith’ card. “I don’t need evidence… I have Faith.” But even that argument is disingenuous. You may have faith in deity X and myth Y, but someone else has faith in deity A and myth B. So what external device do you have of working out which myths are more likely to be real, if any at all? Some seem to think that all or none are ‘real’ in scientific terms and that’s OK. Why? Why is that OK? These same people certainly don’t use this crazy logic to run any of their other affairs.

Let’s make it very clear why science and religion can never ‘get along’ intellectually:

1. Science requires evidence to determine a truth value. Religion claims complete knowledge of a particular truth despite all evidence to the contrary.

2. Science has an internal self criticism control through peer review, experimentation, publication and questioning. Religion cannot tolerate criticism and has invented words like ‘blasphemy’ to keep people submissive and humble.

3. Science rewards those who convincingly disprove established knowledge. Religion rejects and disciplines those who question its doctrines.

4. No questions are taboo in science. All questions are encouraged. Religions ask no questions, and certainly don’t encourage them. Religions simply hand out pre-packaged answers.

5. Science is always looking to improve our understanding of the truth, with the understanding that we may never know everything but we’ll certainly keep searching. Religion claims to have access to the ultimate truth despite the fact that most of what they know cannot be verified in any reliable way.

6. Science produces the goods. Science changes the world daily and every religious person depends on the products of scientific enquiry. Religion claims to offer the world only those things which humans can provide each other without the myths anyway. Community. Morality. Philanthropy. No Gods are required for these.

It is important to understand that Science doesn’t say, “There is no God”. Science says, “If there is a God then let’s all see him. If there is a God then let’s answer the following questions. If there is a God then let’s test what we think we know and asses the results.” Religion says, “There is a God and that’s that. Accept it and believe it and live as if it’s true and don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense.” Of course the danger of that type of thinking is that if the particular God demands death or sacrifice or suicide bombings then we’re all screwed, and we have been, for thousands of years!

The Agnostic folk of which I spoke at the beginning of this article tell me that Science doesn’t know everything. That there are mysteries in the universe we may never uncover. My response is YES, and…? There are thousands of gaps in the scientific understanding of the cosmos, and this might always be true. So we’ll keep searching for the answers and improving our knowledge. What purpose does it serve to fill all the gaps with God, only to remove him from the gap when we understand the reality? A mystery is simply a presently unexplained phenomenon, not a reason to believe in God. Science is quite happy with mysteries, it gives us an opportunity to ask questions and make discoveries. Religion provides me no intellectual comfort in the spaces of the unknown.

While the majority of the world’s population are steeped in religious and magical thinking; while we teach biblical creationism in schools as a valid history of our planet; while we have prayer meetings for flood victims instead of rebuilding cities; while we believe that plastic wrist bands with magnets can keep us healthy; while we believe that faith is a valid substitute for vaccinations in infants; while we believe that stem cell research is ‘of the Devil’; while we believe that Harry Potter is turning our children into suicidal witches… we will never be free as a species to see the universe for what it really is and evolve into the magnificent creatures we could become.

One of the ironic problems with a religious mindset is that you know everything, and everything you know is fact – and nobody else knows anything (of value).

“Why are we here?” “How did everything come to be?” “What does it mean to be alive?” “What happens when we die?” “What is right and wrong?” “How should we behave?” “What is wisdom?” “What is truth?” “How should we raise our kids?” “Does God exist?” “What is God’s will?”

These are all questions religion claims to know the precise answers to. The answers to these questions are not presented as possibilities or theories but as fundamental facts requiring no scientific evidence and tolerating no opposition.

