Thou Shalt Not Steal and Other Delusions.

Religion. It’s a delicate subject and one must advocate a strict and considered approach before blindly slandering it for all its merit. For that reason I would like to say that every point I make is my own opinion and I wouldn’t like to offend anyone.



Religion brings about a vast quantity of good to the world, in no way am I denying that but considering the amount of bad it brings to the world I often think why isn’t all religion abolished? We all have our own beliefs and faith, I personally don’t know how I would go from one day to another without faith. Believing in something is enough for me, I don’t need rules and regulations to abide by and I don’t necessarily know what it is I’m believing in: I’m just happy to feel that there is something watching over us, protecting us and guiding us through everyday life troubles.

You may be sat there thinking, what good does religion bring? So I’d like to clarify a few points.

- Religion brings people together within a community; it makes them feel like they belong to something.
- Religion is more often than not charitable, helping those less fortunate than ourselves.
- Religion often puts suffering into a wider acceptable context.

And the bad points?

- Religion causes arguments, unlawful disputes and even wars.
- Religion often forces non-believers to believe and be a part of it.
- In many places across the world religion is deemed fact and not opinion.

Religion gets away with a lot; many religions openly slander sects of people, (particularly gays) blindly without any real evidence. From my opinion the bible condones homosexuality, though read from a different perspective it slanders it.
Therefore homosexuality is wrong: fact – What? No.

Religion seems to take ancient texts, interpret them how they want to and then deem that fact. It's ludicrous if you ask me. The commandments for instance, there weren't ten commandments at all, there were actually around 252. I guess the top ten favourites were chosen and the rest discarded. So, if the commandments are God's words and we respect and praise him so much, why are we ignoring 242 of his commandments? The option to repent when you sin seems like a bit of a cop out to me. Don't do any of these things or you will not get into heaven - Well, if you kill somebody and apologise that's all good...

Again these commandments leave no room for loop-holes. I'm starving to death and a man with incredible riches choses to burn food in front of me for fun. I'm not allowed to steal any? - Okay, I'm being facetious but I hope you see my point.

The persecution of non-believers, gays and even women across the world due to religion is ridiculously disproportionate to the kind of societies we should be living in. In any other context this would not be overlooked and it would be stopped. In my opinion religion seems to have its own right to vigilante justice, violence and even segregation. These things are all outlawed in most parts of the world, yet when religion comes into it the law turns a blind eye. I personally think it is an outrage.

Hypocrisy within religion I find often proves the point I’m trying to make. Where there is hypocrisy there is usually something not right. How the Catholic Church and the pope can discriminate so widely against homosexuals and not be persecuted for it is beyond me. Particularly after harbouring and sheltering paedophiles. This is a risky topic and without extensive research into the matter I don’t feel I have the right to talk about it, so I’ve made my brief point and I’m going to move on.


I see no reason why religion needs to be organised, I see no reason why religion needs rules, if you believe, you believe, why force those beliefs onto everyone else?

Okay, I do realise I’m being a bit of a hypocrite here, this argument is a bit one sided and in a written context it’s difficult for you to argue back so in a way I am forcing my beliefs onto you. I apologise and would welcome any discussion on religion. If you are strongly apposed to what I’m saying, please leave a comment.

My entire argument essentially boils down to the fact that religion is widely associated with positivity; it isn’t that often that the negative side of religion is openly discussed. Religions are based on spiritual traditions and I don’t understand why they can’t be just that. The bible stories a lot of us are read as young children are positive and teach us morale values, why can’t Christianity be just that?

I personally don’t believe that religion should be passed onto future generations; I believe children should be encouraged to have faith and be given a wide span of religions to chose from should they wish to. Children are often raised into religious families and adopt that religion as their own without being shown the spectrum of religion and where they feel they best fit in. I know little of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism or any other faith. I was taught Christianity in school, we touched upon the other religions in secondary school but never went in depth.

Does this not strike anyone as absurd? You wouldn’t show a child the colour red and no other colours and then ask them to select their favourite, so why would you show them one religion and then ask them to choose their faith?