THE GOD DELUSION

By Steve Morgan

This book provides an in-depth study of religion and its disastrous consequences
on the human race. The study begins with a detailed explanation of the origin of
religion over a hundred thousand years ago through the religious social bonds of
hunter-gatherers, which served to help in their survival, and how their seizures of
ecstasy altered their brain structure, leading to the evolution of a defective brain
that survived until the present among a large part of the human population. In this
way, religion became an obstacle to the intellectual evolution of the human race.

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Copyright © 2009 by Steve Morgan
 CONTENTS

FORWORD

CHAPTER 1 THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION

CHAPTER 2 THE GOD PROGRAM
CHAPTER 3 THE CREATION MYTH
CHAPTER 4 THE DESIGN DELUSION
CHAPTER 5 REALITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS
CHAPTER 6 COSMIC ORDER
CHAPTER 7 ABSOLUTE NOTHINGNESS
CHAPTER 8 LIGHT AND DARKNESS
CHAPTER 9 THE ILLUSION OF TIME
CHAPTER 10 THE GOD DELUSION
CHAPTER 11 DELUSION OF SPIRITUAL REALITY
CHAPTER 12 DELUSION OF SPECIAL CREATION
CHAPTER 13 DELUSION OF DIVINE PURPOSE
CHAPTER 14 DELUSION OF DIVINE MORALITY
CHAPTER 15 RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS
CHAPTER 16 RELIGIOUS EVIL
CHAPTER 17 DELUSION OF RACIAL DIVINITY
CHAPTER 18 THE SUPREMACY DELUSION
CHAPTER 19 THE COLUMBIAN GENOCIDE
CHAPTER 20 THE EVIL GENES
CHAPTER 21 EUROPEAN HISTORY
CHAPTER 22 CHRISTIAN FASCISM
CHAPTER 23 CHRISTIAN TERRORISM
CHAPTER 24 JUDAIC TERRORISM
CHAPTER 25 ISLAMIC TERRORISM
CHAPTER 26 THE TERROR CRUSADE
CHAPTER 27 THE CHRISTIAN LEGACY

