To start

I hate religion. I really, really do. I just can't stand it. I've been reading The End of Faith by Sam Harris and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and I also watched Religilous last night and it has just made really sit back and think about what religion has done to this planet.

To quote Harris' book:

"Our technical advances in the art of war have finally rendered our religious differences -- and hence our religious beliefs -- antithetical to our survival. We can no longer ignore the fact that billions of our neighbors believe in the metaphysics of martyrdom, or in the literal truth of the book of Revelation, or any of the other fantastical notions that have lurked in the minds of the faithful for millennia -- because our neighbors are now armed with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that these developments mark the terminal phase of our credulity. Words like "God" and "Allah" must go the way of "Apollo" and "baal," or they will unmake our world."

Too true. What happens if a religious fundamentalist gets a hold of the power of the presidency in this country, or if some nut in the middle east got some nuclear weapon in the middle east and decided to use it? We could kiss civilization as we know it goodbye. The radiation and fallout wouldn't destroy the world as many believe (not unless a truly catastophic turn of events took place) but the world would be so devastated by even two or three of these attacks that civilization as we know it would be over. Whether or not that would take a turn for the better, by casting our such ridiculous beliefs as a virgin birth, or if it would take a turn for the worse with a simple spiral down to the bronze age is unknown to anyone living at this time.

This is why I want to move to Europe. While still a very religious place by my standards, it has one of the largest collections of non-believers on the planet. A Harris poll conducted in France pegged 32% of French people as agnostic, another 32% as non-believers, and a final 27% believed in any kind of god or supreme being. Now those are numbers I can live with.

Note to self: take French classes next semester.

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