Life was a lot simpler when I thought this way. When I woke up every morning I understood exactly how the world worked and felt comforted by my immortality, not to mention my ability to move mountains. God was on the throne and I was unstoppable. Anything anyone thought they knew about the universe was fundamentally flawed if that knowledge did not involve Jesus, and I was happy to reveal that wonderful truth to them. “Are you sick? Just trust in Jesus and you’ll be fine.” “Do you need money? Stop sinning (smoking, drinking and missing church services); pay your tithes (that’s 10%, but preferably more), and my God who owns all the cattle on a thousand hills will pour his abundance on you so that you cannot contain it.” Cattle? “Don’t worry about pesky academics and their so called knowledge – their knowledge is foolishness in the face of my faith!” “Why are babies born brain damaged? God has his reasons and we should be happy with that, (or maybe their parents sinned, or maybe it was Satan).” “Millions of people homeless in Haiti? Maybe God is just testing their faith, or the faith of all those he’s calling to help by going there to spread the gospel, (or maybe they all deserved it because of sin, or maybe it was Satan).

At any rate, everything was simple. Prayer, Faith, Sin, God or Satan could account for every phenomena in the universe from mega atrocities to the opulence of head pastors and successful businessmen. There was no need to question anything, and if you did, your questions were directed at the Bible from where you picked a sufficient number of scriptures to back whatever seemed an acceptable viewpoint in the context of your church and its leadership. The theories of science, despite all their practical applications (which I was more than happy to use to do God’s work) sounded arrogant and humanistic (other words for anti-Christian and ‘of the devil’). The only book worth reading was the Bible which I read about ten times (not nearly enough according to many preachers I respected). Anything based on logic or scientific reason was seen as ‘Greek’ rather than ‘Hebrew’ thinking and soon became a derogatory term for people who were more interested in the wisdom of man than God (a type of blasphemy). We had the facts. Other Christians had some of the facts. Non-Christians had none of the facts and needed to be saved!

During my period of de-conversion it became very clear to me that I would have to honestly ask all the questions again, from the beginning, and start reconstructing a view of the truth using a model that was more robust than simply recounting ancient myths or going with gut feel opinions. Only the scientific model is equally interested in disproving facts as it is in proving them, thereby keeping itself honest through rigid experimentation, peer review and welcoming contrary views that claim better empirical evidence. It is the fact that science is always questioning that makes it the most likely candidate for finding real answers.

Life is very different for me now. When I look at a thing I wonder about its nature. I read about everything and want to know exactly why people think one way or another. I realise every day how little I know and life has become the most amazing adventure of discovery. I’m not moved by emphatic statements like “God did it!” or “God said so!” – I want to know how you know what God did or said. I want to consider the other alternatives and find out what we as a species know already about each of those alternatives. The same applies in reverse – I’m not moved by statements from Skeptics about how inaccurate the Bible is or how dumb homeopathic remedies are – I want to know why and how they came to that conclusion.

Instead of saying this or that is truth, I now say this or that is what we currently think we know and I can’t wait for more to be uncovered. The universe, which I used to think was a pretty picture hung in the sky by God for our pleasure, never seemed too important to me considering it would soon be cleared away and replaced when Jesus returned, now seems teaming with possibilities and discoveries waiting to be stumbled upon. The universe is bigger and more spectacular than anything I ever imagined in my Christian world view and I just want to know more and more while I have the chemistry in my brain to know anything at all.

The one thing I wish for every religious person is that they might remove themselves from the influence and safety of their communities and churches for a time and ask, actually ask all the questions again for all the answers they have ‘known’ from childhood. Then in looking for the answers they would read and research the works of people who have come to different conclusions, and honestly evaluate those conclusions with an open mind. If after that you still think that God created the universe, and that you understand his will, and that heaven and hell exists, and that Adam sinned for all mankind in a garden with a talking snake, and that God answers prayers, and that we did not evolve… then God bless you!