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 CHAPTER 10

The God Delusion

The idea of god is a very old idea that survives because it has great
psychological appeal. It provides an apparently reasonable and valid answer to
troubling questions about existence. It suggests that injustices in this world may be
rectified in the next. It serves as a consolation for human failure. It is like a
doctor’s placebo, which is nevertheless effective in spite of being imaginary. These
are some reasons why the god idea is so easily replicated in the brain by successive
generations. God exists only as an idea with infective power, but high survival
value in the environment provided by human culture.
Another reason for the survival of the god idea is that religious doctrine
enforces religious observance with the threat of hell fire. Many children and even
some adults believe that they will suffer gruesome torments after death if they do
not obey the priestly rules. The idea of hell fire has a deep psychological impact
and causes great psychological anguish, but it is highly effective. It has become
linked with the god idea because the two reinforce each other, and assist each
other's survival.
The god idea survives also because of religious faith, which means blind trust.
Demanding evidence is dangerous for the god idea survival. Looking for evidence
is fatal for certain kinds of ideas. A religious person who demands evidence of
religious dogma is discredited. Those religious people, whose faith is so strong that
they do not need evidence, are regarded as worthy of imitation. Discouraging
rational inquiry serves to secure the perpetuation of blind faith.
Blind faith is an idea that propagates in a ruthless way. Blind faith can justify
anything. If a man believes in a different god, or even if he uses a different ritual
for worshipping the same god, blind faith can decree that he should die, on the
cross, at the stake, skewered on a Crusader's sword, shot in a Beirut street, or
blown up in a bar in Belfast. Blind faith can be patriotic, political, or religious.
Faith cannot move mountains. However, this is what children are taught and
made to believe through each generation. Religious blind faith can drive people to
such dangerous rage and insanity that it qualifies as a severe mental illness. Blind
faith can make people believe so strongly that they are willing to kill and die for
their faith without any further justification. Blind faith has so much power that
immunizes people against all appeals to pity, forgiveness, and decent human
feelings. It even immunizes them against fear because they think they will go to
heaven.
Religious people commit many monstrous acts in the name of their god.
Irishmen kill each other in his name. Arabs blow themselves up in his name.
Imams and ayatollahs oppress women in his name. Celibate popes and priests mess
up people's sex lives in his name. Jewish shohets cut live animals' throats in his
name. The achievements of religion during all of history have been bloody
crusades, torturing inquisitions, mass-murdering conquistadors, culture-destroying
missionaries, and legally enforced resistance to each new piece of scientific truth.
People who believe in God think that if you cannot prove it is false it is
because it’s true. To argue this way is to make an argument to ignorance. It occurs
when one claims that something is true only because it hasn't been proved false, or
that something is false only because it has not been proved true. The truth or falsity
of a claim depends upon supporting or refuting evidence to such claim, not the lack
of support for a contrary or contradictory claim. If you cannot prove that the
universe was not designed by an intelligent creator that does not prove that it was.
If you cannot prove that the universe was designed by an intelligent creator that
does not prove that it wasn’t. The argument to ignorance is an approach used by
religious fanatics to support their wishful thinking.
Human beings are highly intelligent creatures that should not believe in gods. A
major reason that many people still believe is that patterns of behavior are passed
from one generation to another by imitation. Another principal reason is narrow-
mindedness. Many theists were brainwashed from birth to believe in their religion
and they are simply not open-minded enough to ever seriously and honestly
question their beliefs. Many freethinkers, in contrast, were raised as theists but
were open-minded enough to question what they were taught; and the result is
disbelief.
The Bible claims that God appeared to Moses behind a burning bush, which is
absurd. Why would an omniscient and all-powerful God have to resort to such
senseless action just to prove his existence? A real almighty God does not need to
speak through a burning bush to reveal himself. There are no gods or goddesses
appearing from nowhere to communicate with humans, and then vanishing into
nothingness. Miraculous appearances are religious delusions. There is no scientific
evidence of magic. The strength of a religious faith cannot materialize or give life
to the creature of a fantasy.
There is no observable evidence in the behavior of nature to support the claim
that a god exists. There is no scientific evidence of miraculous beings appearing
from nowhere. Such beliefs are based on an anthropocentric view of the world.
There are no gods or goddesses with a personal interest in human behavior or
wellbeing. A god with infinite compassion would not allow the survival of Homo
sapiens and exterminate all the other species in our evolutionary line, including
Homo neanderthalensis, Homo erectus, and the australopithecine hominids. If God
chose man to be his favored creature, then the descendants of Homo sapiens are
condemned to failure. The preference for man dooms the evolution of the human
species and renders extraterrestrial life inferior. But there is no amount of
explanation, reasoning, or scientific evidence that can convince the religious
faithful of their mistakes. Religious believers are such stubborn believers, that they
rather live their entire lives in the darkness of superstition, than to allow their
minds to be free. There is no greater tragedy than to lose a mind in the delusive world
of religious beliefs. But when we think about the countless minds that have been
wasted for so many centuries in the worship of a god that can never be, one cannot do
but feel the urge to denounce the lies that religious institutions have so persistently
and maliciously inculcated in the minds of all of those who are so susceptible to
persuasion and so deficient in understanding.
Religious people all over the world make absurd requests to a multitude of
imperceptive stone idols, which offer no response at all. They fall on their knees to
beg an imaginary god for a little mercy on their tormented souls. But all those
prayers are in vain. The image of a god that stands above an altar has no life. A
powerful god does not need to disguise himself as a marble statue in order to
manifest his existence. A god of stone cannot grant miracles. Religious believers
are not able to cope with the problems of life and seek to invoke an almighty being
who will solve their troubles with magic. Religion thus serves to provide an escape
from reality to the mentally disturbed. However, the solution to the problems of life
does not depend on imaginary perceptions.
Some people claim that their prayers have been answered. However, when an
experiment was done to test whether prayer would speed the recovery of heart
patients, it didn’t work. Therefore, the ineffectiveness of prayer proves there is no
heavenly father.
You cannot create a god with the force of your religious faith, even if you share
your beliefs with the entire population of the world. You cannot alter the nature of
reality with the power of your thoughts. Religious beliefs never flattened the earth
or caused the stars to revolve around us. Why then would a religious faith cause the
existence of a god?
You can praise a god for the miracle of life, but no god ever created life. You
may ask for his blessings, but no god has ever contributed to human welfare. You
can pray 365 days a year, but there is no god to hear your prayers, or to grant your
request. Miracles do not exist. The goals that you have in life can only be
accomplished through hard work. A real god would not allow human misery. The
prolonged and agonizing suffering caused by terrible diseases that can only end
with death is irrefutable proof that a merciful and loving god does not exist. There
is no god to respond to prayers. Where was the Jewish god when the Jews were
persecuted? Where was the Islamic god while millions of Muslim children died
from starvation and disease in the Middle East? Where was the Christian god when
millions of people prayed for peace during World War II?
The clergy claims that the family that prays together stays together and that a
world at prayer is a world at peace. However, Christians have prayed for peace
ever since Christianity's invention without a single result. Evidently, the power of
religious faith is a hideous instrument of forged reality that confronts every
religious person at every waking hour and can convince even the most educated
human.
The bubonic plague killed 25 million people in Europe between the years of
1347 and 1352, which is a period of only five years. Forty million people had lost
their lives by the year 1400. The plague returned many times for three centuries
until it finally disappeared in the 1600s. The disease took its toll on people of all
races, religions and nationalities. It made no distinction between the rich and the
poor, or between the religious and the skeptic. The people of an entire continent
prayed for deliverance day and night for 300 years, but there was no god to answer.
There is no god to rescue the 250 million children that are used as slaves all
over the world. There is no god to relieve the misery of the 815 million people who
go to sleep hungry every day. There was no god to save the hundreds of thousands
of children who died from starvation and disease in Iraq. There is no god to help
the 1.5 million homeless children in Honduras. There is no god to save the 300,000
Mexican children who die each year from malnutrition. There was no God to save
the more than 200,000 Mayan Indians who were killed by the cruel Guatemalan
security forces during the 36-year civil war that ended in 1996. There was no god
to save the more than half a million innocent civilians who were massacred by the
military forces in Indonesia on orders from President Suharno during the 1960s.
There is no god to save the 5 million women that are beaten by their husbands,
boyfriends and lovers every year in the United States. There is no god to save the 8
million women and 300,000 men who are raped every year in the United States.
There is no God to save the 26 million women and 8 million men who are victims
of domestic violence every year in the United States. There was no god to save the
200 million Native Americans who were tortured, enslaved, dispossessed, raped,
and exterminated by European and Euro-Americans during five centuries. There
was no god to prevent the deaths of 27 million soldiers and 25 million innocent
civilians during World War II.
A god who cannot stop human misery is not an omnipotent god. A god who is
not willing to stop human misery is a god without compassion. Humans are
imperfect beings who live in an imperfect world. A god who creates imperfection
is not a perfect god. An imperfect god is not an omniscient god. Therefore, such
god cannot exist.
 Some people claim that their god save them from drug addiction, alcoholism,
or from a criminal behavior. But if such god has the power to control everything
that happens, then the god they claim to be their savior is the same god who
created their problems. An almighty god has the power to prevent evil. If he does
not, then he is responsible for your tragedies. A good god does not let you fall only
so that he can help you rise. Suppose that I hit you in the head, but then I give you
an aspirin to relieve your pain, will you be grateful? If I push you into a river, but
then I throw you a rope to save your life, will you feel indebted to me?
A god is a projection from the male mind. It was man who formed most of the
original ideas about the world. Therefore, the idea that a god created the world was
