"Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand."

• Mark Twain -

I would offer this: to the extent that Xianity is a moral code that gives practical proper guidance to living life in this world, then for me it has some validity, even though I happen to believe that near identical moral codes can be followed without reference to what to me is a superstitious belief in some omnipotent deity that takes a personal interest in our lives.

To the extent that Xianity emphasises the delay of justice or personal happiness until the afterlife, the patient bearing of fardels, tolerance of the law's delay, or the oppressor's wrong, then it becomes what it has been for most of it's existence, a tool of the powerful to control the ignorant masses.

One thing I think Xianity leaves unexamined, and can be seriously called to account for, is the effect it has on the mental health of its followers.

Poor self-esteem is the pandemic underlying cause of most mental problems. We have drummed into us the following axioms:

First: that you are, flawed, unworthy, intrinsically rotten to the core of your soul.

Second: that you are unable to redeem your broken nature through any amount of worthy actions, personal virtue and/or willpower.

Third: that your only hope of redemption is through the agency of a supernatural being.

We are taught this from the earliest days of childhood, by the powerful authority figures that your childish self looks upon as having near god-like powers themselves.

We are taught this before we've developed even the ability to question the validity of the beliefs being injected into your head by those figures,

I cannot help but believe that is the main contributor, the Primum Mobile, as it were, to this our lamentable cultural condition.

One need look no further than the words of the the legendary preacher of the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, as a classic example of this type of conditioning... "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours." While preaching this doctrine with this degree of fire and brimstone scare tactics is currently out of mainstream Xian fashion, it is still not unknown, and there is still no basic contradiction with the foundation of Xian theology, that we are flawed, and doomed to eternal damnation without the intervention of Jesus.

Xianity, of course, is not the only religion to make sure and begin the process of assimilation into the faith in those delicate formative years. In fact, nearly all of them do. "As the twig is bent..."

If you are of the faith, please don't take this as a personal affront, but it is my belief that any attempt to inculcate faith into minds younger than the mid to late teens is unfair to the point of being nothing more than a widely accepted form of abuse.

Of course, if you are of the opinion that the faith in question is the One True Path, then you would be remiss in not taking every advantage in indoctrinating the young, wouldn't you? That's how the Muslims manage to keep a supply of suicide bombers in the pipeline, by effective training starting in the cradle. I'm not implying a moral equivalence here, as the ends do validate the means at times, (or not), but the parallels do exist.

I will offer one final story.

While I served in the Marine Corps, I served with two brothers, the Tunez brothers. They were born in Cuba. Their father, a dentist, managed to smuggle his family out when they were young, sometime in the mid sixties.

But not before they had attended the first few grades of school under Castro's regime. I have this story from them.

When recess time came around the teachers would tell the children to lay their heads on the table and close their eyes. Then they were instructed to pray to Jesus to bring them some ice cream for a treat.

Of course, nothing happened.

Then they were told to pray to Fidel Castro and the Communist Party for some ice cream. As they did so, the teacher and some assistants would pass around little portions of ice cream. The kids would open their eyes to the treats.

Outrageously offensive, is it not? But I ask you, how different is that in effect, if not technique, to what most people do to their children by subjecting them to religious instruction at an early age, always, of course, presented to them as if this particular sect's doctrine is the One True Way?

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Sinner: "Please, I'm sorry if I was bad. I did my best. Can I come in?"

God: "No heaven for you. I love you like my child, you are my child, in fact, but, go to hell."

Sinner:"Noooooo! Not the brimstone and the red hot pitchforks up my ass for Eternity!"

God: "You had your chance, dude, just like everybody else."

Sinner: "But Faith is a gift, it says so right in Your Word, and you didn't give it to me! That's not fair."

God: "Don't get technical with me, sonny. Begone, before I really get tough."

Sinner: (wailing and gnashing of teeth as the demons start to drag him down...)

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I contend that we are both Atheists. I just believe in one fewer God than you. When you understand why you dismiss all other possible Gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

• Stephen Roberts -

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