Do yourself a favor and spend a few hours sitting at a busy intersection in a mall or a market, and watch the people pass by. Notice all the trends as they roll past like waves. The hairstyles, the clothing, the stuff people buy and the food people eat. These are the superficial things of course, but look deeper; consider how sheep-like we have all become in so many areas of our lives. I am horrified when I talk to intelligent, educated people who view the world with the same arrogance as the Romans or the Byzantines did, as though there culture or religion somehow makes them superior to all the other “barbarian” people that infest the earth; and yet these same people don’t seem to recognize the fact that they’re just behaving and thinking in the way they were trained to do since birth – just like everyone else. Anyone that voices an opinion contrary to the bleating of the masses is immediately criticized and demonized for their views by people who don’t seem to have any original views of their own. Anyone that chooses an unpopular career, academic, religious, spiritual, sexual or social path is frowned upon by a mass of anemic white sheep, many of which, no doubt, wish that they had the courage to be true to themselves too, if only they had an idea of who they really are in the first place.

I spoke to a shepherd of sheep, or possibly just a really big sheep, some time back and we were talking about what we would do if we had the power to change the world; his response was that he would institute world peace. He said that if everyone just followed the rules and got on with their jobs and families there would be no more war and the world would be a happy place. I’m sure my jaw dropped at the astounding illogic of his argument. I said, “Ok, whose rules would we have to follow?” He said, “All the normal rules and laws of state and Christianity.” I said, “Well why not institute the laws of Iran and Islam? I’m sure they think if everyone just fell in line with their way, the world would be a better place too.” Our conversation went back and forth for some time, but I realized that while someone thinks that their view is ‘morally’ superior and backed by their community, they seldom allow themselves the opportunity to see things from a different perspective – their paradigms are set.

Why are people so terrified of someone who does things differently? Is it because they’re unpredictable? There are those who think, “OK, you’re not part of my system, but tell me which system you are part of so I know which box to put you into.” When people ask me which church I go to and I say “none”, and then they ask if I’m a Christian and I say “no”, and then they ask what religion I am and I say “none”, they seem to take personal offense to it, as though somehow my views on God and religion will contaminate theirs; they look for some psychological problem because of course I must be hurt or in need of fixing if I don’t share their views. To try and convince them that I’m happy and free is an impossible task because their paradigm simply can’t reconcile the information; instead they must change me, they must convince me to return to the flock so that… they can sleep better or something. Sheep just don’t do salmon. I wonder how many Christians would remain Christian if the overwhelming majority of their churches converted to Shinto, or how many Muslims would remain Muslim if all but a handful converted to Christianity… just a thought. Someone recently told me that I have “retreated” into Atheism – I laughed out loud when I read it, firstly because I’m not really an Atheist, but mainly because Atheism is certainly no “retreat” in the third most churched country in the world – Atheism is the wrong end of a firing squad. I admire Atheists in the world of WASPs.

Of course sheepism and salmonism doesn’t apply only to religion, but all aspects of life and world view, although certainly religion influences all aspects of life. It applies to education, choice of career, the way we deal with money, kids, health, technology, cars, homes etc. Please note that being peace-loving and gentle doesn’t make you a sheep by default, nor does being aggressive and contrary make you a salmon. A salmon in the context of this article is someone who has questioned their own views and paradigms; who has crossed the line and engaged with people of other cultures and beliefs with a desire to understand and learn; who has wrestled with the texts of their culture that set out the rules; who has withheld judgment and listened to the enemy; and who has formulated their own opinion with no regard to its acceptability to anyone else. Here are some questions that sheep and salmon ask themselves:

Sheep ask

• Will my pastor agree with me?
• Will my parents agree with me?
• Will my friends agree with me?
• Will I be rejected?
• Will I be humiliated?
• Will I be punished?
• Will I get into trouble?
• Is everyone pleased with me?

Salmon ask

• Is it true?
• Is it real?
• Is it valid?
• Is it important?
• Is it necessary?
• Is it harmful?
• Do I understand it?
• Am I being true to myself?

Are you a Sheep or a Salmon?