the product of his own thoughts, feelings and deliberate plans. The reason that the
creator is male is that man arrogantly created god in his own image. However, a
supreme being does not require a masculine gender to create. Moreover,
reproduction is the purpose of the sexes. Therefore, the purpose of a male is to
copulate with a female and reproduce. But since there is no female supreme being,
there is no purpose in the existence of a god. Consequently, such god cannot exist.
The hypothesis of divine creation postulates a god who is omnipotent, all-
knowing, omnipresent, infinitely good, eternal, and perfect. Therefore, his
existence includes everything. Since the universe is everything, a god who is
everything is the same as the universe. A god who is all-powerful then cannot reach
beyond everything, because no power can exist where there is nothing. So that
anything that is outside the universe is also beyond the reach of the creator. The
universe thus expands on its own, and nothingness is replaced by space, energy and
matter, without divine interference.
An omniscient god cannot know more than his creation, because the world that
he created contains everything that he could possibly cause to exist. Therefore, if
there are any other worlds beyond the universe, they are also beyond his
knowledge. Anything that exists beyond the universe must be ruled by another god
or have no god at all. Consequently, no god can be superior to, or outside from his
creation.
An omniscient god knows everything that happens in the universe, but the only
way to know everything that happens in the universe is with an infinite presence. If
a god has a cosmic consciousness that occupies the entire universe, then such
ubiquitous god is also a part of the universe. A god who is part of the universe that
he creates is part of his own creation. A creator who is part of his own creation
cannot be the Supreme Being, since he depends on the universe to exist. An all-
powerful god does not need a life-support system in order to survive.
According to theism, a god is defined as the creative source of life and the
world, which exists apart and within the universe, and sustains a personal relation
with all his creatures. However, no one can see beyond the limits of the universe,
so that no one can claim that a god can exist outside the universe. The limits of
perception are not the same as the boundary of existence. There is an infinite
reality that extends in space and time that is beyond human comprehension. The
basis to form the idea of god is ignorance of the unknown. But the mystery of
existence is not the proof that a god exists.
Anything that is simultaneously present everywhere has to be the same size of
the universe. Since the universe is everything, and nothing can be greater than
everything, then the size of an omnipresent god is limited by the size of the
universe. Since the universe is everything that we can detect, and the limits of
human detection are not the same as the boundary of existence, then a god cannot
be infinite.
If an omniscient god knows everything, then he must know the meaning of
suffering. But how can suffering be known without the experience of pain? A god
who is in pain is not different from a man. A god who suffers cannot be a god and a
god who is equal to man cannot be a god. A god who needs to suffer in order to
understand the meaning of pain is not an all-powerful god. Therefore, an all-
powerful god cannot exist.
The knowledge of a person can be found with a test, but the only way to test
knowledge is by knowing the answers to the questions in the test. No one can test
the knowledge of a god because there are no human beings with infinite
knowledge. You cannot know the answer to everything. Therefore, no one can
claim that an omniscient god exists.
The purpose of a god is to rule over the universe, if there are no creatures to
rule over, there is no purpose in a god. Since there were no creatures during the
eternity before the universe, there was no god before there was a universe, and all
creation was the result of natural forces.
Ideas can only be conceived through conscious thought. You cannot conceive
the idea of a god unless you exist. If there are no creatures with conscious
thoughts, the idea of a god is not possible. Consequently, no god can exist apart
from conscious thought. Therefore, a god is only an idea.
Some people claim that there is scientific proof that God exists. However,
scientific methods were created by man. If God is all-powerful, why does he need
man to prove his existence? Besides, why does he need to be proved rather than be
self-evident? An omnipotent God should be able to use his own means of
communication, rather than wait for human beings to discover a way to detect him.
This proves he does not exist.
A true god requires no proof because it is self-evident. If there is no self-
evident god then you need to prove that a god exists. We never have to prove that
the sun exists because it is self-evident, since we can see the brightness of its light
and feel the heat from its rays. Nobody can deny that the universe exists because it
is self-evident. Everything that we perceive is evident to the senses and
understanding. Nature created senses to perceive the things that exist in the
universe, which are the only ones that can be perceived and understood. A god who
creates perception and curiosity in his creatures but remains a mystery to the senses
and understanding is an absurd god. A god who lives an enigmatic existence does
not represent intelligent behavior. Therefore, the fact that the existence of God
requires proof proves there is no god.
Our perception and understanding were not created by a god. The human
senses evolved through a long process that began with the earliest life forms that
lived in the oceans 3.5 billion years ago. A god is merely an arbitrary construction
of the mind that appears in the hallucinatory imagination of the mentally deranged.
The discovery that all living organisms evolve by a process of natural selection
gave theologians a difficult dilemma. According to the Bible, the earth was 6,000
years old, but the new scientific evidence proved that the earth was in reality
billions of years old. Since the theologians and the religious scholars were not able
to contradict science, they had no choice but to accept the evidence, but argued that
scientific discovery places humanity closer to the work of God, and that evolution
by natural selection is a divine plan. However, if God created evolution why didn’t
he reveal evolution to man, rather than wait for scientific discoveries to be made?
It is clear that God never knows anything until humans make new scientific
discoveries. If there are no new scientific discoveries made, neither the theologians
nor the religious scholars reveal any new divine plan. This is incontrovertible
evidence that only science can explain everything and God does not exist. If an
omniscient god really existed, the theologians and religious scholars would be the
first to know his plans, and would have known about evolution and the real age of
the earth long before scientists did, since they claim to communicate with such
god. Why would a real god choose to reveal the mysteries of the universe to
scientists first, rather than to his believers? Is he crazy? This proves that
knowledge can only be gained through human investigation and has never been
provided by a god. This is irrefutable evidence that the theologians and the
religious scholars are compelled to change their dogmas when they are challenged
by new scientific discoveries.
The Bible states that the world was created in 4004 BCE (Before Common
Era). When science proved that the universe is 20 billion years old, the religious
scholars tried to correct the age given in the Bible. They said that what was really
meant were eons of time, not years. Hence, the arguments to support the hypothesis
of divine creation change, depending on the new scientific evidence. The fact is
that all the religious arguments are irrational, since the hypothesis of divine
creation is based on the superstitious beliefs of the primitive mentality.
The laws of every free country protect the right of the people to believe what
they wish as long as they do not represent a threat to national security. This means
that you are free to believe that the earth is flat and that it has four corners. You can
also believe that the earth is supported by four great elephants, and that the four
great elephants are standing on the top of a huge tortoise. You can even claim to
have seen the elephants and the tortoise. However, your insane idea is not going to
change the nature of reality. Your freedom of choice does not mean that you have a
constitutional right to insanity.
Suppose that you choose to believe that a goose created the world. You cannot
cause reality to change as the result of your arbitrary belief. The hypothesis of
divine creation is equally as absurd as the idea that a goose can create the world.
There is no basis for an argument on the existence of a god. It is not even necessary
to prove or disprove whether a god exists or not. The only purpose of this argument
is to demonstrate the irrationality of the religious mind. A self-evident truth does
not require proof. Would you believe that the universe revolves around the earth if
you can see the evidence that the earth is not at the center? Only a fool can argue in
favor of the impossible.
Some people argue that you cannot prove that a god does not exist anymore
than you can prove that a god exists. If you claim that a goose created the world,
and I claim that it was not, none of us can travel back in time, or before time, to see
what caused the beginning of the universe. Neither claim can be proved, since no
human being witnessed its beginning. But does the claim that a god created the
world make any more sense than the claim that a goose created it? Many claims
can be made and many different reasons can be given for the origin of the world,
but reality does not change every time that someone makes another claim. There is
only one single fundamental reality, which remains with the same inherent nature,
independent from human perception, thoughts, and emotions. If nature endowed
humans with the power to reason, then we are rational creatures. We did not evolve
in such way only to ignore our power and resort to religious faith, rather than
rational thought and inquiry.
Religious beliefs arise from feelings of fear and helplessness, because of the
insignificance that many people experience in the face of such a vast and
insensitive universe with uncontrollable natural forces. They live under the illusion
that a god is their protecting guardian. When people are frustrated because they
have no power to solve their own problems, they turn to religion, expecting to find
a solution in a supernatural force. Therefore, the vision of a god is an abnormal
perception of reality created by fear and anxiety.
The people who claim to speak with god or see divine manifestations in
physical objects suffer from a psychological condition known as pareidolia, in
which a vague or obscure stimulus is perceived as something clear and distinct.
This type of illusion or misperception causes the mind to perceive unreal and
imaginary objects as if they were real. Strange images are then seen in ordinary
things, such as alien UFOs in the night sky, a human face in the surface of Mars, or
the face of Christ in a tortilla.
An all-powerful god does not need messengers to communicate. The
revelations of the prophets are lies. Religion claims that prophets communicate
with God in a prophetic trance. The prophetic trance is a very high state of
emotional disturbance in which the individual loses all contact with reality and
suffers from severe psychotic delusions. Every holy book that has ever been
written is the product of the ignorance and superstition of the primitive mentality.
The authors of the Bible and the sacred scriptures of every religion did not have
any knowledge of science. The hypothesis of divine creation is the most irrational
idea that has ever been conceived by the human mind. Even so, the religious
philosophers, submerged in the fantastic dreams of their delusive world, dedicated
their entire lives to develop absurd arguments, wasting their mind, time, and
energy, in a desperate attempt to prove the existence of a god.

