Addicted to God

I just finished reading a book called God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. The book is pretty much written along the same lines of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion - I haven't read the latter, but both have the same purpose: proving that God doesn't exist.

Religion has always been a bit tricky; you can't prove that it exists but you can't prove that it doesn't exist either. Basically, faith is the only proof - but not enough for many of us.

I will not try to prove to you the absurdity behind the idea of God nor how ridiculous all religions are, because deep down, all of you already know that - you just don't want to admit it.

Surely there is a difference between challenging the existence of God and questioning religion - for that reason I will enjoy destroying religions in this post, God may rest in peace this weekend.

Karl Marx described it best when he said "religion is the opium of the masses".

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, says it even better: "(...)if you want to get rich, you start a religion".

Basically, religions provide the drug you need (the drug being hope, paradise, answering the questions about life and death, and so on) and make a lot of money in the process.

So yes: religions are drug dealers, and you are addicted.

Addiction is when you do something despite you being aware of its negative aspects - you just can't control it. Let's take the Catholic Church for example and I will prove your addiction to it, that you love your drug unconditionally - just off the top of my head:

- Priests use to sell tickets to paradise in the 16th century - liars
- The Church hates science because it proves that God didn't create the world - bias
- The Church always managed to silence people who defied its opinion - censorship
- The Church approved the Fascist and Nazi regimes - racist
- Isn't it odd that all far-right parties are very Christians? - still racist
- Priests molest children (and the only punishment they get is being relocated in another place) - perverts
- The Pope goes to Africa and says "don't use the condoms"  - he should be jailed for that
- They are against homosexuality (because gays can't have kids, hence can't expand Catholicism) even though convents are the biggest gay cruising areas - sneaky little cock suckers
- The Church is unbelievably / incredibly rich - though they still ask for your money - greedy
- etc.

Bluntly said, the Vatican has been ruining the world since its inception and you still believe in its tales: that's addiction.

Compare it to cigarettes; Marlboro tells you "Smoking Kills" and you still smoke: that's addiction too.

The drug market for the Church is shrinking nowadays, the Vatican is struggling in Europe because people are more educated, open-minded and certainly richer so they need less drug, they need less hope.

Nevertheless, hope is still needed in poor countries where people live in dangerous regions not knowing if they'll have food on their table everyday - these people have nothing else but religion.

Here is the proof:

Click to enlarge

So if the Church thinks like a company - which I think it does - they should start investing more time in rich countries trying to conquer back the sinners. Oh oh...the last visit of the pope was in the UK: good job Benedict!

Trust me when I say that the world would be better off without any religion. No wars, no terrorism, no hate, less discrimination, less complicated lives. Let's stop taking the religion drug. I know another drug that would make people happy and which will provide absolute peace: marijuana. 

Yes, I suggest we substitute religion with pot and let people be free to do anything they want in their lives without having it dictated to them by 50 year-old virgins. Set your own values in life, don't expect a book that has been written 2000 years ago to do so.

If you're addicted to religion. Go to rehab.