Are we destroying the world? Are our natural resources about to run out? Has technology brought us to the brink of destruction? Should we be going green; using solar and wind power; becoming vegetarians; planting forests; etc? This post is a bit of a ramble about, well read it and see.

I have been struggling with these issues over the past two years or so and I am really grappling with both sides of the GREEN coin. Firstly, I am a technology addict. I LOVE gadgets of every kind. I own a Blackberry; Notebook; Netbook; Desktop PC; Ipod… and the list goes on. I don’t ever read user manuals because I love the challenge of discovering how things work and what to use them for. I make complicated excel formulas just for fun and love linking up multiple devices to create an audio/visual explosion. If I had more money my house would look like a Hi-Fi Corporation store. An interest in technology is part of my personality makeup.

On the flip side, I love the Earth. I was a boy scout for 7 years and couldn’t get enough of camping, hiking, abseiling, rowing, fishing and the like. If I don’t get into the outdoors at least twice a year I feel like I’m losing my mind. I love the sea; I love rivers; I love mountains; I love trees. My favorite part of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy has always been when the fellowship enters the forest of Lothlórien, home of the elves, the most beautiful place I could ever imagine living. Even now, watching that scene from the movie (Part 1: Fellowship of the Rings) gives me a sense that we’re doing life all wrong and that we should be more like those elves, living in harmony with nature.

I have seen Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” a few times already, and I feel that every human on the planet should watch it at least once – in fact, go check it out right now at http://www.climatecrisis.net. The message here is that our actions and lifestyles are having a serious effect on world climate and could result pretty soon in the extinction of millions of species of animals and the deaths of millions of human beings as heat and water levels continue to rise significantly. Having said that, I have also spoken to intelligent people that disagree with many of Gore’s views on things, including my most recent chat with a geography teacher… hmmm. As it turns out, many of the images on the movie were emotionally manipulative and completely unassociated with the claimed effects. These people also counter Gore’s arguments with other scientific studies, which don’t have a motivational movie, but do apparently demonstrate that global temperatures have been rising and falling for thousands of years with or without our help, and things like natural disasters, extinctions and ice ages happen all the time quite apart from our carbon emissions… and yet life goes on and people have a marvelous propensity for survival despite it all.

Let’s look at some of the dynamics of this whole debate.

Firstly, there is money involved, and money tends to have an impact on what we choose to be aware of – the quote from the movie is scary but true, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it”, amen to that brother! I think there are lots of very negative things happening in the world in the name of progress and industry that are being kept very quiet by those who make billions through these endeavors. Why invest in solar powered vehicles if we’re making a fortune off oil powered vehicles?

Then there is the issue of consequence. Ok, so we’re running out of oil and gas fast – then what? Well I guess the fear is that cars stop driving; trucks, trains and planes stop carrying goods and passengers around the world; the economy crashes and people are plunged back into a pre-industry subsistence type of life. So what? Is the idea of going back to a simple rural lifestyle that bad? My greatest dream in life is to move to the sea, grow my own vegetables, get out of the corporate carnage and write books while I catch fish. I’m not convinced that all our “progress” had made any significant improvement on our quality of life; our lives consist of nothing more than grasping for money so that we can afford all the trappings that help us achieve more money in a vicious never ending circle. I think that nature is like a market – when individual elements of the market don’t obey the rules, the market pushes those elements out or crashes and pushes everyone out and starts all over again. If the world can’t sustain humanity in its current state it might just crash all over humanity and force us to consider a different state of being. If Al Gore is right, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Then there’s the issue of truth and opinion. How many times have you gone on a diet because a convincing TV commercial said that ingredients X, Y and Z are bad for you and that ingredients A, B or C should immediately be introduced into your diet instead; only to find a year later that scientists have discovered that ingredients X and Y are not harmful at all and that not eating X or Y could lead to condition D; only for the whole theory to be turned on its head again three years later. Not everything you hear is true, whether Al Gore’s saying it, the president of America, Oprah or even this great blog… we need to learn to investigate truth from more than one angle. My personal view on this is that whether Al is right or wrong or somewhere in-between, it would be a great world to live in if we all changed our habits and became more Earth-friendly – I don’t want to live in a sterile concrete jungle, whatever the fate of the world.

