If I told you there was a little man sitting under Sydney Harbour bridge who was invisible, knew the thoughts and desires of every person in the world, was omnipotent but left us all to get on with destroying the planet and each other while he totted up the points each of us were earning so when we died, those he preferred would go up into the clouds to sing, while everyone else went down somewhere else to burn forever…. You would surely ask for proof of my assertion. Yet you do not ask for proof of a similar story that is derived from 2500 year old legends of a Middle Eastern desert tribe. Why not?

A brave try, alphafemale, but you shouldn't expect too much enlightenment.

I have had some interesting conversations with some highly intelligent people who also happen to be religious. No amount of logic will convince them that they are delusional, and they invariably attempt at some point to tilt the discussion their way with the question "so what do you believe?"

I tell them that I believe that we humans have evolved to the point where there are far more questions than answers. Not perfect, but a good starting-place from which to discuss their fantasies.

One thing I have noticed is that they find it equally hard to understand why I don't "believe", as I find it that they do.

And another is that I invariably enjoy the discussions.

Childhood indoctrination, during which children are taught to switch off rational thinking when it comes to gods, has a permanent effect. It effectively lobotomises a portion of the brain so that even as adults they cannot see there is something strange in believing a superman in the sky is the primum mobile and personal saviour. Short of a partial brain transplant, these people can never recover, and no matter how intelligent they may appear in other respects, they are mental cripples when it comes to their religion. Pity is the only humane response. It’s a shame they don’t feel pity for those they oppress.

ybgirp, don't loose hope. It is possible to get healed, I've been there and so have some other posters in these forums.

R0bert

Question: Why are they all wrong and only one right, without reference to the bible, which is not enough evidence.

Question: When a religion hates another religion so intensely why is it forgiveable in their gods eyes?

Question: Klu Klux Klan have christian beliefs. Believe they are the only children of God, that they are the one true race. Why are they not allowed to be free in their beliefs?

Look up psychopathy, you'll see a perfect example of monotheism. Then equate that to the behaviour of unevolved infants, when found out in doing wrong, they pout and pass blame to anyone even their siblings, making up fantasy to cover their failings. There's no difference between any monotheist faction, they're all outdated, false, barbaric, infantile and delusionally despotic.

When confronted by truth, a psychopath will revert to fantasy, making up as they go along, what they want to be true in the hope they can convince people their delusions are real. Unlike in the past when people were un-knowledgeable about the world, they could bluff and suppress people with their fear imposing wrath, now people can search for themselves and what monotheistic believe is becomes clearer. You see this in their posts, unintelligible imaginings from an old mythical novel in attempts to make some sort of sense out of stupidity.

Until evolution leaves these unevolved behind, we'll have to put up with their delusional dishonest rantings. The truth is seen in Boaz,s "By their fruit you will know them". (Jesus)' and Michael4Love, “Because God is Love.”.

Yet the worldwide verifiable and viewable expression is, god is, vengeance, suppression, war, because its illusional power is unsustainable without the use of force.

You see it in their call to destroy other factions, their use of ethnic and cultural cleansing throughout history, the answers are all there to see.

Alphafemale

I don't recall ever describing you as blunt or cold. In fact I don't think that I have made any personal comments about you at all. Please enlighten me, as I find I frequently agree with your POV, and am mystified why you have attributed these comments to me.