Why All Religions Are Scams

I think all religions are scams, but scams borne of shared, willful ignorance, as opposed to scams borne of malicious intent.

Thank you, Al, for writing what needs to be written. My days of indoctrination at the hands of the RCC are now (recently) behind me, and I have seen changes to my relationships with some family and friends because of it. I am a scientist by education, training and profession, and for nearly 40 years I pretended that science and faith could co-exist in my life. They cannot. The catalyst for my exit from religion was provided by the Vatican itself: how it mishandled (and that is being kind) the paedophilia scandal brought me out of my stupor and resonated loudly *against* every moral fiber of my being. I began a self-education course on this subject, becoming familiar with all of the major players and organizations, learning a great deal more about catholicism than I ever would have if I had remained an ignorant catholic...and I *was* an ignorant catholic, in a most perverse way. When I was a catholic, I *knew of* the paedophilia scandal, which is to say that I knew there was a problem, but that it was just a few bad priests, and they were probably homosexual, and that the Church was dealing with the problem.

Once I began to study the issue, I came to see more clearly the lies, the smiling deceit, the whining of reverse victimization by the church. I saw the horror that had been visited upon the unsuspecting innocents, mostly children, whose lives were forever altered in the most negative and destructive fashion imaginable. Psychological damage is the most difficult to repair, and most experts agree that "repair" is not the correct term. "Manage" is more appropriate, yet the perpetrators of these heinous crimes go unpunished time and again, protected by an institution that has shown its willingness to go to any lengths necessary to hide the guilty and to protect its reputation...all under the false claims of a direct line of communication to a non-existent deity.

Meanwhile, humanity continues to stagger under the enormous burden of religious intolerance, hatred, bigotry, incest, rape, torture, mysogyny, slavery and bloodshed caused by the most violent means possible. Layer on top of that the quest for nuclear weapons by radical elements of the Abrahamic religions, the indelible marks left by human-induced climate change, pollution on a catastrophic scale, and a willingness to hasten "End Times", and we have more than enough ingredients for a planet-wide collapse of civilization as we know it. There are very real expectations that we will, by the end of this century, experience massive loss of species, including humanity, due to climate change. Some are willing to predict that Earth will be home to no more than 100 million humans by the time all of this catches up with us, and I find the evidence that supports these hypotheses to be difficult to ignore.

Sadly, we continue to be forced to witness the shoutings of the representatives of Iron Age dogma, spewing forth their hatred of those who they deem to be "different" than themselves. This form of public self-loathing has its roots in the deeply planted psychosis of religion, yet it presents itself as a smiling friend of the poor, the victim, the ignorant, the sick, all the while fleecing them for every dime they own and driving a knife in their backs as soon as they are turned.

If I had not been a cradle catholic, I would not have gained this perspective. Seing the indoctrination from both sides is at once enlightening and frightening beyond the pale. I still find it difficult to fathom that I once believed. I believed that things that not real *are* real, that things that are not true *are* true. Fortunately, two of my siblings have already crossed this threshold, and I am thankful that they are willing to discuss with me this subject of my "de-programming". I witnessed the abuses visited upon them by my father when they chose to follow their own path, deviating from that chosen (and forced upon us) by our parents. We have talked openly amongst ourselves of the "brain-washing", as my elder sister defines it, both at the hands of the catholic authorities and of our parents. Our father continues to be a devout catholic, and he is having a difficult time in accepting that three of his five children have "awakened" to the false promises of religion. His perspective on the paedophilia scandal is a case in point: he believed as I did, that it wasn't a "big deal"; however, he has enough of an open mind to allow for some evidence to be examined ("The Case of the Pope", a fantastic treatise on the crimes committed by the papacy prior to and during Ratzinger's term, by Geoffrey Robertson, a world renowned human rights attorney). After reading some of that book, he was able to accept that the scope and scale of the crimes is far wider than the church had lead him to believe. He now uses the term "they" when referring to the church, but still attends Mass, although I do not believe he continues to offer financial support. The subject of religion is no longer available for discussion between us; he defends the faith to this day. Interestingly, part and parcel of the indoctrination of the faithful is the willingness to defend the faith at all costs, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of its fallacy. Christian teaching has this one covered, citing scripture as proof that the devil is attempting to infiltrate the flock, that the faithful must be ever vigilant. Adherence to this dogma comes at a high price: families are torn asunder when non-believing family members finally reveal themselves and question those acting under apparent or actual authority of the faith. Questioning this alleged authority brings with it *more* questions, and rarely does it receive adequate answers.

My journey away from religion has re-awakened my scientific mind. I have learned more about our solar system, our planet, the universe, genetics, evolution, biology, chemistry, etc., than I care to admit since I left religion behind! My heroes, new and rediscovered, now include Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Robert Sapolsky, James Loftus, Naomi Oreskes, James Hansen, et al.

I find myself in discussion with my professional colleagues, amongst whom are graduate and post-doctoral students. I am delighted to report that a great many of them are non-believers! When asked why, they invariably say "well, science happened to me." This is not gender-specific; both sexes are equally represented. Last week, one of my colleagues asked me "what's new in your life?", and I asked "what do you mean, professional, personal, religious?", hoping she would take the bait. Her answer was to ask me to give her just the cliff notes, so I took the opportunity to tell her that I "recently left religion (and Roman Catholicism) behind". Her response was classic and caught me quite off-guard: "Well, you've been in science long enough, what took you so long?".

I find that I cannot remain silent as the religious groups make their attempts to gain control of our legislatures, our education systems, and our societies. The recent "Pray for Rain" gatherings in Oklahoma and Texas gained no more relief from the heat and drought than would a Sioux rain dance, or an Aztec blood sacrifice of a young virgin girl.

I find myself in reflection often at how my life has changed now that religion and myth have been put in their proper places. And I often feel that my non-believer compatriots were always there, waiting perhaps impatiently for me to awaken, so that we can continue our quest to better the human condition. Let's get to it.

Religion is the disease, Science and reason is the cure. A very overwhelming comment Robert.

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!

Thank you for saying what I've been feeling/thinking for so long!