Quote Originally Posted by Universal Mind View Post
The Hell aspect of Christianity scared the ever living bejesus out of me when I was a kid, like age 8 to 16. It gave me the opposite of peace of mind. The most peace of mind I ever had in life was when I was 0-4 years old and did not really know what God was supposed to be. (The reasons go beyond that, of course.) I went to Sunday school and church in those years, but all I knew was that we colored pretty pictures in Sunday school and listened to some asshole yelling about who knows what in church.

Being an atheist is what prevented me from committing suicide during two different horrbile depressions long ago. I kept thinking about how there would be absolutely nothing if I ended my life. That kept me alive. If I had thought I would go to Heaven, I would have gone through with suicide.
Proof of my assertion that some people use religion in all the wrong ways, for all the wrong purposes. Just because you've experienced religion as used by dickheads who want to coerce you doesn't mean that religions themselves are designed to be coercive. Blame the man who pulls the trigger rather than the gun itself, for the gun has no convictions, no ability to judge what is right and what is wrong.

Quote Originally Posted by packmania View Post
Guns are not evil and neither is religion. The world would be better off without the idiots who abuse them.
Fixed.


Quote Originally Posted by Scatterbrain View Post
'Purpose' is man-made. Some things we create are made with a purpose in mind, others are not. Regarding things we didn't make, it's neither, 'purpose' does not apply to those. What's the purpose of a rock?

Humanity gives a purpose to it's gods, not the other way around.
So you argue against a one-way street (religion gives humanity purpose) by presenting another one-way street (humanity gives religion purpose) as an argument. Is it so hard for you to believe that both are true to some degree?