‘Religion is the opium of the masses’
- Clearly showing his views on religion.
I believe that religion is the cause of many things, and without it, there would in a way be a ‘utopia’. Religion is the cause of about 65% of the problems with this planet. Religion causes a contradiction of beliefs from two or more groups of people, and sparks a war; for instance, the Serbs and Muslims – they have a conflict in ‘religious beliefs’ and they fight because one another doesn’t see ‘god’ the way others do. The same thing is happening in Ireland, between Protestants and Catholics.
The root of all religion is fear of the unknown; fear of death and fear of a meaningless universe. Religion feeds upon fear and needs it to survive. It encourages weakness. Men have been taught to "trust in god" and rely upon divine intervention in daily life instead of finding real strength in themselves.
Most children are raised to purposely believe a particular religion and tend not to study other religions; to raise a child by religion is wrong, they should not take part in one until they are old enough to make intelligent decisions on it. Otherwise, it allows the fear to be engraved into belief and the loss of reason. Religion is the corrupter of life, it forges lies of reward or punishment in afterlife, distracting people off what is truly valuable in life. It makes credulity and ignorance virtue.
So in conclusion, as an atheist, I think that people who are religious believe in religion because they need hope, and are not aware of the logical, rational and scientific views.
Often someone will read their religious book and find it inspiring and uplifting and say "how can anyone not believe in something so beautiful", on the contrary the only find it inspiring merely on the grounds that they believe it already.
Religions are dogmatic - they assert information without any proof, and are intolerant – they do not accept other beliefs.
The true role of religion is to comfort people, to guide them and to provide a worldview and a general frame for behaviour.
When people don't care for the truth, or feel uncomfortable about it, or simply haven't been offered a choice, then they turn to religion; when they don't know what choices to make and what is right or wrong, they look for a superior being to instruct them.
The incompatibility between science and religion is simply this: a scientist will not believe anything until he sees it; a religious man will not see anything until he believes in it. (Charles J. C. Lyall)
Religion is a prison for the mind.
Worst of all this is that most religious groups seem interested not only in enforcing their views over the acknowledged believers, but also over the rest of the population. Nobody gets a chance to think otherwise.
The buffer-people, the ritualist and the nominal believers (i. e. those whose belonging to the religion solely because of their upbringing), are not offered the choice or the proofs. Religion doesn't have them, and militant anti-religious groups are too rude for a general public with a mostly superstitious and religious substrate.
We know religion and science are not fully compatible. Science cannot yet answer the fundamental questions that arise in human beings, such as "Why am I here?" and "How must I behave?". It's possible that science will never be able to answer them. Religion doesn't really have the answers either, but it forcefully claims it does, and people feel inclined to believe it, at least while there isn't an alternative.
Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton)
If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed, and colour, we would find some other causes for prejudice by noon. (George D. Aiken)
