FAITH

It is hard for us to keep on believing, day after day, despite being jostled by new
scientific revelations that keep challenging their world view. The most devout must find
it hard to hang on to their faith against the growing mountain of evidence that keeps
challenging the foundations of that faith. One would have to condition oneself to either
reject this new information outright by denouncing the messenger or work hard at finding
ways of reinterpreting that information so that it no longer conflicts with one's beliefs.
And with the ongoing, almost exponential growth of scientific knowledge that modern
computers make possible, this must require a constant vigilance on the part of the
faithful. One would have to keep repeating affirmations over and over again  insisting
that there" is a god, oh yes, there is a god," whenever doubt crosses the mind.
 No wonder religious leaders spend such prodigious amounts of money and energy in their
drive to keep the Lie alive. There are over 1700 religious broadcasting outlets in the
United States alone, most of them affiliated with the Christian National Religious
Broadcasters Association.  There are also some three dozen religious networks operating on
the AM and FM bands, including the Eternal Word - Global Catholic Network, Praise
Broadcasting, American Family Radio and Trinity Broadcasting.  In addition, religious
media outlets such as Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network stream content to
commercial distributors.  Religious stations also operate widely on the short-wave band,
and like many radio-television outlets, distribute their content on the Internet. A
Canadian-based company known as Galcom International has been manufacturing special radios
which are pre-tuned to evangelical radio station frequencies.  The company also provides
transmitters used by missionary groups in remote areas to spread their proselytizing
messages.  The radios cost about $20 each, and over 375,000 have been manufactured and
shipped to evangelical groups in 101 countries where they are distributed. Add to that all
the TV programs and the thousands of newsletters and pamphlets and all the sermons
emanating from a surfeit of churches that exhort you to believe  and you can see how
desperately they try to keep the Lie alive!
 
No one runs around trying to convince us that the world is round anymore, but even after
thousands of years , religious leaders are still frantically trying to convince us that
they can interpret some deity's will to our advantage.. Why. why  this need to  keep
trying to sell the same thing over and over again?  Why keep putting all this effort into
trying to believe in something which requires such ceaseless, never ending effort? Why not
just relax and enjoy life?
 Well, for the same reason that tobacco companies will  risk the hostility of the public
and expensive lawsuits to sell their lethal product - because it brings in money and, most
importantly, that money brings in power. People do not give that up easily.   So for this
same reason religious leaders keep selling their product, a scam-- and a particularly
scurrilous scam at that --  that offers you safe passage into another life after this one.
A scam that brings in bundles and costs nothing to say, albeit it must be said with great
gusto, with plenty of confident affirmations -- as one should expect from any experienced
scam artist.
 
But is this scam necessary? Probably few today actually buy the concept of a life after
death and they still stick with their church--or at least to their religion. Fact is,
churches have progressed a long way from their role as God's enforcer. Most denominations
support charities, they sponsor clinics to help the poor, the homeless, and many even have
psychologists who can help people and families in trouble. And our western world  is in
need, because of so many cut backs in the social services, all the help it can get.  No
longer is their advice to just say ten Hail Mary's and go home and repent. They are just
as contemporary as  most other modern institutions. They will, in my opinion, survive very
well-  at least the good ones- when they drop their supernatural claims.

 

Why they want to hang on to all that absurd stuff that ancient writers poured out in this day and age when surely their claim of a deity run universe would be far more plausible if they just pointed out the magnificence of this universe as their raison de etre. Take out the Bible and the Koran's sex-obsessed view of the world  and the subjugation of women and hatred of gays would be a thing of the past.
 
The benefits, in my opinion are enormous. No need to desperately seek consensus because
you cannot supply material evidence, which encourages hostility and often war between
different cultures. And once we free ourselves from the debilitating effect of believing
in things not proven by material evidence, rumors will no longer turn us against each
other and the human race can move on, using a rational approach to all problems and
finding the best pragmatic solutions to the challenges we face in life. and I'm sure there
will be a lot of religious leaders who will welcome not having to spread what they must
know are lies. They do read the Bible
.