The Harm of Religion I Don’t Hear About

I am still new to this side of the fence and realize that even if I come up with a thought on my own that I am sure others have been discussing it for some time. Men with much more education and understanding than myself have a vast understanding of the many facets of the faithless life I have yet to discover. So I am sure there are pages and pages about the things I will mention in this post. It is just I don’t think they are talked about as much because they may seem more subtile or don’t make as big a splash in the social media waters when they hit. At least that is my guess as to why I haven’t heard about such topics.

TIME

Religion takes up to much time. I know atheists mention they love Sundays off but I mean so much more than that. I don’t even mean the time it takes to go to church. I mean it takes almost all your time to really live the Christian walk the way I was taught. Church, Bible study for a couple hours a day, prayer, witnessing, worship through song (singing or just listening to religious music), and thinking of ways to do all of the above better.

If we just spent that time with our families or helping our communities the bond between humans could be so much stronger. The “I’m not in a religion but in a relationship” thing means you give up relationship building time with people to build a relationship with an imaginary concept. It takes a lot of time to learn and perpetuate brainwashing in your self.

CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

The church really does help many people in many ways. So many Christians are very sincere in their efforts to change the world. But if we spent our time changing lives and not working on changing a fictitious eternity we could accomplish so much more! A large amount of time, planning, work hours, and resources go into the Christian (and other religion’s) messages. If we spent the same time, energy, and dollars just helping others we could do much more and much faster. I also think they would appreciate it it much more!

When people know you have an ulterior motive they see it. They see it even if they perceive it to be a good or noble one, and do not fully appreciate the effort like they could. When a person accepts charity but has to listen to a message to get it then don’t feel like they are special and you want to help them. They feel like they are just part of your project. I spoke with a foreign college student recently. I asked about him and his culture. I saw him a couple weeks later and we had lunch. He told me I was the only person in the 4 years he has been in America that asked him about his life that did not then want to try to convert him to Christianity. Also, the others quit talking to him when they could not convert him.

MAKES PEOPLE PASSIVE

People are less likely to give it their all when they pray about something. Why should I try really hard if God can give it to me or do it for me? Some people even  quit trying when they pray for something because they don’t want to interfere with God’s will, they might mess it up.  Why do anything? Really? You can’t have anything happen to you that god is not in control of the situation. So, only work on praying and reading scripture. God will handle everything else.

Well, if people don’t do it it doesn’t get done.

SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT

I see/saw this with Christians and especially church staff members. There is a sense of entitlement because “I am doing God’s will”. People should give me things, churches should pay me more, church members should let me take advantage of their business because I am ministry. A good example is when a preacher eats for free at member’s restaurants. God’s will is more important than any other job, so I am more important, therefore people should give me stuff and I should get special treatment.

It brings everyone down if someone is sucking the resources from the group. I know money is given in sincerity, but I can’t help but wonder what more could be done if the money spent on religion was spent elsewhere. I know many people have speculated that before, but how much more better would the world be if the charismatic, success driven church staff members spent their lives running positive community or global businesses?

I think overall there are a lot of people doing things that help the world in a good way, but without the church those things would help the world in a great way.