Beware

I have just posted a video related to this topic on my YouTube channel.

Some religious people are good, and some are bad. As I described previously, the bad ones use force and have more effect on the world. But we must admit the existence of the good ones. Back when I was religious, I was one of the good ones, I think. And I know a lot of good religious people. So do you.


Religion is a minefield. You may walk through it unharmed, but there is a great risk that you will touch one of those mines. Those mines are the memes of religion. Some of those memes provide a framework by which your rage and destructiveness can come pouring forth, in which pity for your adversaries is considered a sin. We all have rage and arrogance, but some religious memes provide the ultimate justification for them. They are like catalysts that allow chemicals that might otherwise lie dormant to explode. Religious memes are perhaps the most effective way of turning good people into bad people.

Religious memes do not always release rage and destructiveness. They can also facilitate mental slavery, in which people are simply unable to think outside the confines of the meme. I have had numerous creationist students who were sincere and often very intelligent, and would go to incredible lengths to justify their beliefs. For example, God moved the fossils around during the Flood to make them look like they had an evolutionary order. I feel sorry for such brainwashed students.

Peter Abelard said that it was a sin to say a prayer if you do not understand what it means. He also said that by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we come to truth. This viewpoint was considered heretical by conservatives such as Bernard of Clairvaux. Look before you step. Think carefully before you embrace any aspect of religion.