Hi y'all, long time no post. As I was thinking about how to try and people to quit religion, I remember something that kind of helped me quit religion, and tried to make process out of it for others to try. I'm going to give a Christian example, but this should work for all major religions.
***However, I need feedback as to why this would or would not work, as I may be missing something (hence why it's in the debate section). So if any religious person wants to chime in, by all means do so.***
So to start off, Leviticus 20:13 says "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them." Now this is absolutely insane. Killing someone for sleeping with someone of the same gender, are you serious? So now if you're religious, all you have to do is say "That's really wrong. If God really doesn't like it, he can tell me himself." And that's it!
Now here's why this works. If you really think it is wrong, (which any sane person should) god should have no problem correcting you and explaining why it's wrong. But I guarantee he won't. Also, how could he damn you to hell if you think this sin is absurd, but he won't help you see why? Something isn't adding up here, wouldn't you say?
Now keep looking at different things wrong in the bible like this, and do the same thing. If you rinse and repeat, you'll start actually thinking for yourself and when you do, you'll realize there is no god. Best of luck :)
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If people think rationally then they wouldn't believe in superstition in the first place. Applying post ad hoc rationalisations to irrational bronze age superstitions is better than not thinking for yourself at all I suppose, but why not admit that an omniscient deity wouldn't deal in irrationality, and since there is no objective evidence for any deity let the belief go? It's a small simple leap once you make it, but a giant one if you've invested your entire life into a world view that insists a deity exists and will save you and all those you love from the emotional trauma of death and loss.
In the end you just might realise you're going to die anyway as are those you love, but at least didn't surrender the only life you'll ever have to absurdly irrational superstition, and worse to the bigotry and prejudice it espouses.
Good reply, I agree. But is it possible that if one stoops down to their level, maybe it will aid them in making them see right? Just a thought.
I believe that as a general rule, individuals will be better off without religion, and society as a whole would benefit without it.
However, I think it may be better to focus on encouraging others to think rationally, to act morally, to live aesthetically without fear. Challenging dogma is certainly a key part of that.
I first left religion when I was 13 years old. 1972. The song "Imagine" by John Lennon was fresh off the press. I took his advice and did my own thought experiment. I went outside and looked up, imagined there were no gods there. No heaven. Looked at the ground, no devils or hell below me. I left the Catholic Church right then and called myself an atheist. I did spend a few years in my twenties doing yoga and then initiated into a very hippyish Sufi order. I then transitioned into a decades long apatheistic phase. I joined atheist forums a few years ago to keep from going crazy. We all need people of like mind to talk to.
Stu. K.,
"Now keep looking at different things wrong in the bible like this, and do the same thing. If you rinse and repeat, you'll start actually thinking for yourself and when you do, you'll realize there is no god. Best of luck :)"
The biblical God character was simply the series of men who ruled the dominant Middle Eastern empires. Whenever one took control of the Israelite territory they elevated him to "God". God died when the Babylonian emperor bit the dust and the empire collapsed around 530 B.C. That's why he hasn't been heard from since. He isn't coming back.
It would be interesting to get a legitimate original first Bible and see if it has all of the non-sense current Bibles have in them. I'm sure that throughout the centuries various committees added their favorite biases to it.