When I reached my mid teenage years, my parents started demonstrating an interest in Tarot, healing, runes and crystals. Although this never appealed to me personally and I always held a healthy level of cinicism, their convictions in its truth and power were firm and unshakable.
They would tell me how the crystals would take pain away, and how they have experienced first hand in the power of Tarot and it’s assocciated pratices.

Hearing these first hand stories from my own parents that I loved and respected, it quickly became apparant to me what a circular belief system it was- esentially one believes X so strongly that all evidence that does not support X is ignored, and all the events that fit in with X are noticed and amplified, much like a gambler only telling you of their wins and skipping over the details of their losses.

At the same time I noticed people talking about God, telling me how their prayers had been answered, (of course never getting to hear of all the failed prayers) which struck me as odd. Was I not guilty of indulging in the same circular belief?
What seperated my belief from the equally firm convictions of people of other faiths, or psychics, or others that are less mainstream and easier to poke fun at? Surely I was being a hipocrite.

So to avoid my self-directed charge of hipocrisy, I thought I would look at the outside evidence, something that I was not encouraged to do by peers or pastors. Not only is the believer not to question or challenge his faith, but, to use Richard Dawkings’ adapt expression, any rational inquiry is expected to ‘tip toe respectfully away’ once religion enters the room. It is dangerous to question from within and rude to question from without. I can see now that the religious belief I held at that time was the unpleassant result of childhood indoctrination followed by years of circular belief to support it. We are allowed to question people about their politics or ethics and expect them to defend their beliefs, or at least hold their own in any important matter by recourse to evidence, yet somehow on the subject of religion and God and how he might have us behave, all rational discussion must stop the moment we hear ‘I believe’. This despite the fact that religion can be, as we see in these current days of religious violence from East to West, a murderous preoccupation rooted in the ethics and ignorance of the early centuries when its scriptures were being formed.

Moderate religious people may of course express distaste for such violence, pretending that the clear calls for grotesque and violent behaviour in their sacred book arn’t there and cherry-picking the ‘nice bits’, but they are still guilty of not opening up the subject of belief to rational discourse, and in doing so are part of the machinery that leads to all the ugliness caused by fundamentalism.

Agdistis or Angdistis, Ah Puch, Ahura Mazda, Alberich, Allah, Amaterasu, An, Anansi, Anat, Andvari, Anshar, Anu, Aphrodite,  Apollo,  Apsu, Ares, Artemis, Asclepius, Athena, Athirat, Athtart, Atlas, Baal, Ba Xia, Bacchus, Balder, Bast, Bellona, Bergelmir, Bes, Bixia, Yuanjin, Bragi, Brahma, Brigit, Camaxtli, Ceres, Ceridwen, Cernunnos, Chac, Chalchiuhtlicue ,Charun, Chemosh, Cheng-huang, Cybele, Dagon, Damkina, Davlin, Dawn, Demeter, Diana, Di Cang, Dionysus, Ea, El, Enki, Enlil, Eos, Epona, Ereskigal, Farbauti, Fenrir, Forseti, Freya, Freyr, Frigg, Gaia, Ganesha, Ganga, Garuda, GauriGeb, Geong Si, Guanyin, Hades, Hanuman, Hathor, Hecate (Hekate), Helios, Heng-o (Chang-o), Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Hestia, Hod, Hoderi, Hoori, Horus, Hotei, Huitzilopochtli, Hsi-Wang-Mu, Hygeia, Inanna, Inti, Iris, Ishtar, Isis, Ixtab, Izanaki, Izanami, Jesus, Juno, Jupiter, Juturna,

