The Rant Institute

As yourself a simple question: which belief makes a person more humble - the belief that we evolved from monkeys, and that we are therefore no more special or different from every other living thing on the planet, or the belief that we were made by God, and that the entire universe was created specifically with you in mind? Religious believers often insist that that only be believing that the most powerful God imaginable created the entire universe, can we be truly humble. Even though such a belief leads us to the conclusion that everything other living thing on the planet is ours to do with as we  please. This belief that we humans are somehow special, because God gave only our species a soul, lead one writer to explain it this way: To every other species on the planet, we are the Nazi's. And yet, somehow, our "benevolent" God, made it all for us anyway. Fuck the suffering of other animals - they're just animals after all. Sort of like how the Germans described t...

Only people who have the hubris to believe they are good enough to deserve the eternal paradise of heaven are evil enough to believe that all those who don't believe the same thing that they do deserve the eternal punishment of hell. Or more simply, only a person who thinks they deserve to live in paradise for eternity, are evil enough to believe that some people deserve to be punished for eternity.  And for almost no other reason than that they don't believe the same things, or they just happen to be different in their tastes and proclivities. Religion, in other words, sells its believers the very opposite of what it convinces them to believe. 

Here's how totally twisted we human monkeys have become.    We think we are so special, because we are so intelligent, that we can kill whatever we want. We even have Religion which "teaches" us to believe we are superior to everything in the universe. In fact, even the universe itself was made especially for us, by the most awesomely powerful being ever imaginable! And all, just for US! Because "He" loves us THAT much! But such a "belief" only ever gives us a truly false a sense of humility. Such a narrative provides those who believe in it the exact opposite of humility. In fact, such a story actually sounds exactly like the story of why the devil was thrown out of heaven in the first place, if you think about it, because he is alleged to have "wanted to be like God," and wanted his own servants and such. That is EXACTLY how religions, political structures, corporations, and even societies, have all arranged themselves - hierarchically....

Maybe the only thing infinite about religion is the number of lies it is willing to tell to enslave people with ever more lies. Take the lie of "moral perfection," for example. This lie convinces people that religion will help make them "moral" by curing them of the moral infection they are born with - original sin.  Th is f l aw of "original sin" leads us to think in terms of spiritual ine quality in the same way that a belief that some r aces of people are less evolved than others leads them to think in terms of racial inequality .  And the w hole quest for spiritual perfection or "spiritual purity," works the exact same w ay , and has the exact same effects on us all, as a "final solution" had in achiev ing racial perfection o r "purity . " One works to puri fy the soul of a "chosen people, while the other seeks to purify the bloodline . That's why some people see r acism as simply a secular rel...

Roughly 100 years ago, my great grand parents fled the Armenian genocide in Turkey, and made their way to America. Yesterday, my mother voted for a man who vows to send similar such refugees back to Syria, where ISIS and other genocidal extremists are doing their worst. "Isn't it ironic, don't ya think? A little too ironic. I really do think." Confronted with questions about how any "Christian" who proclaims to follow in the footsteps of Christ could support such a "man," the usual "Christian" reply is based on their "beliefs" about the dangers of losing their guns, the fear they have of homosexuals getting married, immigrants imposing Sharia Law, the poor developing a voting block strong enough to redistribute wealth, Black Lives Matter getting anyone to care about "black lives," abortion, or a number of other things. Never mind the fact that the number of abortions tends to go up during Republican presidencies, s...

Someone once asked "what kind of a God creates a world where all of the living creatures are forced to eat each other to survive?" This question forces a thinking person to wonder why such a "merciful" God would "intelligently design" such a house of horrors, if he really "loves us." Christians try to weave their way around the "problem of evil" argument by claiming that evil is simply a by product of free will (as if an infinitely benevolent God is therefore constrained by the limits of their own inability to imagine a world where free will exists but evil does not), but the problem of pain is a different question altogether. Even a mere human being can imagine a world in which all of the creatures are simply vegetarians instead of carnivores. Indeed, even the dinosaurs were said to be vegetarians, but for the T-Rex.     And if God could not figure out how to create a sustainable world where all of the creatures are vegetarians, the...

A "true believer" in God and Religion may be, by far, the most skeptical person on the planet. This may sound ironic, even paradoxical, but there is probably no one who is more skeptical of everything there is to be skeptical of, than a "true believer." Not all "believers" suffer from this near fatal sense of absolute skepticism, but the ones that do, will almost never "believe" anything other than the beliefs they have deeply, emotionally, and psychologically, come to depend on for their sense of purpose and identity. For these true believers, no mountain of scientific data could ever change their mind about climate issues, for example. No ocean of studies and research could ever sway their opinion about racism; no amount of murder, rape, and genocide could ever shake their faith in the righteousness of their chosen religion; and no universe full of torture, death, and evil, could ever diminish their absolute "belief" in the unequivo...