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

The argument from motion states that since the world is always in a sequence
of motions, each successive motion has its cause on a preceding motion, but this
cannot go back into infinity, so that a first mover must exist, which is God.
The argument from cause states that since the world has a series of events, each
event is the effect of a preceding cause, but this cannot go back into infinity, so that
a first cause must exist, which is God.
The argument from necessity states that nothing can begin to exist if it is not
through something that exists already. If there had been a time when nothing
existed, nothing would exist now. Everything that exists was caused by another
thing, and that other thing was caused by another thing, and so on, but this cannot
go back into infinity, so that a first existence, which did not depend on other things
to exist, but from which all other things depend for their existence, is necessary,
and this first existence is God.
The cosmological argument states that each motion, cause, or necessary thing
had its cause on its immediate predecessor. Consequently, it only describes the way
in which the parts of the universe behave. An explanation for the existence of the
sum of the parts of a whole does not explain the existence of the whole. If I explain
to you the reason for the motion, cause, and need of each part in a machine, that
does not explain the reason for the whole machine. If I explain to you the reason
for the motion, cause, and need of every organ in the human body, that does not
explain the reason for the whole body. It is obvious then, that if I explain to you the
reason for the sequence in motions, causes, and necessary things that exist in the
universe, that does not explain the reason for the whole universe.
There is no need to justify a first mover, first cause, or necessary being. If
every event must have a cause, why does it have to stop with God? A cause that
was not caused is against the claims of the argument, but even if there is a first
cause, why does it have to be a god?

THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

This argument states that God gives us understanding through our faith, so that
he is as we believe, and he is what we believe. It is impossible to conceive
anything greater than God, but understanding his meaning is not the same as
understanding that he exists. There is a limit in the understanding, after which you
cannot conceive anything greater. When you understand something, it exists only
in your understanding. If something exists in the understanding, it can be
conceived to exist in reality, so that it becomes greater than the understanding
alone. But the greatest thing that you can conceive cannot exist in the
understanding alone. If the greatest thing that we can conceive, which is God, were
only in the understanding, then a greater thing could be conceived. But since we
cannot conceive anything greater, there must be a God, which exists in the
understanding and in reality.
The concept that we have about a thing does not include its existence in the
meaning. When we say that the existence of a thing is not included in the meaning
of a concept it means that concepts cannot cause their meaning to exist. You cannot
cause the existence of a god by defining your concept. If you imagine a perfect
being, and then add all the things that make it perfect, it is still in your imagination.
You cannot prove an existence by making a sum of its properties; you need to
prove the relationship between your concept and the world. You cannot prove that
the creature of your fantasy is real with your description alone.
If I claim that a triangle has three sides, but there is no triangle anywhere, then
the concept is only in my mind. A triangle can only have three sides if it exists. If I
claim that a god is the greatest concept, but there is no god anywhere, then the
concept is only in my mind. A god can only have attributes if it exists, so that I
need to prove that a god exists before I can describe his nature.