Kagutsuchi, Kartikeya, Khepri, Ki, Kingu, Kinich Ahau, Kishar, Krishna, Kuan-yin, Kukulcan, Lakshmi, Liza, Loki, Lugh, Luna, Magna Mater, Maia, Marduk, Mars, Mazu, Medb, Mercury, Mimir, Minerva, Mithras, Morrigan, Mot, Mummu, Muses, Nammu, Nanna, Nanna , Nanse, Neith, Nemesis, Nephthys, Neptune, Nergal, Ninazu, Ninhurzag, Nintu, Ninurta, Njord, Nugua, Nut, Odin, Ohkuninushi, Ohyamatsumi, Orgelmir, Osiris, Ostara, Pan, Parvati, Phaethon, Phoebe, Phoebus Apollo, Pilumnus, Poseidon, Quetzalcoatl, Rama, Re, Rhea, Sabazius, Sarasvati, Selene, Shiva, Seshat, Seti (Set), Shamash, Shapsu, Shen Yi, Shiva, Shu, Si-Wang-Mu, Sin, Sirona, Sol, Surya, Susanoh, Tawaret, Tefnut, Tezcatlipoca, Thanatos, Thor, Thoth, Tiamat, Tianhou, Tlaloc, Tonatiuh, Toyo-Uke-Bime, Tyche, Tyr, Utu, Uzume, Venus, Vesta, Vishnu, Volturnus, Vulcan, Xipe, Xi Wang-mu, Xochipilli, Xochiquetzal, Yam, Yarikh, Yhwh, Ymir, Yu-huang, Yum Kimil, Zeus, and perhaps even the flying spaghetti Monster?”

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol: PASSED.
This appears to forbid representational art, discouraging Christian iconography, with its crucifixes, and statues of virgins and saints. But the ban is often backed up with a jealous warning ‘I the lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation’. The collective punishment of future children, for the sin of the forefathers, doesn’t strike me as a particularly moral or ethical promise.

3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God: FAILED.
A slightly repetitive note here- the first three commandments are based solely on worshipping God above any others and and how you should/should not do it.

Personally, on the odd occasion I may utter Gods name in vain- supplementing it for a swear word. This is more an involuntarily reaction to a situation or thought- much like a cheer when your team score a goal at a football match, rather than to particulary offend or upset anyone with faith. I am also a little surprised that God is so concerned over injured vanity.

4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy: FAILED.
I work on a Sunday, and as I am not religious, I don’t devote my Sunday to God worship. Infact I doubt that anyone, apart from the most religious, devote their Sunday to worship. Shops are open and life goes on as normal. Of course people need a day of rest in their working week- but why can’t it be recommended for it’s own sake.

5. Honour your father and mother : PASSED.
While my parents haven’t always done everything right, they have tried their best and I respect them for it. I do however notice that there is no reference to honouring your children (or anyone else). It seems that by laying out certain passages, everything not mentioned (or forbidden) is thus allowed by proxie.
By all means respect your elders, but why is there nothing to forbid child abuse? A cruel or rude child is a horrible thing, but a cruel or brutal parent can do a lot more harm- yet even in a long and exhaustive list of prohibitions, parental sadism or neglect is never once condemned.

6. You shall not murder: PASSED
This is always a good rule to live by. No civilisation would survive if it’s people thought murder was acceptable and I find it insulting for it to be suggested that the ancient peoples thought murder was kosher until the tablet with this commandment was bought down from the mountain for them to abide by.
Whilst, so far, I have avoided murdering anyone- I might consider it in the defence of somebody that I loved if there was no other option. For example- what about shooting a crazed gunman on a killing spree- slaying him to save further innocent human life; would that be considered murder?
The bible is littered with fierce orders to slay people for numberless minor offenses (including violations of the Sabbath) and also includes the sinister, ominous verse “Thou shalt not suffer [permit] a witch to live,” which was taken as a divine instruction by Christians until relatively recently in human history. Some work is obviously needed here: what is first-degree or third-degree killing and what isn’t? Distinguishing killing from murder is not a job easily left to mortals: what are we to do if God himself can’t tell the difference?

7. You shall not commit adultery : PASSED.
Whist I live by treating others as I wish to be treated, this includes adultery. I’ve never felt the desire to have extra-maritial  adventures.

