FAQs on religion

FAQs on religion

Which religion has killed the most people in the name of religion?

Atheist materialism. Indeed atheism has killed more people than all other religions put together.

Is religion racist?

Religion is not intrinsically racist, but some individual religions are definitely racist. Humanism, for example, has always been racist. It campaigned for the enslavement of the Native American peoples by the Spanish and Portuguese (against the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church) and openly supported the racial policies of the Nazis through the Eugenics Movement. But such religions are the exception rather than the rule.

Why should I believe God exists?

Er, sorry? Not quite with you here. I mean, why should you believe Oklahoma exists? Why should you believe titanium exists?

No, what I meant was, what evidence is there that God exists? Can you prove it?

Of course I can't prove it - I can't even prove you exist. Or that this keyboard I'm typing on exists. (Well it probably doesn't, in the sense that you mean). But if I look in the right direction, and feel in the right place, I can convince myself, and I will believe the keyboard exists, even if I couldn't convince you. That works with God, too.

I don't have a religion, but I-

Yes you do.

No I don't. I don't believe in God at all.

And? Nor do Buddhists - the Buddha isn't a God. Nor do most Animists. The ancient Romans didn't believe in God - at least till they met the Greeks, who did. In fact, most religions don't believe in a God.

So what is my religion?

It is what your life is built on, at the bottom. It's why you think it worth living, and why you are happy when a baby is born. It's why you don't commit suicide.

Other people are religious, but I'm not. I just act logically and naturally. So-

Oh, everyone says that. It's one of those irregular verbs: I am rational, you are religious, he she or it is bigoted.

Sometimes it's because my religion is too special - too true, too effective, too rational, too real, too whatever - to count as a mere religion. This is one form of spiritual pride.

If you really can't see that you are religious, it simply means that you follow the normal religion of your society. Your religion doesn't stand out. It's what everyone is.

In Britain in 2002 that means you are a Capitalist - you worship money and ownership - which is a sect of materialism. The National Lottery is an act of worship of that religion, multinational companies are its saints, and economists are its priests.

But surely a religion is extra beliefs that you don't have to accept. I'm an atheist, a materialist; everything I believe you believe, but not the other way round. So you're religious, but I'm not.

Everything you believe I believe? Sure? Do you believe the universe is real - that is, it exists in itself, whether or not someone perceives it? That this keyboard is real, exists by itself, not simply relative to me - that there is a 'real' keyboard, which is more than just what I can see and feel? That there was a past, before anyone was alive to see it, and there will be a future, after everything living is dead? If you are a materialist, you do. I don't.

What must I do to be saved?

Two things

First, stop asking sarcastic questions, so that I don't lose my temper and ram your mouse down your throat before you manage the second thing, and

Second, not be the sort of person who asks the question. Be a new sort of person instead.

Actually, they're the same thing really, now I think about it.

Are all religions the same? Is it true that there are simply many ways up the same mountain?

No. It is not true that there are many ways up the mountain. And all religions are not the same.

So since you believe that there's only one way up the mountain, you must believe that foll-?

No. It is not true that there is only one way up the mountain. And to answer the question you were about to ask, yes followers of any religion can be saved.

Aren't you contradicting yourself?

Have you tried the Teletubbies website? It might suit you better than this one.

Why are there so many Gods? One for the Christians, one for the Jews, one for the Moslems, rather a lot for the Hindus. How do I choose between them?

Begging the question, aren't you? You can't choose between them, because there is only one God. Christians, Jews, Moslems may believe different things about God, but that is just like different people believing different things about the King of Spain. But however wrong and contradictory people are about him, there is still only one King of Spain. And however wrong and contradictory people are about him, there is still only one God.