I’m one of those that, like Al, hope we get our S#!T sorted out before the crash. I have to admit that for me it’s not about cuddly polar bears or disappearing Islands in the pacific – it’s about becoming great as a species; it’s about John Lennon’s dream of a brotherhood of man; it’s about evolving; it’s about having a place to go hiking and fishing on my holidays; it’s about discovering perpetual motion and human teleportation; it’s about looking out my lounge window at grass and trees; it’s about living in harmony with nature because that would be an amazing and healing way to live; it’s about not being a redneck; and it’s about a whole bunch of other things I might write a book about one day.

Would love to hear your views, please post comments.

In 360BC (or thereabouts) a Greek philosopher named Plato wrote a book which was to change the course of history. The book was called ‘the Republic’. Many of the principles suggested in this work became the foundation of modern western democracy. In this book he wrote a profound parable / analogy about a cave dwelling civilization which I will summarize for you.

In Plato’s cave there exists a civilization of people who are bound by their hands and feet and spend their lives sitting and staring at a blank cave wall, unable to turn around. Behind the strange group of people is a fire on a ledge and in front of the fire is a roadway with a wall. Between the fire and the wall people are walking back and forth holding up wooden objects (like elephants or trees). The people are hidden behind the wall but their objects are held up to stick out over the wall. The light of the fire projects shadows of the objects out onto the blank cave wall that the people are staring at. The only “truths” that these people understand are the shapes and movements of the shadows on the wall in front of them. We’ll call them the ‘Shadow People’. Shadow People reward those who are good at guessing which shadow will appear next and how it will move.

Plato describes what might happen if you freed a Shadow Person and asked him to look at the objects that are the cause of the shadows. He might be tempted to see the objects as unreal and the shadows as the only real truth because he would never have seen the objects before and have no name for them or language to describe them. And what would happen if that person were to try and describe what they had seen to the others? They might ridicule him and reject him for his wayward ideas. And if he was told to look at the fire it would hurt his eyes and he might want to go back to what was comfortable and familiar.

He then asks what would happen if our liberated Shadow Person was taken outside the cave entirely, into the sunlight, and shown real elephants and real trees. What would he make of them? Would he accept them as truth? Plato suggests that after some time the Shadow Person would acclimatize to his new reality and begin to understand it for what it was. He would finally be able to look at the sun and realize that the sun is in a way the cause of all other things. After this, could he go back into the cave? Would he ever be able to accept the ideas of the Shadow Civilization again? Could they ever accept or tolerate him? Is there anything he could say to them to make them believe what he had seen?

5 Simple truths from the cave    

1. We really don’t know all that much! Every civilization thinks they’re the pinnacle of all knowledge and wisdom. Every generation thinks they know better than the next. We all sit smugly in our own sense of rightness. The reality is that in some way we’re all staring at shadows on the wall. Ask yourself when last you ‘looked around’. When last did you have a serious look at all the things you think are real and true and reassess the facts. When last did you challenge an accepted norm in your culture or your society or your church etc?
2. Investigating the truth will get you into trouble. Shadow folk don’t like being told that they’re wrong. They don’t like having their comfort zones disturbed. They’re working hard at becoming the ‘best’ Shadow pro’s they can be and don’t want loose cannons messing with their plans for advancement and success. If you’re breaking free of your binds and have started looking around the cave, don’t expect a warm handshake or a friendly greeting. Prepare yourself for criticism and rebuke, but remember – there are worse things in life than getting into trouble!
3. The fire and the sun will hurt your eyes. When first you discover the light of truth it won’t be easy to deal with. Your current paradigms will reject what you’re seeing and your self-preservation instinct will scream “get the hell back to safety!!” Be courageous, in time you will meet others who have walked the same road and there will be support and understanding. You may shed tears as you realize that you have wasted time on meaningless things, but consider these things school fees. You’ve learned some lessons and that’s never a waste.
4. Don’t get comfortable in the cave. You may have turned around and seen the fire and the objects and think, “Now I know the truth. Great! I can relax and settle down here with the wall people.” Your journey has only just begun! You still have a long dark path that leads you out of the cave and into the sun, and when you get outside its going to take the rest of your life to work out what it is you’re looking at. Never be satisfied with what you now know!
5. You will have to leave some stuff behind. As you embark on a journey of self discovery and truth there will be people and things you leave behind because they don’t belong in the new season of your life. You will have Shadow Friends who come with you and others who don’t. Don’t be scared to say goodbye when you need to. You may still end up seeing those people in the sunlight in time to come.

Religion is a mystical, manipulative and brain deadening system designed to control the weak and gullible majority for the benefit of a few hypocritical ‘leaders’ who decide all the rules. Yes, I am very passionate about this topic! Organized religion has been responsible for more carnage, hatred, war and bloodshed in the last 6000 years of our history that any other causes or motivation. Sure, it could be argued that some religious wars were really about money, territory or power; but ultimately those are the benefits of religion anyway, so the causes are interchangeable. The ‘macro’ evidence of wars, crusades and inquisitions speak for themselves, but often we overlook the ‘micro’ consequences that occur in the lives of individual adherents of organised religions; billions of hapless individuals who have had, to some degree, their free will replaced with unquestioning submission to a set of rules and regulations stipulated by a holy man or holy book; their time wasted with meaningless activities aimed at keeping the sheep in line; and their money and personal resources milked for a ridiculous cause that nobody is allowed to question.

I, like millions of others in my country was raised on church. ‘Christened’ in an Anglican church, ‘confirmed’ in a Methodist church and ‘baptised’ in the middle of Africa somewhere. I went to ‘Sunday School’ where I learned all the biblical stories and was told “it’s all true”. If I questioned anything I got some lame explanation like, “the bible says so” or, “don’t worry about that now – one day you’ll understand” or, “just pray about and the Holy Spirit will reveal the answer”. I started to believe, like so many others, that the less logical a thing was and the more I just believed what I was told ‘by faith’ and not evidence, the more I pleased God and the greater my ‘chances of getting into heaven’. I was so taken by the whole concept that I joined a mission organisation and spent the next few years travelling the globe preaching and teaching with the goal to get people everywhere ‘saved’. With each new ‘convert’ I felt I was pleasing God more and securing my position in the church and in heaven. I then joined the staff of a church as a pastor and finally even led a church of my own.

A few years into all this my brain started to rebel. On one hand I was a Christian mercenary trying to get everyone to agree with my view; but the thinking, rational, free part of me was saying “whoah – stop – look – think! What the hell are you doing? This is not what people need.” I started to become aware of what was really taking place in churches all over the world – and not just churches but temples and mosques and synagogues and all the other centres for religious brainwashing. Even more frightening was the fact that I was one of the brainwashers. I was using my public speaking ability and motivational skill to perpetuate a system of control and fear. It took a few years to separate myself from the system, so strong was its hold on me, that when I finally broke free entirely I literally wept for all the damage I had done to people’s lives. Now that I am free to think and be who I really am I am growing as a spiritual being and not stagnating as a blind shepherd. I am growing in love, in joy, in peace, in intimacy, in tolerance and in my awareness of the real truths that operate in the world and the universe at large. I don’t need to know that God (or my pastor) loves me, to love myself. I don’t have to attend arbitrary meetings to feel like I am making good use of my time. I don’t have to ‘go to church’ to feel like I am connecting with God. Nobody can use the threat of hell to convince me to obey anything unquestioningly. I don’t use ‘faith’ as a replacement for logical thought. I have no fear of being rejected by any particular community anymore. The world is my oyster – I’m fearless – I’m free.

Here are some things people need to understand about religion:

1. Religion is based on fear and manipulation

How do you take a bunch of potentially intelligent individuals and get them to believe… mmm… that the Bible is a book written by God over thousands of years using the hands and pens of various human beings, and that its all literally 100% true in every detail, despite the fact that there are multitudes of versions, some which include more chapters than others. Or that currently it is God’s will that one man marry one woman and that he ‘changed his mind’ from the days when he was cool with David and Solomon marrying hundreds of woman. Or that God was cool with slavery in 50AD but he agrees with us now that it’s not so cool anymore. Or that God cares about what you wear to church or how many minutes of ‘quiet time’ you spend with him each day. Or that God can speak to some guy leading a church in… Winklesfontein… but not to directly to you. Oh, the list is endless. Millions of illogical, contradictory superstitions are happily entertained by thinking people everywhere. How? Through fear and manipulation.

Think about it. What would happen if you were to tell your leader that you doubt God’s existence? Either he would laugh and roll his eyes, implying that you must be stupid to think that way (i.e. playing on your low self esteem and need to be accepted); or he would frown and accuse you of blasphemy and warn you not to question God (i.e. playing on your fear of hell or getting into ‘trouble’). Either way there’s little chance of having a rational conversation that involves empirical proof. The church, like any other organisation or business requires finances to thrive. How do they get their finances? They scare people into giving or manipulate them into thinking that tithing is a personal get rich quick scheme. People are told that if they don’t give, the money they keep will be cursed anyway… oh hell, then we’d better give like crazy. How do you get a bunch of people to keep giving and submitting? You gather them together every week for a brain alignment and fear casting session – it’s called church. But no one would willingly attend such insanity if they understood what was happening to them, so the religion uses fear and manipulation to coerce attendance. “If you don’t attend church you will displease God (a really dumb thing to do)”. “Why weren’t you at church on Sunday? God can only help you if you stay warm in the fire of fellowship”. “You know, if you stay away from church you’re really out in the wilderness where the ‘Devil’ can have his way with you”… and so on.

In fact, the “Fear of God” is the foundation of most religions. When your brain is bombarded with a tidal wave of contradictory and improbable notions the best thing you can do (if you want to remain acceptable and included in society) is to stop thinking and just bow down in fear and submission… aaaah, now doesn’t that feel better? Everything will be just fine. See you on Sunday. Don’t forget to smile and bring your bible. We really love you… just don’t disagree with us.

2. Religion kills

As I said earlier, on a macro scale this is easy to see. Millions of Christians and Muslims died in the crusades. Millions of innocent people died at the hands of Roman Catholic inquisitors and Christian emperors and kings. Thousands of Irish and English people died in the cross fire between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. Many innocent Arabs we’re killed by an expanding Muslim nation under Mohammed. How many have died in India from Hindu/Islamic violence? The closed and fearful doctrines of religion can only lead to intolerance and conflict on a frightening scale. The killing I refer to in the title however is that of the individual human spirit. Religion has for years slowed down the progress of science and human creativity. When Galileo claimed that the earth was not at the centre of the universe, but instead revolved around the sun, he was incarcerated by the church and held prisoner for the rest of his life (they probably would have burned him alive had he not been as well known). Copernicus came up with the ideas before him but didn’t do much with it for fear of being killed for his ideas. The same was true for many mathematicians and scientists of the dark ages. It seems that only when an idea has enough critical mass acceptance does the church start wondering what to do with it – and then someone works out how to take the “new idea” and incorporate it into the current doctrine in such a way that it seems it was always there to begin with.

