Religions Under The Critical Eye

Here are a few religion-oriented essays written eloquently:

Essay 1: My God is Better than Your God
A great article from an agnostic POV; A functional and objective analysis to the state of religions... A "religion-friendly" aproach that holds the premise that GOD wants whats good for humanity...
snippets: In fact, about the only thing they have in common is benevolence. They all want their people to prosper and be happy... Wow. What a bombshell! God wants you and I to be happy... So once again, I tried looking at it from a different perspective: if I can't figure out what will make everyone happy, what can I show that will make anyone unhappy? Then it occurred to me: violence, in the most general sense of the word, makes people unhappy... And where do we get most of our violence? Religion.


Full Essay:

As one of the newest contributors to my world, I feel I should try to distinguish myself from the other members of my illustrious team. After careful consideration, I’ve decided on my niche: I am going to try to bring you all kinds of news that will prove that My God is Better than Your God.

That’s right, I said it out loud. I’ll say it again: My God is Better than Your God. I don’t care if you’re a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu or Branch Davidian. My God is Better than All Your Gods. Hands down. Now I suppose at this point you’re either ranting, raving, or building something to kill me with (or you just don’t give a damn, which means you’re probably not even reading anymore) but hear me out. Once I explain why My God is Better than Your God, you’ll most likely agree with what I have to say.

The only thing that makes my God Better than Your God is this: I’m not even sure my God exists. But that’s OK, because in the end it doesn’t make a licking difference in my life anyways. The way I see it, all through history mankind has been having this debate over whose God is the Best. And when I say debate, I mean debate in the religious sense: war, rape, atrocities, torture, maiming and baby killing. The fun kind of debate that religion has been up to for thousands of years. My God has tried to get away from that debate. He’s lead me to search deep within myself for the true answers. So I did. I thought about him and Jesus and Mohamed and all those other crazy party animals.

I thought about all the things that make them different for awhile, but that was just crazy; there’s too many differences to even try to document them all. Then I thought about what makes them all the same, and you know what? There’s very little that make them all the same. In fact, about the only thing they have in common is benevolence. They all want their people to prosper and be happy. Wow. What a bombshell! God wants you and I to be happy. That is a true saying no matter what religion you are talking about (except for the crazy ones, and who wants to follow a god that doesn’t want what is best for you? Such as @@). So how do we all achieve real happiness? It’s not by praying. Maybe praying makes you happy, but it doesn’t do much for me, and other people find it downright offensive. Maybe it’s by taking whatever we can as quickly as possible. No, it’s not that either. Material goods bring happiness when you buy them, but they quickly loose their attraction, and you end up just wanting the new one that just came out after you bought yours. That’s not true happiness, and even if it was, it’s not a way to make all people happy, because we do live on a planet of finite resources. And if we’re not all happy, someone unhappy will find a way to make others that are happy pay.

I went on and on like this trying to figure it out, but after a while I was at the same point I was at when I was trying to map out the differences between the religions. There were just too many things to consider. So once again, I tried looking at it from a different perspective: if I can’t figure out what will make everyone happy, what can I show that will make anyone unhappy? Then it occurred to me: violence, in the most general sense of the word, makes people unhappy. So even though I’m not sure what will make everyone happy, I can make sure we get closer to this mythical state of happiness by trying to get rid of some violence in the world. And where do we get most of our violence? Religion. That’s right. Religion causes the most violence in the world, and it’s been that way since we invented the word religion.

So the goal for me is to convince as many people as possible to give up on religion. It’s not the way to find peace, or to find God. If God loves you and me, and wants the best for you and me, isn’t it just logical to give each other enough space to pursue happiness? As I said before, I don’t even know if my God exists. I’ve gotten no definitive answers to the question of God’s existence. If he does exist (and he is a benevolent God) then I will make him happy by being good to myself and others, the whole time trying to make myself and the world around me better. If he doesn’t exist, then I’m still going to try to make myself as happy as possible, and I’m going to do that by feeling proud of myself and my accomplishments. In other words, I’m going to try to improve myself and the world around me as much as possible. So either way, I’m going to try to make myself happy by constant improvement in my character.

That’s what my God taught me, and that is why My God is Better than Yours.

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Essay 2: Let's see if I can get some death threats out of this one
A harshly worded essay criticizing organized religions! Partly addressing the danish cartoons that echoed violently in the muslim world!
snippet: I know, I know, it's all about respecting other peoples' religions. But I say "fuck that." I don't respect anyone else's religion (clearly). And you know what? Many of them don't truly respect mine, or my lack thereof. I do, however, respect their right to whatever beliefs they want to have. You're allowed to have your ignorant views, I'm allowed to have mine.

Essay 3: Satanism: The way of Life
A satanic POV showing satanism in its true colors, rather than the misguided interpretations provided by religiously biased light that many authorities promote...
snippet: So be it known to you that Satanism is the way of life or better still call it philosophy of natural life and being such it has nothing to do with child molesters, perverts, psychic vampires, rapists etc. Satanism is a peaceful religion advocating freedom of religion and thought.

Update: I included the full text of Essay#1 because the link became dead