I have read the entire bible and took a graduate course on various versions of the Old Testament. I studied a variety of religious and spirtitual traditions and examined the philosophy of religion, including metaphysics, epistemology and value theory. In the 
course of acting as a teacher and professor, I’ve done research in paranormal phenomena, behavioral science, philosophy, history, literature, reading, writing, science, myths, the calculus and psychology.
Gods, devils, angels, demons, heavens and hells are concepts and ideas created by human beings. These invisible creatures and imaginary places were created in order that various leaders of kingdoms and churches could inspire fear, trepidation, and obediance from large masses of uneducated people. While I have seen and experienced the usefulness of fables, stories, fairy tales and folk wisdom, there exist no proofs for any of various and sundry articles of blind faith. Religion is one tool of many. Existentialism is another.
Frank Zappa offered small wisdom.
“My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can. There’s a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.”
― Frank Zappa
“We read the Golden Rule and judge it to be a brilliant distillation of many of our ethical impulses. And then we come across another of “God’s” teachings on morality: if a man discovers on his wedding night that his bride is not a virgin, he must stone her to death on her father’s doorstep. (Deuteronomy 22:13-21).”
― Sam Harris
Tom Waits – “Lie To Me“
“The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.” “The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”
― Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)
“Religion is the opium of the poor”
― Ernest Hemingway
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
― Aldous Huxley
“Faith is what someone knows to be true, whether they believe it or not.”
― Flannery O’Connor
The assorted human blessings we bestow upon one another, comforting words or a nod,
wink, hug or simple touch… are more important than prayer and more essential than worship. The rest is commentary, art, science or fiction…
wink, hug or simple touch… are more important than prayer and more essential than worship. The rest is commentary, art, science or fiction…
“Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches
everything you do, every minute of every day And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time!But He loves you.”
― George Carlin
“All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
“I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist.”― Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959
“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
― James A. Baldwin
Since the beginnings of history… traditions, rituals, superstitions and blind faith religions have served as human protections from what are perceived as overwhelming and omnipotent forces in nature.
Mysterious, powerful, dangerous and inexplicable events in peoples’ lives… were often explained as curious works and designs of angry and unrelenting gods. Priests, preachers, rabbis, medicine men or shamans sometimes demanded rude and painful sacrifices.
But history reveals that avoidable suffering is not redemptive. Courage, commitment and community engagement have moved mountains. Proactive love works.
“Love is a weapon of Light, and it has the power to eradicate all forms of darkness. That is the key. When we offer love even to our enemies, we destroy their darkness and hatred… What’s more, we cast out the darkness inside ourselves.”
― Yehuda Berg
There are alternatives to anthropomorphism…
The Anthropomorphic Fallacy (also called anthropomorphism) is our tendency to attribute human emotions and characteristics to inanimate objects and aspects of nature, such as plants, animals, the weather, planets, moons, stars, universes and/or dimensions.
Jonny Lang – Lie To Me (Official Video)
One is guilty of the anthropomorphic bias, however, when one stretches this kind of reasoning too far – when one sees a single or limited number of things that remind him of humanlike behavior and then jumps to the conclusion that the entity in question possesses a humanlike mind. An example that is a bit more obvious and egregious is when people conclude that ghosts are the cause of unexplained noises or motions. Although this invokes the mystery therefore magic fallacy, it also includes ascribing humanlike agency to something that does not have it: the cause of the noise or motion..
Mix – John Lee Hooker – I’m In The Mood (1951) Blues
Human beings can transcend invisible gods, devils, angels and demons, as well as imaginary heavens and hells created by kingdoms, churches, scribes, soothsayers, artists, folk tales and creative writers.
“Anthropomorphism is, of course, literally wrong. But, it is also a natural cognitive attitude, grounded in the human biology and consisting in many natural inclinations that lead human beings to consider a certain individual in the world as a person, no matter if that individual actually is a rational agent, or not. As above argued for, anthropomorphism can be considered as a frugal heuristics both for everyday life and the scientific explanation.”
“Religion is just mind control.”
― George Carlin
HOWLIN’ WOLF – DUST MY BROOM – LIVE 1966
“A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked.”― Anais Nin
When it comes to religion, I choose golf, pool, cribbage, hearts, motorcycles, blues, flying, parachute jumping, jazz, good food and gardening. I have always enjoyed planting seeds.
The rest is commentary. 
Please Donate to help keep these Resources Online! 
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/donate
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/donateThanks for supporting Alternative Media and Education Contact Tim with questions (peaceresource@yahoo.com )
Please support Alternative Media and Education
http://www.RevolutionResource.org 
http://www.ThePeaceresource.com
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org
and other real news resources…
Together we make a difference.
Thanks for all you do. Join the Revolution!
Please Donate for Literacy and to keep this resource.
