What would it take for the world to understand that everything they have been taught about the existence of religion and one or more supreme being(s) since childhood is a lie? I'm referring to the imaginary entity as supreme being(s) because this article is supposed to be an attack on each and every entity of such kind. So if you are a religious fanatic, you can stop reading here. But if you have an open mind to try and understand the reality of this world, you certainly should go ahead and read the entire article.
Science and religion, if they were beings, would not stand the sight of one another. They can never coexist. Science is based on proposal of a hypothesis and a set of experiments that would prove or disprove it, following its acceptance or rejection. Religion on the other hand is based on having faith in the power of supreme being(s) who created the world we see around and would ultimately pass judgment according to all our actions in our lives. Let us try to bring science and religion a little close to each other and try to prove the existence of supreme being(s). The idea stabs itself at heart. If you don't believe me, think about this: Science dictates that an entity can only be created by another entity who is more sophisticated in design than the entity being created. I believe both the theists and the atheists will agree to that point. Supreme being(s), if they exist, are of an extremely complex design as they are creator(s) of this universe which itself is very complex natured. Without even going into the argument of the source of supreme being(s), we have a very important fact to realize. The tasks that a complex being of that nature would perform would be of a level beyond our scope of imagination, and not petty like listen to prayers, bless marriages, punishing the sins, sending famines for lack of faith, favour our side in the war, disapprove of our sex lives, etc., in an extremely minute fraction of his creation. Please understand that I provide this argument on a purely logical basis and not faith oriented or imaginative basis.
That being said, I would like to point out a couple of baseless point that theists put forward when someone tells them that the supreme being(s) they worship don't exist. They say that we cannot disprove their existence; hence they are not wrong in following them. Some of them question that if the supreme being(s) do not exist, who created us and the world around us?
For the theists falling under the first category, it would be better if they know that there are a lot of things we cannot disprove. You cannot disprove the existence of an invisible pink unicorn that follows me wherever I go. Neither can you disprove the existence of a miniature tea kettle revolving in an orbit around planet Saturn. If I claim existence of an alien aircraft with protruding tentacles like that of an octopus, it will be my job to prove that I am right, and not the your job to prove that I am wrong. I hope you get my point now.
For the second point, i.e. the people who say that the world around us is very complex to be created by accident and thus, there must be supreme being(s) who created everything, I would like to mention that we go back to the point mentioned in the second paragraph. Whenever I ask them about the origin of this supreme being(s), the reply that I often hear is that they are absolute and need not be created. Hence, being(s) of more complex nature than the universe itself can exist without them questioning the creator of that supreme being(s), but universe, a much less complex structure cannot exist without someone creating it. In language of science, you cannot solve a complex problem by postulating an agent that is even more complex in nature and thereby compounding the problem instead of solving it. Please correct me if I am wrong there. Religion is a creation of human mind alone. We never see a plant or an animal worship someone. If someday we come in contact with a race alien to planet Earth, would they be following one of the Earth's religions? I seriously doubt it.
I believe that science is corrosive to religion as it threatens its very existence by proving theories which are not acceptable by the religion. But that is not the end of the story. Religion itself is corrosive to science as it teaches people to be satisfied by the trivial supernatural wrong explanations and blinds them to the wonderful real explanations that we have within our grasp. But people choose to live in denial and have faith in their religion or supreme being(s). They believe they will be rewarded ultimately for this faith and all the good deeds they do when the time for judgment comes. I believe that if you do good deeds only because you fear the judgment of your supreme being(s), and not out of goodness of your heart, then something is seriously wrong with you.
In words of late Carl Sagan, "How is it that hardly and major religion has looked at science and concluded, 'This is better than we thought! The universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant.'? Instead they say, 'No, no, no. My god is a little god and I want him to stay that way.' A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed my modern science might be able to draw reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths."
Religions are the biggest lie in the history of humanity. Let us stop the hypocrisy and quit being so damn respectful towards them.
Inspired from Richard Dawkin’s idea of Militant Atheism
