The Rant Institute

 "When Christianity gained control of the Roman Empire it suppressed the writings of its critics and even cast them into flames." Robert L. Wilken, The Christians As the Romans Saw Them (New Haven: Yale, 1984), p. xii.

 "To think that the ruler of the universe will run to my assistance and bend the laws of nature for me is the height of arrogance. That implies that everyone else (such as the opposing football team, driver, student, parent) is de -selected, unfavored by God, and that I am special, above it all." Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist (Madison, WI: FFRF, 1992), p. 109. What could be more arrogant than to believe in miracles? To believe that the supreme ruler of the universe has not only bent the laws of nature by which everyone else is bound, but that such a ruler did so as a special favor to you, and also as a special message and invitation to you, which that ruler intentionally withholds from everyone else.  Even the person who believes they know something is a miracle believes that their knowledge of miracles is itself a special knowledge, amounting to a kind of miracle in and of itself, that the God who performed the miracle bestows to his chosen ...

  When we form images of God, they are all really exhibitions of our lack of faith, as Alan Watts pointed out. They are merely something to hold onto, something to grasp, which is like grasping at water because we feel like we are drowning, or grasping at air because we feel like we are falling. Grasping hold of such images are not acts of faith in the image being held onto to, but faith in our ability to refuse to let go of the images to which we grasp, like a child refusing to let go of their mother's hand at the public library or swimming pool.   It is only when we don’t grasp, like a young bird that leaves the nest trusting its wings will allow it to glide upon the air rather than crash to the earth, only then are we exercising an attitude of true faith. Everything else is a brand, used for identifying cattle and slaves and sheep, as to what plantations they belong.

 "Since experiences of God are good grounds for the existence of God, are not experiences of the absence of God good grounds for the nonexistence of God? After all, many people have tried to experience God and have failed. Cannot these experiences of the absence of God be used by atheists to counter the theistic argument based on experience of the presence of God?" Michael Martin, Atheism: A Philosophical Justification , (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990), p. 159.

Like turning water into wine or wine into blood, only religion has the power to turn every heaven into a living hell, for it uses fear - which children are born perfectly free of - to crucify to the cross of its dogmas the very guiding light that leads us to every understanding we ever reach: curiosity.  And the only miracle cure that breaks the nails with which religion crucifies our curiosity to the cross of its damned dogmas, by which it unleashes hell on earth through promises to those who lust for a heaven of happily ever afterlife, is to be creative enough, and courageous enough, to trust oneself - regardless of the hell those damned scorpions and vipers in their temples use as threats - just like Jesus did.  

 We live in a society, steeped in religions, that so require us to suppress our authentic selves that the only time that authenticity rears its unwanted head is through anger.  Anger, in other words, is often the only time a person is able to express how they truly feel.

 Religion is the ability of a man who claims "all men have free will,"to then feel he has no choice but use his own free will to force others to obey his commands, by claiming his commands come from God.  Religion, in other words, is the ability of one man to dupe himself into believing he has "free will" and an obligation to ensure you use yours as he sees fit.