THE DESIGN ARGUMENT

This argument states that the order that exists in the universe is undeniable
evidence that a god created it. It claims that only a divine planner could have
endowed animals with instincts and make them adaptable to different
environments. Only a supreme intelligence could cause the migration of the birds.
Only a god could have given humans the capacity to learn from experience, and to
accumulate knowledge through many generations.
The supporters of the design argument reject all the explanations that the
evolutionists offer for the apparent order. They say that everything evolved in this
way and not in another because there is a great designer, which is God. How else
can you explain that we are protected from dangerous solar ultraviolet radiation by
the ozone layer in the stratosphere? This can only be the product of a divine creator
who happened to know the right amount of thickness for the barrier that was
necessary to protect life on earth. This cannot be the product of an accidental
evolutionary process. The ozone gas reacts precisely in the correct way to
eliminate the harmful ultraviolet radiation, and the layer is exactly of the proper
density to provide the perfect defense.
How can it be also that we are protected from deadly charged particles from
space by the magnetic field that surrounds the earth, which traps them or deflects
them away? This cannot be a mere accident; it can only be the result of a divine
plan.
But the apparent order that we all perceive in the universe is not the work of a
cosmic designer or god. What we see is the product of an extremely long
evolutionary process. During the course of an enormous amount of time, a large
number of particles that moved arbitrarily in all directions acquired regular patterns
of behavior that gave the universe the appearance of an orderly system. The
planets, moons, and nebulas exist and act as they do because during the process of
evolution the ceaseless redistribution of matter and motion of those particular
masses of cosmic material were conditioned by the surrounding forces and
energies to move in such particular orbits and behave in such particular way, and in
no other. There is no hidden cosmic purpose; there is no reason or meaning for
such events. They are only facts, and nothing else.
The human race is a highly evolved outcome of the peculiar conditions of the
kinetic energy that exists in the aqueous and gaseous masses of the earth’s surface.
The only purpose of humanity is its own continuous perpetuation. The major
reason that human beings exist is because of the blind instincts and innate impulses
they have, and not because there is an orderly plan of divine creation. What
appears to be a cosmic order is only the projection of an anxious desire to find
reason and purpose in the universe. An apparent order does not require a conscious
designer.
The order that we perceive is created in the brain. There is no meaning in
anything before it is perceived. The human brain evolved with the inherent
capacity to perceive things as if they had order or disorder. The human brain is
more sensitive to the perception of repeating events, repeating patterns, and
straight lines and selects those perceptions to represent order. In the same way,
anything that supports life appears to have order because we tend to perceive the
world from an egocentric vantage point. Consequently, it appears to us that things
are in order only because they are beneficial to human life, but the creation of
human life is not an inherent purpose of the universe. The universe cannot make a
conscious effort to protect humanity. The belief that human life is the center of
existence is an anthropocentric illusion.
The true nature of the things in the outer world is always represented by
another thing in the brain. The brain thus represents electromagnetic waves in the
visible range with luminosity, pressure waves with sound, motion and change with
time, particle vibrations with heat and cold, and chemical substances with smell
and taste. Therefore, the appearance of the objects in the outer world exists only in
our mind. All our perceptions are different to the nature of the objects perceived.
Our perceptions represent the nature of the objects observed in a different form.
The order that we perceive from the outer world is an inherent perceptive
characteristic of the sensory system, and not a part of reality. Hence, the order that
we perceive from the outer world exists only in our perception. Our mind gives
meaning to our perceptions, and the meaning of order exists only in the mind.
Consequently, we perceive order from a world that has no order because this is the
natural way in which our mind perceives. Perceiving order and disorder where
neither of them exists is an inherent characteristic of the mind, and not a part of
reality.
The reason that we are protected by the ozone layer is because we are the type
of creatures who managed to survive through a process of natural selection. Our
species adapted to the specific amount of radiation passing through the ozone layer.
Those species that could not adapt did not survive and became extinct. In the
struggle for survival, the creatures that are best fitted to survive in an environment
continue to live and pass on their characteristics to the succeeding generations,
while those that are unfit perish. Evolution is the gradual conversion of one species
into another by natural selection. Evolution changes the shape of continents,
mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, plants, animals, and the contents of the
atmosphere. Evolution is such a slow process that requires millions of years and
thousands of generations to produce any visible changes. This is the reason why a
human being cannot perceive any changes in the evolutionary process. Evolution
can only be detected through scientific methods.
The ozone layer is not a shield created by a god to protect life. The barrier does
not exist as the result of a conscious decision, but as the result of a random natural
selection. What really happened is that only the creatures that were able to develop
the physical characteristics to live comfortably under the level of radiation that
passed through the ozone layer were fitted to survive. Therefore, the ozone layer
was not made to protect the living species. Life simply adapted to the conditions of
the environment. Why would an omniscient god send deadly rays and then place a
barrier to protect life, instead of preventing the emission of such dangerous
radiation? Is this intelligent behavior?
Suppose that I go to your house one day while you are out and start shooting
bullets with a machine gun. However, a few minutes before you return, I place a
metal shield in front of your house to prevent your death. Does it make any sense
in placing a barrier to stop the bullets, when all I have to do is to stop shooting?
Will you believe that I am intelligent and kind, or will you believe that I am a
dangerous madman?
One of the greatest advantages in an organism is the ability to breathe the
oxygen of the air in the troposphere. The respiratory system of every living
creature evolved as a consequence of the presence of air. Since air, with its oxygen
content, was the gas that surrounded the earth, the living creatures adapted to the
conditions of the environment, evolving lungs through the process of natural
selection, and thus began to breathe air. All the living creatures evolved through the
same process of natural selection. If there had been a different type of gas, then the
living organisms could evolve the ability to breath such gas, and the universe
would appear to be fine-tuned to another species. Nature selects the survival of the
organisms that are best adapted to the environment. Consequently, only the
creatures that developed a respiratory system that was adapted to the gases in the
air were able to survive, and the rest perished. We developed an oxygen-dependent
respiratory system as a result of the conditions in the environment. There was no
divine intervention in the formation of the environment or the evolution of life. No
god ever diffused oxygen through the air so that we could breathe, we merely
adapted to the conditions of the environment through the process of natural
selection.
The theory of evolution states that all life is related and descends from a
common ancestor. Life evolved from simple non-living matter as a consequence of
unconscious natural causes. As time goes by, simple organisms evolve into more
complex creatures. There are random genetic mutations that occur in the genetic
code of every living organism. When those mutations aid in their survival, they are
preserved. As a consequence, all subsequent generations possess the beneficial
mutations that aid in their survival. This process is called natural selection. Other
beneficial mutations occur through the course of many generations. When all of
these mutations accumulate over time, the organism is no longer the same, but an
entirely different creature.
The thought that the world is in a constant state of change or evolution
predated the oldest civilizations. The evolution of animal life from simple matter
followed by the evolution of human beings from animal life is a very old idea. The
only thing new in the concept of evolution is the knowledge of the process of
natural selection.
Natural selection is the mechanism that serves to preserve and accumulate
those minor genetic mutations that are beneficial to the survival of an organism. An
example can be the member of a species that developed stronger legs to run,
improved eyesight, sense of smell, or hearing. The advantage would then be passed
on to the succeeding generations. However, the other members of the same species
that do not develop the same advantage will be inferior to the ones that did and
their numbers will be gradually reduced with each new generation until they
become extinct. A disadvantaged organism cannot compete with the improved
superior species and eventually dies out. There are many complex systems in the
microscopic biological world, but each of them evolved by the same process of
natural selection. Even the tiniest bacterial cells owe their survival to natural
selection.
This is the way in which natural selection works. Natural selection is the
preservation of the advantage of a species that allows it to compete better against
other creatures in the wild. Nature selects the best fitted to survive. However, this
process is not conscious. Humans have done something similar with domestic animals
by using domestic breeding. Animal populations have been improved over the
centuries by selecting individuals to breed. This helps to eliminate undesirable traits.
Evolution is a very slow process. Natural selection works only by preserving
slight successive variations. Therefore, a complex organ can only be formed by a
great number of small successive modifications. The human eyes, for example,
evolved from the less efficient visual system of other creatures. In each step, the
eyes acquired slight modifications that improved vision, such as the ability to
adjust focus to different distances, the ability to admit different amounts of light,
and the ability to correct spherical and chromatic aberrations. Images then began to
be perceived with more clarity, and color vision became fully developed.
Charles Darwin’s thoughts on the subject of evolution and natural selection
caused him to reject the evidence for God in nature and ultimately to renounce the
Bible, God, and the Christian faith. He interpreted his scientific investigations as
evidence for naturalism. He concluded that everything in nature came through
accidental and unguided purposelessness rather than as the result of divinely
guided and meaningful intention.
Charles Darwin died on April 19, 1882, at the age of 73. He departed as an
unbeliever. Charles’s daughter (Henrietta Litchfield) wrote on page 12 of the
London evangelical weekly, The Christian, dated February 23, 1922, “I was
present at his deathbed. He never recanted any of his scientific views, either then
or earlier. If Darwin had become a Christian at his deathbed, the London Times
would have had a headline story on his conversion, since Darwin was a famous
man. His wife Emma never corroborated any story of a genuine conversion, if such
had occurred.
Darwin's legacy to human knowledge is immeasurable. All the arguments
brought on by religious myths of divine creation can now be refuted with scientific
explanations, and with the explanations provided by evolution through natural
selection. The following facts serve as irrefutable evidence.
The ancestors of animals breathed nitrogen. Scientists discovered a unicellular
organism that lives deep beneath the ocean’s mud floor, where oxygen cannot
penetrate. Unicellular organisms are the earliest forms of life, which originated
between 3,800 million years to 2,500 million years ago, when the earth’s crust
formed. Bacteria and archea are the precursors of all life. The single-celled
ancestors of more complex life forms are the eukaryotes. Research has shown that
at least one eukaryotic species, a shelled, amoebalike creature called a foraminifer,
can flourish without oxygen by respiring nitrogen instead. The foraminifer, which
is called Globobulimina pseudospinescens, contains high concentrations of nitrate.
Archea and bacteria benefit by breathing the nitrate in the surrounding mud,
turning it into dinitrogen gas and getting rid of their organic waste in the process.
The eukaryote uses its own cellular machinery to control the process, with the
ability to store enough nitrate to last for a month. These organisms have an ability
to proliferate in anoxic environments. The reason that G. pseudospinescens was
able to develop this function was because nitrogen is a nontoxic ion and can be
