Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery. It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and barricades of fear, to stand erect and face the future with a smile. It is far better to give yourself sometimes to negligence, to drift with wave and tide, with the blind force of the world, to think and dream, to forget the chains and limitations of the breathing life, to forget purpose and object, to lounge in the picture gallery of the brain, to feel once more the clasps and kisses of the past, to bring life's morning back, to see again the forms and faces of the dead, to paint fair pictures for the coming years, to forget all Gods, their promises and threats, to feel within your veins life's joyous stream and hear the martial music, the rhythmic beating of your fearless heart. And then to rouse yourself to do all useful things, to reach with thought and deed the ideal in your brain, to give your fancies wing, that they, like chemist bees, may find art's nectar in the weeds of common things, to look with trained and steady eyes for facts, to find the subtle threads that join the distant with the now, to increase knowledge, to take burdens from the weak, to develop the brain, to defend the right, to make a palace for the soul. This is real religion. This is real worship.
- Robert G. Ingersoll
Quote Source: Ingersoll: A Biographical Appreciation (Classic Reprint)
This one had me right up until the end. I was thinking this is like a wonderful poem and then came the lines "This is real religion. This is real worship"
that being said, I do wish theist could learn to treat this world and their brains supposedly given to them by god as a gift as something to be treasured used and taken care of. how would you feel if you gave someone something so beautiful and so incredible and they just wasted it and let it go to shit.
Theist already have an answer to that one:
The god many theist like to believe in and who has a weird sense of logic would say "Oh I see you let that wonderful creation, life and brain I gave you go to crap and completely wasted it, why don't I after seeing that just give you a new life and new world we'll call heaven and lets have a see if you'll treat this place better. All those people who actually used and took care of the gifts I gave them well, we have a special place for them too where they can suffer for all eternity for daring to treat the gifts I gave them so well and actually think to use them. That seems just about fair and just because after all, they did not believe in me since I made virtually impossible for them to find any proof of my existence within the world even with the awesome mind I gave them."