At the time the bible was written, families and tribes were a lot closer knit so adultery would be much more of a threat to society. Most criminal codes have long given up the attempt to make it a punishable offense in law: its rewards and punishments are carefully administered by its practitioners and victims. It perhaps does not deserve to be classed with murder or theft or perjury.

Is polygamy adultery? Also, could not permanent monogamy have been made slightly more consonant with human nature- why create people with lust in their hearts? Then again, what about rape? It seems to be very strongly recommended, along with genocide, slavery, and infanticide, in Numbers 31:1–18, and surely constitutes a rather extreme version of sex outside marriage.

8. You shall not steal : FAILED.
While I despise theft and as a rule do not entertain the thought, I think in the interests of honesty, it would be untrue if I said I had never stolen anything. From a pint glass down the pub that caught my eye, to a handful of biro pens from the stationery cupboard, I have taken the occasional item that didn’t belong to me. Whilst I can argue that these items are very few and far between (literally only a handful of small items over my lifetime), and could argue that the theft of these items had no immediate detrimental impact on any one person, I certainly hold people that steal other peoples’ property for real personal gain with contempt and think it right that this should be included in a commandment.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour: PASSED.
The word “witness” expresses one of our noblest concepts. “Bearing witness” is a high moral responsibility.
Note, also, how relatively flexible this commandment is. The word “against”, if you are quite sure of somebody’s innocence and you shade the truth a little in the witness-box, you are no doubt technically guilty of perjury and may be privately troubled. But if you consciously lie in order to indict someone who is not guilty, you have done something irretrievably foul.

10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife (or anything else) : FAILED.
This commandment seems to lump the wife in with the rest of the chattel (and in that epoch could have been rendered as “thy neighbour’s wives”). Notice also that no specific act is being pronounced as either compulsory (the Sabbath) or forbidden (perjury). Instead, this is the first but not the last introduction in the Bible of the totalitarian concept of “thought crime.” You are being told, in effect, not even to think about it. (Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament takes this a step further, announcing that those with lust in their heart have already committed the sin of adultery. In that case, you might as well be hung—or stoned—for a sheep as for a lamb, or for an ox or an ass if it cometh to that.) Wise lawmakers know that it is a mistake to promulgate legislation that is impossible to obey.
How is it moral to prohibit people from regarding the gains of the rich as ill-gotten, or from demanding a fairer distribution of wealth? Why is it wicked to be ambitious and acquisitive? And is not envy a great spur to emulation and competition?

Firstly, this suggests that an evil person, guilty of the most terrible crimes against fellow man for the majority of his life can still gain entry to heaven, as long as he finds God, repents and truly places himself in Gods care.

Equally, a good and moral atheist, filling his life with love and the care for others, is destined for hell because of his refusal to believe or place his care in the Almighty.

To me this is a very unjust system. All of those born into cultures of other Gods and Goddesses, all of those that never get to hear the word of God, and those that cannot or will not place their belief in the Christian God, are destined to an eternity of burning and torture, whilst those that repent and allow God into their lives are allowed entrance to Heaven.

It is common knowledge that death row in the US has the highest percentage of ‘Ultra Christian’ prisoners. They are in a unique position to spend a lot of time dwelling on their immediate demise and what may come after their death, and so find comfort and solace in the belief of God. According to the Christian view, those that are sincere will make Heaven, so while heaven may be filling with those souls from death row, the previously very evil people,  reformed mass murderers and the like, get an eternity listening to the screams of anguish and pain from the caring, kind little old lady that was sent straight to hell because God, for whatever reason, choose not to leave us enough evidence for his existance.

Clearly a very loving and forgiving God indeed!

I think the best way to understand more fully the stance and views of atheists is to hear some quotes  that I think outline their position well:

Justin Brown:
‘An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church.
An Atheist believes that deed must be done instead of a prayer said.
An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death.
He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished.’

Stephen Roberts;
‘I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do.
When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.’

Stephen Weinberg:
‘With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.’

Terry Pratchett:
‘The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it.’

Albert Einstein:
‘A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.’

Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney:
‘Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people.’

