Using Me!

Why I can't take religion seriously

I don’t want to talk here about specific issues within different Scripture but just about Religion in general and the thought processes that started in my mind around the age of 14 or 15 which ultimately led me to Agnosticism and hence to the state we call Atheism. I may have considered these things earlier but it was around that age that I began to give serious thought to at least some of the issues I’ll outline below.

My very first doubt, and I remember this very specifically, was roused when I realised that there was something intrinsically wrong with having multiple religions. At first I tried to rationalise that every religion was actually worshipping the same God and, despite their differences, that was ok and therefore most people could still go to Heaven. However it soon became obvious to me that the differences were too large and I had to wonder, “If God wanted to be known/worshipped in a specific way SURELY he has the ability to make sure we all know that!?”.

Someone actually told me in church once that no-one in the world had the excuse that they had not been exposed to the true word of God and that therefore everyone had had the chance to decide to follow the right way or not. The unspoken conclusion therefore was that it was just and proper that those who chose not to should go to Hell. This astonished me. Even as a child I could see quite clearly that if I had been brought up as a Muslim or a Hindu and some priest came to my town and said ‘Christianity is right. You better convert now!’ I would be thinking right back ‘No, [insert religion] is right. You are the one who needs to convert!’.

So if there were one true religion and everyone else is wrong then no matter which one is right the vast majority of people are condemned to Hell simply for an accident of birth!

So after this, although I still believed in ’something’, I had already reached the conclusion that none of the religions could be right and that God knew whether you were a good person or not, irrespective of what you had been taught. God would decide whether I would go to Heaven or Hell and no clergyman was ever going to tell me otherwise.

From there to Atheism took a long time – thanks to all that brainwashing! – but mainly it revolved around the nagging thought that if there was a God wouldn’t he make it patently obvious what he wanted? No benevolent God could make things so vague and then punish you for infinity if you got it wrong. There are far too many differences between the various messages preached by the different factions for my previous stance of ‘just be good or bad’ to have lasted for ever. When it came down to it a Utilitarian Humanism approach to life just made more sense. You do good because it benefits you to do so. No God needs to be invoked.

Now many years later with a good deal of thought and reading behind me I still think Epicurus sums it up better than I ever could:

Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent.
Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?