safely stored as the organism sinks into deeper levels of sediment. Storing oxygen
would create an internal disaster in the microbe because it is a very reactive gas.
Two other foraminifera species were found in the Chilean sediment with high
nitrate concentrations. This is incontrovertible evidence that life adapts to the
conditions of the environment. Therefore, no god has ever adapted the environment
to the conditions of life.
Scientists found a newly discovered microbe species in the Mponeng gold
mine in South Africa that lives far from the life-sustaining light of the sun. Life
flourishes more than a mile and a half beneath the sunlit surface, in sunless water
that is barely heated by the slow radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. The
radiation is so strong that it can disintegrate some of the water into hydrogen. The
tests reported that this newly discovered ecosystem has thrived for at least 20
million years. The groundwater that was exposed by the new drilling was sampled.
Each uncontaminated sample revealed that the deep earth ecosystem was
dominated by a new microbe related closely to sulfate reducing Desulfotomaculum
kuznetsovii, which lives near vents in the ocean floor. The microbe has been
isolated from the surface and its biological cousins for millions of years, as it was
revealed by dating the helium and argon isotopes in the water. The examination of
the groundwater indicated an age between 16 and 25 million years. Therefore, this
is a microbial community that has been isolated from the surface for 20 million
years, and this community uses sulfate and H2 produced from inorganic processes.
What’s more, the energy chain of this community does not rely on photosynthesis
from the sun, but on sulfate reduction, closely resembling what anaerobic bacteria
have done for at least a billion years on the surface of the earth.
This energy chain allows other types of microbes to survive, primarily
protobacteria, which represent the surviving ancient members of the surface
community. This means that these microbes moved deep into the earth millions of
years ago and have survived there ever since. Such resistant type of life form could
easily persist deep beneath the surface of other worlds, such as Mars or Europa.
These types of communities have the ability to sustain themselves indefinitely, as
long as they receive enough stimuli from the geological processes. There is a
possibility that extraterrestrial life may consist of a microbial species. This is
incontrovertible evidence that life adapts to the conditions of the environment.
Therefore, no god has ever adapted the environment to the conditions of life.
Microbes can flourish in heat and acid. Scientists discovered a large number of
bacteria that can happily prosper under the crushing pressures of the deep ocean,
where the extreme heat reaches a temperature 120-degree Celsius, and a steady
flow of acidic chemicals saturates the water. The samples were collected from the
Pacific coast of South America. A microorganism was isolated with the ability to
survive near elemental sulfur deposits. The microbe was called Aciduliprofundum
boonei. The existence of this acid-loving microbe that can easily relax in extremely
hot water is incontrovertible evidence that life adapts to the conditions of the
environment. No god has ever adapted the environment to the conditions of life.
Therefore, life is an accident of nature.
Everything that exists in nature is accidental. The reason that we see is because
the eyes evolved as a consequence of the most abundant type of electromagnetic
radiation that the sun emits towards the earth. Vision is merely a reaction to
electromagnetic energy. No god ever created light, the living organisms simply
adapted to the conditions of the environment by developing eyes. Our eyes are the
product of natural selection, the same as our lungs, our olfactory system, our
hearing, and our taste. No god ever created light, air, colors, forms, flowers, or any
beauty at all. The concept of beauty is our own creation. The reason that we
perceive beauty is because we find certain things pleasing to our senses, not
because things have beauty in themselves.
Some people claim that evolution is a religion and that such theory is based on
faith. However, those who deny evolution are religious people who refuse to accept
the truth because of their fear to lose the false moral support that is founded on
religion. They are afraid to lose the delusion that an omnipotent god protects them
at all times and takes care of them. God is the mental projection of a parent for
those who live in fear and insecurity. The belief and desire for a constant guardian
is a psychological trauma caused by feelings of impotence, inadequacy,
immaturity, and dependency. Therefore, the belief in God is a delusion.
A delusion is a persistent false belief regarding the self and the people and objects
outside the self, which is based on the wrong interpretation of external reality, and that
a person defends, even when there is incontrovertible evidence that his belief is false.
Delusion is one of the main characteristics of psychosis. The fundamental
characteristic of every delusion is faith without doubt. Since those who reject
evolution believe that God created everything on the basis of faith without doubt, then
the rejection of evolution is caused by psychotic hysteria.
The evidence for evolution is overwhelming. Millions of fossils are found in
exactly the places and at exactly the depths that we should expect if evolution had
happened. Not a single fossil has ever been found in any place where the evolution
theory would not have expected it, although this could very easily have happened.
If a fossil mammal had been found in rocks that were so old that fishes have not
yet arrived, it would be enough to disprove the evolution theory. The patterns of
distribution of living animals and plants on the continents and islands of the world
is exactly what would be expected if they had evolved from common ancestors by
a slow and gradual process in tiny steps. The patterns of resemblance among
animals and plants are exactly what we should expect if some were close relatives
and others more distant relatives to each other. The fact that the genetic code is the
same in all the living creatures overwhelmingly suggests that all are descended
from one single ancestor. The evidence for evolution is so compelling that it is
impossible to save the creation hypothesis.
Immediately following the big bang that originated the universe, everything
was developed from pure hydrogen, following the well-understood laws of
physics. There was a period when simple elements evolved into chemical
compounds. There was a period when simple chemical compounds evolved into
complex chemical compounds. And there was a period when complex chemical
compounds evolved into an original kind of rudimentary natural selection, and all
of these events were purely accidental. Evolution by natural selection did not begin
until there was some type of elementary reproduction and heredity. There was an
earlier hereditary system that is now extinct, which was able to arise by chance
because of its simplicity. In this way, the laws of chemistry provided the medium in
which a primitive form of cumulative natural selection could get started, and DNA
was the resulting product of this former cumulative selection. A single act of
chance could not have spontaneously formed a complicated structure such as
DNA, which is the basis of modern heredity. There were many other different
events that did not lead to the evolution of human life and ceased to exist.
Therefore, it took an infinite number of accidental events and an infinite number of
mistakes to produce life on our planet.
 Stubborn and childish people refuse to accept the facts and prefer to deny
everything, claiming there was a divine agency at work in the transforming
process. However, Darwin provided the best answer, which is through natural
selection. The general principle of evolution is logically unassailable because of
the scientific evidence, and the concept is a law of nature as truly established as is
gravitation. Religious individuals are perfectly free to reject the scientific certainty
of evolution because freedom of belief is a right in a modern liberal democracy.
However, no one can legitimately claim that such rejection is a reasonable
scientific stance.
Scientific studies have shown proof of recent evolution in the human genome.
Genome researchers at the University of Chicago identified more than 700 regions
in human DNA where strong selection has occurred, causing the spread of genes
related to a broad range of characteristics. New scans of the human genome have
revealed widespread signs of recent evolution by natural selection affecting a broad
range of characteristics from the ability to digest milk to skin color. These changes
occurred within the past ten thousand years. The results show that humans in
different regions have continued to adapt in numerous ways to both environmental
changes and cultural innovations. Many of the genetic changes detected came
during or after the emergence of agriculture, beginning about 10,000 years ago,
and long after the formation of modern human populations. Some of the genes
most strongly affected by selection were those associated with skin color, bone
structure, and the metabolism of different foods. The survey also turned up
evidence of selection in genes affecting skeletal development in Europeans and
Asians and hair formation in Africans.
A genome is the entire DNA in an organism, including its genes. Genes carry the
necessary information that is used to build the proteins that every living organism
requires for its existence. The proteins determine the ability of an organism to
metabolize food, fight infection, stay in good form, and to some extent to behave
properly, among other things. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule made
up of four similar chemicals called bases, which are represented by the letters A, T,
C, and G. and arranged along two strands of sugar-phosphates that wind together to
form a double helix. These letters are repeated throughout a genome either millions
or billions of times. The human genome contains sequences of 3 billion chemical
base pairs that make up human DNA, which contains approximately 30,000 genes
that define a person’s unique traits. The order in which these chemicals or bases are
arranged determines the different characteristics of all the living species. This
arrangement is responsible for the differentiation between humans, animals, and
plants. Therefore, every living organism has its own genome. However, every living
organism is related through similarities in DNA sequences.
Genes are the information carriers of the genotype. A genotype is the genetic
constitution of an individual or group, which is the inherited instruction that
controls all physical structure and operation. Genes are threadlike structures that
carry the cell's blueprint and are located in the chromosomes. Genes can be
reduced to smaller units at the molecular level, such as the DNA, which is a
substance that contains all the good and the bad cellular information of an
organism. The DNA in the genes is the hereditary molecule.
The study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics are called
genetics. A gene is a unit of heredity that determines a particular characteristic of
an individual. The genes are arranged along chromosomes in the nuclei of sperm
and egg cells, which fuse during fertilization. DNA is a nucleic acid that constitutes
the genes.
There are about from 10 to 50 million different species in the world, and they
are only about 0.1 percent of all the species that have ever lived in the planet since
the beginning of life. Every living species appears during the course of evolution
for only a certain period of time, and then becomes extinct. The average lifetime of
a species is about a million years. Modern humans appeared 200,000 years ago.
According to the fossil record, several hundred species become extinct every year.
The extinction of the species is as normal as individual death; there is nothing that
you can do to prevent them. If we are only a temporary life form, then how can the
human race be a special creation of a god, and how can any people claim to be his
chosen agents?
The belief in a god arises from a self-centered illusion of the world. Since
human consciousness can only exist in a single point in space and time, it appears
that each of us perceives the world from the center of the universe. As a
consequence, each of us appears to be the most important part of creation.
Primitive people had no knowledge to be aware of this illusion, because ignorance
lowers the level of consciousness. They assumed that they were the most important
part of creation, and believed that the forces of nature had a personal interest in
their behavior. Any person can be affected by this egocentric illusion if it is not
corrected, and then make claims of superiority. This is the reason why so many
people claim to be the special creation of a god who takes a personal interest in
their lives, and who grants them rights that are above the rights of the people who
do not believe as themselves. They believe that their judgments are the best
definition of justice, and that their perception is the infallible proof of the nature of
reality.
This egocentric illusion is an unconscious tendency to believe that human
concepts and perceptions are unique and essential to define the nature of reality
and the structure of the cosmos. Since very ancient times people observed how the
sun, moon, planets and stars seemed to move around them. It appeared as if they
were at the center of the cosmos, or in the focus of attention from some supreme
observer. It was natural for them to believe that they were at the center of the
universe because of the apparent evidence. This anthropocentric way of thinking
creates the illusion that our world has something special.
Primitive people were highly egocentric because of their low conscious
intensity. This caused them to make arbitrary interpretations of nature. They
assumed that a god, who took a personal interest in their behavior, created the
world. And throughout all of human history, the most eminent religious scholars
inspired themselves from the arbitrary speculations of the primitive mentality to
support the hypothesis of divine creation, placing themselves at the same
intellectual level of their ingenuous ancestors, in spite of the overwhelming proof
against such idea.
No force of nature has ever had any interest in human life. There is no personal
god or cosmic energy to direct human behavior. Natural forces cannot recognize
the difference between plants, animals, people, or inanimate matter. Hurricanes and
earthquakes kill people regardless of their religion, race, nationality, economic
level, or political affiliation. There is no god to control the forces of nature.
In 1201, an earthquake killed 1,100,000 Egyptians. In 1815, the eruption of
Mount Tambora killed 92,000 Indonesians. In 1900, a hurricane killed 6,000
Texans. In 1918, the Spanish influenza killed over 500,000 people in the United
States. In 1970, a cyclone killed 266,000 Pakistanis. In 1975, a typhoon killed
more than 100,000 Chinese. In 1992, a hurricane destroyed property valued at $22
billion in the United States. The deaths included rich and poor women and men of
different nationalities, races, religions, and political beliefs. This is incontrovertible
evidence that a compassionate god does not exist.
Religion impairs human judgment. It is a human tragedy that so many people
have been misguided by ignorance, superstition, greed, and madness, while
dedicating their entire lives to the pursuit and promotion of a false and evil idea.
No other individuals have ever reached more eminence on the basis of ignorance
than the theologians and the religious scholars. The age of the world was
determined in 1650 by James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh, Ireland, on the basis
of his personal religious feelings. He said that creation took place in 4004 BCE
(Before Common Era). This date was formally entered into the Christian Bible as
an unquestionable fact.
Another arbitrary selection was made later in England by John Lightfoot, a
scholar at Cambridge University. He claimed that the world was created
instantaneously by God, and that man was created on October 23, 4004 BCE,
exactly at 9 A.M. His conclusions were reached after an extensive research of
Jewish and Christian scriptures. However, religious faith does not make humans
infallible. Science can prove that the universe is billions of years old.
Consequently, divine creation is a fantasy.
 A world can exist without a god, but a god cannot exist without a world
because a god who has no world has no purpose. Consequently, no god could exist
before there was a world. The universe evolved with its own inherent
characteristics, which are the laws of nature. Every object in the universe is subject
to these laws, and no object can violate them. Therefore, all objects act under the
laws of nature. In a universe that has inherent laws, some things are possible, and
some are not, because nothing can act against the laws of nature. Consequently,
they cannot be changed by divine power. Therefore, an all-powerful and perfect
god cannot exist, because it is against the laws of nature.
A god cannot exist if he is not perfect, since only a perfect being can be a god.
A perfect god can only be perfect by creating perfect things. But the world is not
perfect. A god who creates an imperfect world is not a perfect god. An imperfect
god cannot exist, since only a perfect being can be a god. Therefore, there is no
perfect or imperfect god.
Imagine for a moment that this is a perfect world created by a god, so that we
are perfect beings living in a perfect society. Every person, animal, plant, and
inanimate object has to be perfect in a perfect world. There can be no diseases, no
pathogenic bacteria, no wars, no crimes, no hunger, no cold, no heat, and no
natural disasters, only perfect events. However, a perfect being living in a perfect
world has no needs. Laws are not necessary because there is no crime, schools are
not necessary because perfect beings are all-knowing, moral codes are not
necessary because perfect beings are infinitely good, work is not necessary because
perfect beings are all-powerful.
All the perfect beings living in a perfect world have to be exactly alike.
Otherwise, they will not have the same level of perfection. They must even have
identical physical shapes and thoughts. If there is no difference between one
individual and another, there are no individual identities, no social classes, no
arguments, and no struggle of any kind. But how can you evaluate a perfect world?
How can you tell when a physical shape is perfect? How can you know the
meaning of a perfect thought? What standard can you use to evaluate perfection?
We understand perfection as the supreme excellence in the quality of a thing.
Perfection is thus the higher state in a series of lower qualities. Consequently, the
concept of perfection depends on the concept of imperfection. You cannot imagine
perfection if there are no imperfect things. Perfection is an unattainable quality that
corresponds to an ideal standard that exists only in a theoretical state. If perfection
is only an idea, then a perfect god is an idea, the same as a perfect world. There is
no purpose in a perfect world that has no needs. Therefore, a god who creates
perfection creates without purpose, and a god who creates imperfection is not
perfect. Since none of these gods can possibly exist, there is no rational basis for
the belief in a god.
 Religion is a strong belief in a supernatural divine power that controls human
destiny. The belief in God is a delusion. Religious frenzy disturbs the normal
activity of the central nervous system and distorts perception. When people
experience a religious ecstasy, they lose normal sensory perception and self-
control. The mystic or prophetic trance is the mental state in which prophets claim
to communicate with a god. A highly emotional religious experience is a state of
extreme mental disorder. A religious ecstasy is very similar to an epileptic seizure,
which manifests itself by convulsive attacks and clouding of consciousness.
Hallucinatory drugs can also cause a clouding of consciousness and misperceptions
of reality. As a result, the people who are under the influence of drugs can also
claim to communicate with God.
A prophet claims to have abilities beyond those of ordinary people. He claims
to speak with God, and to receive instructions that he must communicate to his
people. No one else shares his experience, so that anyone who believes in him has
to take his word. But even if a great number of people believe in his claims,
sharing beliefs with many people does not prove that an argument is true. Religious
faith is not proof that a prophet speaks the truth. However, there is proof that
religious faith is equivalent to psychosis.
One of the main characteristics of psychosis is delusion. A delusion is a
persistent false belief regarding the self and the people and objects outside the self,
in which the mental derangement is characterized by a defective or lost contact
with reality. A delusion is a false belief based on the wrong interpretation of
external reality that a person defends, even when there is incontrovertible evidence
that his belief is false. The fundamental characteristic of every delusion is faith
without doubt. Consequently, religious faith is a delusion. When many people
share the false beliefs about reality, it becomes a mass delusion. Therefore, it is
wrong to classify a religious belief that has no empirical evidence as a virtue, while
all other delusions are classified as pathological conditions.
There is a close link between psychosis and the religious or mystical
experience. A mystical experience is an intense sensation of being transported out
of the real world into an ethereal imaginary reality where time and space are
excessively distorted. Mystics claim that an ultimate spiritual reality exists beyond
the perception of the senses and rational thought with which they establish a direct
communication or mystical union. They claim to become aware of an existence
that was never known before. Such experience is described as a journey into the
unexplainable and the undecipherable where the mystic acquires a sense of
holiness and intimate contact with God. However, experiences of visions and
voices that are not perceived through the senses are equivalent to madness.
A defective recognition of reality is characterized by a lower capacity in the
perception system and a loss in the ability to relate things and combine them into a
whole, which is the integrative capacity. When this is lost, the individual cannot
longer judge properly the distance, size, depth, and every other clue to the relation
between the objects in the surrounding world and himself.
Psychosis and mystical experience are two typical examples of an altered state
of consciousness. The most evident similarities are visual and auditory
hallucinations, arbitrary thoughts, a sense of enhanced awareness, a sense of
improved intellectual capacity, a feeling of unity with the divine and extreme joy.
The only difference between schizophrenia and mysticism is that a schizophrenic
does not know how to cope with his experience. He has no preparation and has no
control over the experience of his inner world. As a result, he feels defeated and
has no confidence that he will survive. By contrast, a mystic devotes his entire life
to cultivate a mystical experience. He practices rituals and methods of meditation
to induce transcendence and he gradually trains his muscles to confront his intense
experience. A mystic trains himself to control the experience of his inner world.
Consequently, all mystics are trained to become professional schizophrenics. The
similarity between psychosis and mystical experience is more evident in
schizophreniform psychosis, which is a subtype of schizophrenia, because the
patient does not experience abnormal social relations.
Religion can only exist by indoctrination. If you never teach children to believe
in a god, the belief in God will never develop spontaneously. There is no inherent
theism in human nature. Consequently, everybody is born an atheist. Since atheism
is an inherent part of human nature, then God is a creation of the mind. If a god
really existed, all human beings would be born with a religious faith. Since this is
not true, atheism is a natural part of the evolution of humanity.
Atheism is the natural, normal point of view of anyone who has not been
exposed to religious conditioning. No one would believe that there is an invisible
king or queen in the sky if the advocates of monarchy had not imposed this
doctrine on a large part of the human race in ancient times. But because the
pressure to believe in an invisible supreme being is still quite intense, atheism in
practice is the ability to resist religious indoctrination in the name of common
sense.
Religious education is a form of child abuse and violates the rights of children.
The influence of religion is a severe shortcoming in the global campaign to protect
children and a contributor to child abuse. In one form or another, all religions
violate the rights of children. Such abuse begins with the involuntary involvement
of children in religious practices from the time they are born. All religions, through
ritual, preaching, and religious texts, seek to bring children into day-to-day
religious practice. This gives holy books and scriptures, as well as those who teach
them, an early grip on the developing minds of young people, leaving an indelible
impression on them. Sunday schools, madrassas, or Jewish or Hindu temples are
centers of indoctrination for children. Children are being legally brainwashed every
day under the guise of freedom of religion.
Forced involvement of children in religious practices contributes to global
child abuse. The negative influence of religion and its subsequent contribution to
child abuse from religious beliefs and practices requires setting limits on how early
organized religion as an institution can have access to children. Millions of
children worldwide continue to be abused in the name of religion. However, all the
efforts made by the UN to solve this problem continue to address the symptoms,
rather than the disease, which is religion.
How can you possibly describe a child of four as a Muslim, a Christian, a
Hindu or a Jew? Would you call a four-year-old child an economic monetarist?
Would you call a four-year-old child a neo-isolationist or a liberal Republican?
These children will grow up to evaluate the world and the entire cosmos with their
own opinions based on their religious indoctrination. Religion is the only field in
our culture that is absolutely accepted, without question, without even noticing
how bizarre it is. Religious parents have a total and absolute control on how their
children will be raised, what their children will become, and what opinions their
children will have about the cosmos, about life, and about all existence. And all of
this is mental child abuse.
The worst offenders of abusive religious practices of children often come from
countries that have never signed, and never will sign, a declaration with the United
Nations. These children will continue to be indoctrinated and a form of child abuse
