Regarding Religion: More Random Thoughts.

*Religious Truth in Advertising: There are laws that require that advertising doesn't proclaim falsehoods and gives out misleading information and promises that can't be kept. The exception is of course religion. Religion can promise an actual eternal afterlife, a heaven or a hell, and so on. There are no laws that require religious 'advertising' to be spot-on and to produce the goods that they promise they can produce.

*Religious Hypocrisy: I'd wager that not one in a million Christians or True Believers follow without fail or without exception all (roughly) 613 Biblical Commandments as directed from On High. That's including such things as supporting in part or in full, even participating in blasphemy, divorce, adultery, homosexuality, contraception, stem-cell research, and abortion. Further, you get extreme right-wing Christian evangelists and fundamentalists constantly going on and on and on about the evils of same-sex relations and marriage equality, giving the same tired old Biblical passages that reference marriage as between one man and one woman (never mind that polygamy is rampant in the Bible and within Biblical times). However these same individuals totally ignore the issue of violating those other Biblical commandments, say like what you should or shouldn't eat, drink or wear. Not a peep. That's probably because they themselves pay no attention to what their God wants with respect to eating, drinking and clothing. Religious hypocrisy is rampant! However, since God is also a do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do hypocrite, a practitioner of the theological double standard, perhaps us mere mortals can be allowed a hypocrisy or two that can't be held against us.

*Religious Morality 101: I don't like it; therefore you won't do it - or else!

*Religious Morality 101: Religion has all of the answers - and enforces them! Obey! Big Brother is watching you!

*Religious Morality 101: The 11th Commandment: Thou shall NOT mock God for God shall NOT be mocked; thou shall NOT ask questions of God's nature; thou shall NOT think about God's nature for yourself. Just Obey!

*More Religious Morality 101: Don't worry about the state of world affairs next week (i.e. - like the environment) because the End of Days is tomorrow!

*Modern Christians, especially evangelists and fundamentalists go on and on about how Christianity and Christians are now being verbally and legislatively persecuted by humanists, free thinkers, atheists and by the courts. That's pretty rich considering that they - Christians - physically dished out persecutions in droves once upon a time via all manner of tortures, burning heretics at the stake, etc. A Christian today is near infinitely better off than a heretic during the Inquisition era.

*Why don't Christians who constantly froth at the mouth and rail against people who violate God's commandments against say LGBT activities, abortion, the practice of witchcraft, adultry, etc. and who want to personally deal with these people - and not in a loving Jesus / Christian sort of way either - just leave such "dealings with" instead to God Himself. After all, it's God who is pissed off and what God's pissed off about when it comes to the dealing of other people are none of your business.

*While religion might be comforting to the individual, religion has not proved to be so comforting to societies and cultures as a whole (i.e. - think Northern Ireland, Iraq, Syria, Israel-Palestine, 9/11, the Crusades, etc.), and even many individuals have suffered grievously at the hands of religious fanatics and True Believers (like the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, etc.).

*One of those things that religions like to find are mysteries or unknowns which they can then put a religious spin on.

*The mental gymnastics that people go through to make excuses for their religious beliefs aren't just bad, they're sad, and they're dangerous. Somehow religions manage to get people to sacrifice their humanity, their dignity, their self-respect and their self-worth on that religion's alter, making them slaves to an ideology. (Matt Dillahunty)

*It is claimed that religion gives comfort to people, but then too so does any community of like-minded people. A teddy bear gives comfort to a young child, but the child eventually grows out of it.

*Any religion (i.e. - Islam) that protests with extreme violence against satire, is a pretty insecure religion, and a pretty petty religion.

*If one comprehends the fallacies of any one religion, one comprehends them all. (via Christopher Hitchens)

*There's no such thing as a religion of peace, or a major religion that is peaceful, by definition or according to history. Demands that you believe the impossible, and someone else to believe something else that's impossible and that's mutually exclusive, do not lead to peaceful solutions.

*Geography; geographical location is the best prediction of what your religion is likely to be, not theology.

*Theists need to tell us what they believe; why they believe it; what is their evidence that supports those beliefs; and why should their evidence for their beliefs convince non-believers?

*Religious education teaches you what to think instead of how to think.

*If a Christian asks an atheist "why don't you believe in Christianity?", then the obvious retort is, "why don't you Christians believe in Allah and in Islam?"

*Back off and look at your faith and your religion as if you were an outsider and see if it makes any sense. Would you of your own free will have chosen that faith and that religion looking at same from an outside perspective?

*If your God or god cannot convince outsiders that he is the one true God or god, then that doesn't speak well for his omnipotent abilities now does it?

*Attention True Believers: Name me a god or deity that you don't believe in and then explain why you are an atheist with respect to belief in that god or deity. Now apply that same explanation to your own choice of god or deity.

*It's disturbing that the majority of people still tend to associate morality with religion. It's hard to comprehend that religion in this (not unique) era of religious conflicts and religious inspired terrorism and the sexual abuse of children by the clergy, etc. continues to be so closely attached to morality.

*Each religion's holy book(s) claims to be the absolute truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, yet all holy books in part or in total, are mutually exclusive. Something is screwy somewhere.

*People want to know what the theological truth is, just as long as that truth correlates with their already perceived truth on all theological matters.

*Religions place faith over reason. Faith is their be-all-and-end-all.

*If you are subjected to a totally miserable existence (think Big Brother and "1984" but in reality) at least you can die and escape that existence. The Bible and the Koran don't give you that option.

*Genital mutilation is exclusively a religious mandate.

*Mythology is just somebody else's religion, not of course your religion.

*Religious people claim knowledge even though they can't possibly know what they think they know.

*You can't edit after-the-fact holy books to eliminate the inherent nonsensical elements contained within them.

*Some humans believe they are better than the rest of us just because they have God on their side.

*"That's offensive" does not constitute a valid argument.

*People used to be polytheists and then they downsized and their beliefs evolved into monotheism. Conclusion: Given that trend, people are getting closer and closer to the real truth about the actual number of deities.

*Don't forget all of you male Islamists, that with your 72 virgins you also get 72 mothers-in-law!

*Religion itself is not the belief that there is a God but rather religion is the belief that God tells you what to do. (via Christopher Hitchens).

*You can criticize just about anything you like - films, restaurants, corporations, politicians, even your boss and your spouse - but somehow religions (and baseball umpires) are off limits.

*Freedom of religion is also the same thing as freedom from religion.

*Freedom from religion is just as important as freedom of religion.

*Given what we know today about how life, the Universe and everything works, there is no way the Abrahamic religions could have gotten off the ground in the 21st Century. (via Christopher Hitchens)