We kill for it, we dedicate our lives to it, we judge others based on it, we go to war for it and we allow it to consume us to the point of true “faith”, but at the end of the day, religion (see “God”) is a sickness.

I was born to a technically Christian mother and guided by a very Christian grandmother. I attended church services and Sunday school sporadically within the Protestant sect and was baptized by the same at the age of eight. Until I was 15, I was technically a Christian; than I started to think. The next six years of my life were dedicated in part to my clutching at a greater understanding of religion and the role it played in my life and I pored over the Bible and many other religious texts in search of an answer to the most important question I had ever asked myself to that point: why doesn’t any of this make any sense?

At the age of 20 I finally decided that I must be an atheist; I could see nothing sensible in the Bible or any other religious text and my conclusion was that, if the only god being presented to me were one of the major religious cults that I was familiar with (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc), than there could simply be no god. My understanding of the nature of the universe was non-existent, but I was intelligent enough to realize that I should no sooner put my faith into the Bible than into any other badly written and badly researched historical text. The Bible and related books seemed to me to be nothing more than a terribly inaccurate account of the world and its creation.

I quickly realized, however, that atheism didn’t make any more sense than organized religion. Certainly something created the universe, something outside of time and space as we understand it to exist; surely there was a god after all! I made an official switch to agnosticism and it was the smartest and most beneficial move that my mind has ever made. I discovered Buddhism and the ancient teachings of intelligent and thoughtful men who came before me and made these same discoveries and I combined those teachings with my decided view of agnosticism in order to shape a philosophy of life that made sense to me.

I have to admit that, following my complete realization of the falsity of Christianity, I began to hate the religion furiously. I railed against the belief, the dogma, the people. I looked around and saw so many people who believed what seemed to me to be absolute foolishness and I lost a great deal of faith in humanity in general. It took me nearly five years to balance my view of religion with a general sense of faith in people in general. I learned to have compassion for those with such beliefs because I learned to understand and have empathy for the causes.

People are afraid of life. At one time or another all clearly thinking people should be afraid of life! We are dropped in the middle of this vast universe with no knowledge of how we got here, what we’re supposed to do or where we’re going. In viewing people with religious beliefs through a compassionate lens, I was able to understand the need for the creation of myths and religion. From the worship of the sun and moon to the worship of a potentially historical figure named Jesus, it has simply been the natural human tendency to make efforts to explain away the things that we fear due to our lack of understanding.

Christianity, while often well-intentioned in its doctrine, is a horrible delusion. It causes people who might otherwise have a huge impact on rational and philosophical thought through the humility of admitting that they cannot understand everything to instead believe that they know everything. This idea of one person or group knowing more than another person or group lead to the brainwashing and mass murder of the Crusades to the jihads and holy wars that the human race continues to fight today.

Monotheistic belief is simply the greatest single obstacle to the natural evolution of the mind facing humanity today. Science and technology are allowing us to understand more and more about our universe and its creation and there is a necessity for an open, humble mind as we analyze the results of our explorations and experiments.

The belief in any doctrine, Christianity included, is akin to a virus in your mind. It restricts rational thinking, negates humility and is the greatest source of judgment and bloodshed in the history of our race. If you believe in a monotheistic “God” or any other man-made myth in order to better understand life and your place in it, you are pulling the wool over your own eyes.

There is most definitely a god of some kind, though I use the word loosely. I am of the personal belief that, simply put, everything is everything. The source of creation and consciousness exists within every person, every object, every piece of time and to look anywhere but within for spiritual guidance is a waste of time. Similarly, depending on a mythological belief to help to explain the world, creation or anything else is an equal waste of time.

Look within yourself for god in the form of consciousness. Let go of the idea of a soul, heaven, hell and most importantly, let go of the idea that you know anymore than anyone else. Look outside of yourself, towards the tools that science offers us, for answers as to creation and physical existence.

We’re all in the same boat, wading through life together. Humankind has subscribed to thousands of different faiths and beliefs but there is only one truth for us, today: we just don’t know. We need to stop grasping at the crutch of false answers and instead greet these mysteries with open eyes and study and an acceptance of what we do know of ourselves. Monotheistic belief is a virus of delusion and stupidity; luckily, it is the easiest virus in the world to rid yourself of!

photo by Quiplash!

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