will continue to be perpetrated. The United Nations is a governing body that puts
the burden on individual governments to follow their guidelines. But other than
sanctions, the UN has very little power to keep these governments in check. And
even with sanctions, some countries don’t even care. Consequently, millions upon
millions of innocent children are condemned to religious abuse.
Some people claim that there are atheists who have converted to Christianity.
However, if there are any so-called atheists who convert to Christianity, it is
because they have never been true atheists. An atheist is 100% sure of his beliefs,
permanently. He does not have even the slightest doubt. If he did, he wouldn’t be
an atheist. Consequently, an atheist who is not 100% sure of his beliefs is not a true
atheist. He doubts his atheism up to a certain degree. Therefore, he believes in a
divine creator up to a certain degree. When he states that he has converted to
Christianity, he merely ceases to doubt one way or the other, and then makes up his
mind and opts for Christianity. No true atheist has ever become religious, and
never will.
Atheism means the negation of a god’s existence. But since there is no
evidence of God, his existence is equivalent to nothing. If the existence of God is
equivalent to nothing, then the only thing that remains about the concept of God is
the belief that a god exists. Consequently, God exists only in the imagination of the
believer. A god that exists only in the imagination of the believer is a delusion.
If atheism is the negation of a god’s existence, but a god’s existence is
equivalent to nothing, because there is no evidence of a god’ existence, then
religion is against reality, and the negation belongs to religion, not atheism.
Consequently, religion is the negation of truth, and religious people are the true
deniers. Therefore, atheism is positive and religion is negative.
Some people claim that no one can be moral without religion. So that atheism
is bad and only religious morality is good. In the United States, 10% of the
population is atheist, and 90% is religious. This means that there are plenty of
atheists who could go to prison if they were criminals. Yet, the prison population is
1% atheist and 99% religious. If religious morality were good, then the prison
population should be 99% atheist and 1% religious. This is incontrovertible
evidence that religious morality is execrable.
Morality is defined on the basis of an established code of ethics. A code of
ethics is the rules that are imposed on a social group by the most powerful
institutions. But the rules and laws in a society are not immutable, and have to
change with time. No one can create a perfect list of what is right and what is
wrong, so that an absolute code of ethics cannot exist. Furthermore, there is no
code of ethics that has ever been precisely followed by anyone. The perception of
right and wrong depends on the experiences and upbringing of each individual.
Each person determines his behavior by the feelings in his heart and the thoughts
in his mind, so that each person defines his own morality and chooses his own
behavior. Thus, both religion and atheism are interpreted on the basis of individual
personality.
Neither religion nor atheism is a necessary precondition for good or bad
behavior. Both atheist and religious persons can be moral or immoral, since the
belief or disbelief in a god does not change their human nature. There is no divine,
natural or human power forcing anyone to be good or bad. But the fact is that
religion leads to evil 99% of the time more often than atheism. Consequently,
atheism is 99% better than religion. History also proves that religion has caused
99% of the atrocities in the world. There is no doubt then that religion is a
miserable source of moral guidance.
Some people claim that that belief that a god exists provides hope, confidence,
faith, and love in the face of trouble. If a person lacks these qualities, he cannot be
prepared to cope with life, so that all atheists are morally inferior. There can be no
basis for morality in the absence of a god, since he is the source of all good. If
there is no god, there is no sense in trying to be good. An atheist may just act
according to his own impulses, and behave according to his own opinion of what is
good or bad. If there is no god, there is no certainty in the concepts of right and
wrong. Therefore, atheism can only lead to ignorance and anxiety. But this
argument is against its own claims, since a religious faith is the product of
ignorance and anxiety. God is only an idea that was created by humanity out of
ignorance as a consolation against fear, loneliness, and pain. Consequently, the
people who believe in a god create their own concepts of right and wrong, and then
behave according to their own impulses. A religious faith does not make people
infallible. It is not necessary to believe in a god to be a moral person. The most
religious persons have often been the most immoral. The behavior of people is
strictly based in individual choice, without divine interference.
Some people claim that it helps to believe in a god to find consolation for the
fear of death. A little reflection will show us that the physical fear some have of
death is as groundless as the moral. Eminent physicians have shown that death is
always preceded by the depression of the nervous system. Therefore, life must
always terminate without feeling. While the apprehension is vivid and a scream of
terror or pain can be uttered, death is still remote. Organic disease, or a mortal
blow, may end existence with a sudden pang, but in the majority of cases, a person
loses his life as unconsciously as he came into it. Normal death is generally
gradual, harmless and undisturbed, as when you go to sleep.
Some people claim that human existence cannot have purpose or meaning
without God. But life is an accident of nature. There is no meaning or purpose in
life from the vantage point of nature. There is not even life. Therefore, the purpose
and meaning of life is a human decision.
Some people claim that a religion is any belief to which a person is committed.
Hence, an atheist is committed to faith as much as a religious person. In other
words, the religious believer has faith that a god exists, while the atheist has faith
that a god does not exist. But there is a great difference between a religious
believer and an atheist. The religious believer does not have anything else besides
the faith that a god exists. Whereas the atheist conducts a comprehensive inquiry
into the nature of life and the universe before he can arrive at any conclusion.
Furthermore, an atheist is capable of changing his mind with new evidence,
whereas the religious person will close his eyes to reality forever. Therefore, a
religious believer is a mentally lazy person who does not want to go through the
trouble of putting his mind to work to discover the true nature of reality.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. You cannot claim that a god
exists only because you have faith that a god exists. You need more than faith to
prove it. Today, there are more than one thousand million atheists all over the
world who have more than faith to prove that a god cannot exist.
Some people claim that science is a religion because it requires faith to believe.
But science is the opposite of religion. Science requires us to analyze the world
before we can judge its nature. From such analysis, a hypothesis is developed, and
then an experiment is made to test the hypothesis. If the experiment succeeds, the
hypothesis becomes a theory. If the experiment fails, a new hypothesis is
developed, often using the knowledge gained from the experiment. This process
may be repeated many times. There is no assumption of any knowledge before
making observations. As a result, knowledge is gained through observation and
improved by the scientific method. However, theories are not immutable, and can
change with new knowledge. New scientific knowledge helps to improve the tools
for observation, which in turn help to improve our ability to observe the world.
Thus, cosmology and biology are better understood thanks to the development of
the telescope and microscope.
Religion, on the contrary, pretends to provide an absolute knowledge. It claims
that God is the reason for everything that exists, since he is the one who created
everything. If God created everything that exists, then he is the answer to all of
your questions. Accordingly, everything there is to know you already know if you
believe in God. Religion forbids inquisitive thought. Science requires proof for
everything. Religion requires acceptance without proof. Religious faith believes
without proof. Therefore, there is no difference between religious faith and
superstition.
Since science serves to eliminate superstition. There is nothing in common
between religion and science. If God is not the creator of everything, there are no
absolute truths. If there are no absolute truths, there are no absolute moral and
ethical values. If there are no absolute moral and ethical values, there is no intrinsic
meaning in life. If there is no intrinsic meaning in life, then the real meaning of life
is what each person does through his actions. Consequently, life can have many
different meanings.
The real meaning of life is what we make of it through our actions. Therefore,
the pursuit and fulfillment of our personal goals is what gives meaning to our lives.
Since different people have different goals, life has many different meanings.
Humanitarian people want to make the world better for others. Selfish people want
to make the world better for themselves. But life is worth living even if it has no
special meaning. The meaning of life is something that each of us decides.
Religious faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox
virus but harder to eradicate. Faith, being belief that isn’t based on evidence, is the
principal vice of any religion. And who, looking at Northern Ireland or the Middle
East, can be confident that the brain virus of faith is not exceedingly dangerous?
Religion is a form of psychosis characterized by a defective contact with reality
in which the individual is obsessed with an absurd idea. Religious fanaticism
awakens the lower human instincts and leads into criminal behavior. Yet, children
all over the world are perversely indoctrinated with religion. It is a crime to teach
religion to an innocent child at an age when he cannot reason if the doctrine is right
or wrong. A child has the right to develop a free mind, independent from religious
dogma. Every person is born with the inherent right to be mentally free.
What hope can you find in a world that is controlled by religious authority?
What confidence, faith, and love can you expect to find while living under an
absolute rule? An empire is a system of government that exerts its power over the
masses with censorship and terrorism. A global power is a threat to individual
freedom. If the laws are not fair, you cannot appeal for justice. An imperialist
government is as dangerous as an empire. There is no god who can save you from
tyranny. Only you can defend your right to design your own destiny.
The history of religion is a history of terror, which proves that religion
corrupted, rather than improved the human species. When terror is used as a means
for survival, the organisms that have the highest terrorist characteristics are the
ones who survive and prevail, but those characteristics are a deterioration of the
species, not an improvement.
Religious faith has always been the cause for the most horrendous atrocities, as
history can tell. And this came as a result of primitive man’s unenlightened
decision to alter the course of human evolution through the ecstatic religious rituals
that modified his brain structure, leading to the evolution of a defective and
inferior religious brain. Religion is thus a human tragedy and the ruin of all
mankind.
Religion is in reality the hotbed of iniquity and viciousness from which every
type of delusion emerges to create all the miseries and evils that infest humanity.
Religion engenders irrational thinking. It is the major source of anthropocentric,
anthropomorphic, ethnocentric, and egocentric ideas. It is the greatest source of
hatred that has ever devastated humanity. Religion fits the description of all types
of mental diseases including psychosis, schizophrenia, paranoid psychosis,
paranoid schizophrenia, manic states with paranoid psychosis, substance related
paranoid states, insanity, madness, perversion, immorality, corruption, depravity,
and wickedness. Religion is the source of all types of mental diseases and all types
of evil. Religion is madness in the most extreme degree. Religion is the highest
attainable psychotic state, the uppermost stage of insanity, and the supreme
delusion. Consequently, religion is the plague of humanity, and God is the
pestilence of the world.

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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Morgan is a persuasive writer of substance. This is an excellent manuscript

by an intellect well versed in his subject. The author carefully outlines the specific
conditions that led to the origin and evolution of religion and the devastating
effects that religious faith forged upon the human race. His logical conclusions
were attained only after conducting a careful and exhaustive investigation of the
subject matter, thereby providing the most compelling evidence for his arguments.
The author’s skill and perfect pacing, as he presents scientific evidence in the
realm of psychological perception, stand alone in this extraordinary volume of
knowledge.

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