I have seen hundreds, if not thousands of people desperately trying to gain acceptance from their religious leaders and looking for a platform to be recognised for their unique gifts and talents, only to be turned away, put on the shelf or remoulded into the image of the church until the gift is dead and useless. I have seen capable, strong, talented individuals reduced to mindless cattle obeying every whim and fancy of the system – no longer capable of open, philosophical conversation or common sense. Religion replaces free will with mindless obedience; honesty and openness with fake smiles and insincere intentions; real love with sacrificial duty; passion with subservience; life with paralysis; truth with dogma and mysticism; facts with fiction; stewardship with religious stealing; inspiration with manipulation; joy with fear. I am embarrassed to have ever been part of it, but I am also thankful that I can relate to those who are in it and hopeful that I can point them to freedom. Religion does not make a man greater, it makes him weak. It does not make a man wiser, it makes him dull. It does not point to the truth; it keeps us from pursuing the truth. Religion kills our spirit, weakens our mind and steals our freedom.

3. Religion makes no sense

There are so many contradictory and changing doctrines in the church it’s really quite difficult to keep up. In fact it’s impossible to keep up, which is why the average Christian can turn their brains off and just accept everything they hear as truth. If we don’t actually process anything it’s fairly easy to go with the “God knows everything, I’ll just trust him…Keep it simple,” theory. Why is it that we take some scriptures literally (tithe 10%, fellowship regularly, homosexuals are going to hell) and others we pass off as being ‘historical’ or ‘contextual’ (cover your heads, men and women must sit separately in church, don’t eat unclean animals). The reality is that the leadership of the church will justify whatever it suits them to justify and the people will accept whatever justification is fed to them. If the logic is challenged then people resort to the old classics, “Don’t question God!” or “God told me to do it” or “If you spend more time in prayer God will reveal this truth to you” or “You’re not spiritual enough”. Yowzers! Well if that’s the case then full sail ahead – no more questions from me – no-sir-ee sir – whatever you say.

There are elements of macro evolutionary theory that I don’t buy because there’s no substantial evidence. There are also core foundations of religion that are nothing more than elaborate children stories based on imagination with no substantial evidence. Telling me that I should believe that God exists because there’s a story in a book about someone who chatted to God… just doesn’t cut it. Telling me that the world was created in 7 days about 6000 years ago is insane. We may as well believe that Smurfs exist in the centre of the earth – there’s about as much evidence. Telling me that the world was populated by Adam’s kids inbreeding with each other and then that it was all wiped out to start again with four couples and a boatload of animals in Turkey… do you think I’m retarded? Are you really going to try and convince me that an intelligent being called GOD sits in a place we can’t see or find called HEAVEN? And this God who has the power to create everything that exists, is worrying about whether or not I have sex before marriage and drink too much and has an eternal war going on with an entirely evil angel called the DEVIL whom God himself created?! And the irony of it all is that Christians think that their religion is somehow more ‘advanced’ or ‘civilized’ than the pagan religions of old or the Greek pantheon of Olympian Gods who slept and argued with each other. It’s all the same: Hindu, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Baptist, Catholic, and Charismatic – it makes no difference. If you’re in a religion then you’re accepting a bunch of arbitrary rules, doctrines and bedtime stories as ultimate truth; you’re blindly following a group of leaders; and you’re living in fear of hell. On one hand you accept that the earth is round and that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, because it can be proven, yet on the other hand you you’re convinced about heaven and hell for which there is no proof, logic or reasonable argument except that someone wrote about it in a book thousands of years ago.

Conclusion

I love people, even religious people. Many of my good friends are religious people and they have no doubt about my positive feelings for them. I hate religion, because it corrupts and weakens and manipulates and controls, but most of all it’s plain rubbish. Yes, there are many religious organisations that do humanitarian work and help feed and clothe and house people – but I believe that the people doing this work would be doing so regardless of their religion because they’re generous and loving people. I believe the world would be a more loving, tolerant, peaceful and happy place if there were no religions at all.

I’ll be posting a lot more on this topic in days to come.