Galileo Galilei:
‘I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence wished us to abandon their use, giving us by some other means the information that we could gain through them.’

Unknown:
‘Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. religion is answers that may never be questioned.’

Unknown:
‘Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.’

One thing that weighed heavily on me at that young age, was my confusion around the holy trinity; I remember on many occasions listening to various parents, priests, teachers and the like, talking about ‘the father, the son and the holy spirit’, and I couldn’t  fully grasp the concept. I asked my parents to help explain but always remained unsatisfied by their explanations. My understanding at that young age was probably more literal- Jesus was the son of God, and the holy spirit, well, within my Christian upbringing noone really got into details about that, so I didn’t think it important and pushed it to the back of my mind. Just as Catholics focus on Mary, Christians (within my experince) focused heavily on Jesus and didn’t dwell on the Holy Spirit.

After a few years of asking various adults to try to explain it and still remaining  confused, I felt for some reason unable to ask any further. The Church and even Sunday school at the time was certainly not a ‘questions and answers’ type of environment. It seemed that it was just one of those things that I would never understand.

Priests continued to do their sermons from the pulpit on the assumption that everyone in the Church understood the various concepts and teachings of Christianity, but I still lacked the very basic understanding that all else was built on.
As I grew older and became capable of researching and finding out under my own steam the many questions that I could not escape from, the holy trinity was one subject that I revisited, and have revisited many times since, and I still struggle to grasp the concept. My current understanding of the holy trinity is the following piece of closed reasoning:

God is God. The Son is God. And the Holy Spirit is God. Each is a distinctively separate entity, yet there are not three gods but one.

Even with this understanding I cannot get my head around the fact that three seperate entities are one, yet still remain seperate.
I suppose my response to this can better be summarised by a man more intelligent than me, Thomas Jefferson, who, as so often, got it right when he said, ‘Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before one can act on them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus.’

If any readers can help to further explain the trinity, or your thoughts on it, I would love to hear your responses.

Stoning disobedient children, homosexuals and preachers of other religions to death.

Anyone working on a Sunday should also be put to death.

Homosexuals should be put to death.

Disobedient children should be stoned to death.

It’s that it’s OK to sell your daughter into slavery .

It’s also quite interesting to note that it is “shame unto him” for a man to have long hair (much like Jesus is commonly represented as having).

It’s clear that you can’t use the bible for a moral code – it advocates prejudice, cruelty, superstition and murder. In fact, I think nothing will make somebody become an atheist quicker than reading the bible!

After reading the bible it is clear that it is a festering swab of intolerance, greed, paranoia, hypocrisy and callous disregard for human suffering.

What else could be considered more evil, harmful and injurious than the killing of humans? I think this is a fair benchmark to compare by, so to the question is, according to the bible, who kills more people, God or Satan?
Lets take a look…

Lets start with Satan- how many did he kill?

Well I can only find ten, and even these he shares with God, since God allowed him to do it as a part of a bet, (the seven sons and three daughters of Job).

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job … And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
…
And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the LORD … put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
…
And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house…And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. — Job 1:1-19

So it seems that both Satan and God share the blame (or the credit) for these killings.

What about God – how many did he kill?

Well it’s impossible to say for sure, but plenty. How many did God drown in the flood or burn to death in Sodom and Gomorrah? How many first-born Egyptians did he kill? There’s just no way to count them all.
This list can not include those figures, but we’re looking in the region of 2 million plus (details below).
The final Talley, if we allocate the 10 deaths to Satan, is Satan: 10. God 2,270,365+.
Clearly in this instance, God can be considered more evil.

details of the numbers that God has killed: (not including everyone that has ever lived, and will live):

Maybe we just hear more about these cases involving paedophile Vicars and Priests because society (and the media) find it more shocking.

One thing is sure- the Church is gaining a reputation for stories of this ilk, when even the Pope himself is becoming embroiled in allegations of cover ups. Anybody found guilty of these disgusting acts of abuse should face the full and sternest possible justice available, regardless of their position in life, job, or religious views held.
And I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence.