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ALICIA BANKS

Public Intellectual, Educator, Scholar, Radio Producer & Host, Columnist, Singer

ELOQUENT FURY



REVOLUTIONARY AFRICAN TRUTH

EXPRESSLY FOR RADICAL INTELLECTUALS WHO SEEK KNOWLEDGE
   (*******WARNING: HAZARDOUS TO NEOCON DELUSION*******)


 

SLAYING RELIGION
WITH SCIENCE AND SANITY
RICHARD DAWKINS’
“THE GOD DELUSION”

Preacher man don't tell me heaven is under the earth
I know you don't know what life is really worth
Is not all that glitters in gold and
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light,
Stand up for your right. Come on


Most people think great God will come from the sky
Take away everything, and make everybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah!


We're sick and tired of your ism and schism game
Die and go to heaven in Jesus' name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can't fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our right


So you'd better get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don't give up the fight.

“Get Up Stand Up”
Bob Marley and The Wailers


I have no use for religion in my life. But, I do need God. My God is a universal spirit that loves everyone and everything that is good. I am not an atheist. I pray all day each day. Unlike most persons, I have the effortless ability to separate God from religion.

All religions and religious texts were created by human men. Most religions and most men are sexist, racist, and elitist. I will never equate God with any text penned by any human. I will not use any buybull as a primer for hatred.

I rarely ever sense the presence of God in any church. I do sense the presence of God and legions of ancestral angels in my life daily. My relationship with God is deeply spiritual and deeply anti-religious. It is restricted to no edifice or edict.

I worship the very same God that trees do. And, like them, I do so without the blasphemy and ignorance of gaybashing pastors, hypocritical blind congregations of sheeple, wasted tithes, indoctrinated hatreds, contradictory texts, or opulent temples.

As John Lennon queried in his classic song “Imagine” , how many people would live for today if they were not waiting to go to heaven? Imagine how many lost gay souls would not be living in bars or drug houses if they were not taught that God hates them by the family members that they loved? Imagine how few wars would be fought if religion did not rule politics? Imagine if all churches were homeless shelters or community centers rather than shrines to fashion shows by shiny hypocrites…

I study religions obsessively. All of these human creations interest me incessantly. The bible is merely a book. Some of it is sacred. Some of it is historical. Most of it is fabricated. Much of it is flawed. All of it is the greatest story ever told by human storytellers.

Unlike millions, I do not equate a book penned by dead men with the eternal spirit of God. My God has nothing to do with any religion or bible. My God is infinitely bigger than any ancient primer for hatreds and wars.

The bible is uniquely fascinating as a literary work. The bulk of the Christian bible is copied from elder religious texts and various other religions. It provides endless fodder for academic and theological debate. It inspires and it contradicts. It enlightens and it blinds.

Most people who quote the bible have never studied it. Most Christians use their bibles as clubs to bash gays. No book can be read while closed and being used as a club. I study the bible obsessively, the very same way that I would study my weapon as a combat soldier in war. I am indeed at war with gaybashing hypochristians.

I have found that the biblical book of Psalms is filled with superb prose. The book of Deuteronomy is more scathingly sexist than the lyrics of any gangster rapper. The original Hebrew text states absolutely nothing about homosexuality. And, on no page of any bible does Jesus ever refer to himself as “Christ/Christian”. Ham is never referred to as a Black man in the original Hebrew text… [See “Top 10 Gaybashing Bible Myths” herein.]

I have an aversion to organized religion for countless reasons. But, the primary reason is that I think too deeply and independently to adhere to the requisite groupthink encouraged or mandated by most sects. My God gave me a brain as unique as my fingerprints. And, She wants me to use it always.

“The God Delusion” reads like an epiphany. It is truly a masterful book. It profoundly evinces science, genetics, natural selection, logic, documented history, math, and psychology as it lambasts biblical myths, religious fiction, and the mindlessness of the masses.

It is written by Richard Dawkins. He is a renowned scientist, author, scholar and sage. He is an awesome intellectual and a gifted writer. Like him, I am a student of religion. Unlike him, I do believe in God.

What I love most about Richard's classic book is that it makes me think deeply. Reading it made me feel like I was breathing a new kind of oxygen that aerated my soul and brain as never before. Ironically, this book penned by an atheist gave me a spiritual blessing. For, it is religion that is so very ungodly to me. And, this book annihilates religion.

This wonderful book is the definitive work for those who choose to examine religion critically and cerebrally. It is superior ammunition for those who refuse to worship anyone or anything blindly. It is literary medicine for those who are fatally infected by religious fables that act as spiritual cancers as they corrode droves of souls globally.

Though I do not share Richard’s atheism, I proudly share his passion for logic. I applaud his logical slaying of religion. He exposes insanity so skillfully and compassionately. And unlike most religious persons, he is never so arrogant as to insist that his opinions about religion are singularly supreme.

Richard’s examinations are as humble as they are relentless. Unlike the sexist, racist, gaybashing elitists who dare to swear that they speak directly for God, Richard constantly reminds us that he speaks solely for his singular atheist self. He freely admits that all of his opinions may be wrong. I love this book because he expertly articulates all that is wrong with religion, in my opinion.

Unlike most hypochristians, Richard’s tone is never hateful. Amusingly, his book includes hate mail that he routinely receives from “Christians”. As usual, their hatreds are shockingly rabid and their arrogant ignorance is as morbidly comical as ever. These “Christian” composers magnificently demonstrate sheer evil, which they dare to spew in the name of God.

With wisdom, candor, and humor, Richards dissects religious “arguments” with the acumen of a skilled surgeon. He exposes the insanity of religion with the skill of a therapist. This book reads like a collective cure for the religious mentacide of the masses.

“The God Delusion” is expansive and thorough. Richard debunks myths about Albert Einstein’s religious beliefs and examines the universal spirituality of science. He brilliantly compares the imaginary lives of children to the religious lives of adults.

He blasts the hypocrisy of theocratic courts and media. He pens prophesy about the doom of lawmakers and media staffers that are ruled by religion. He bravely exposes the increasingly fanatic theocracy of American politicos and their fascist global peers.

Richard intellectually indicts the violence and hatred that are intrinsic elements of most religions. This book is both a historical document of religious crimes and a moral gauge of spiritual hope. Richard has infused this book with a sacred love of science and reason. Unlike his holy haters, Richard makes no death threats. He simply slays ancient foolishness. He curses no one to hell. He simply incinerates illogic. He does not cower behind false Gods or silly fables. He bravely denounces hypocrisy and insanity in his very own name. This book forces us to look collectively into the mirrors of truths and see the ugliness of the religious lies reflected therein.

I thrive upon intellectual exploration and debate. I live for ideas and words and battles over the same. I feel most alive when I am in deep thought pondering and analyzing thoughts that could never be my own. My critical analyses of the beliefs of others expand or entrench my own beliefs. I agree with absolutely everything that this atheist genius Richard pens about religion. All who are as secure in their beliefs as I am will adore the power of Richard’s poetic sanity on the pervasive insanity of religions.

Free your mind from the chaos of religion. Your soul will follow you into the light of sanity and peace. Liberate your spirit as you read this soothing classic. You must read “The God Delusion” today.

Here are a few quotes from this powerful work:


…hate only has to prove that it is religious, and it no longer counts as hate.

…for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.

…when one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called a religion.

The unmistakable trademark of the faith-based moralizers is to care passionately about what other people do (or even think) in private.

Hitler would have to have been positively unusual not to have been influenced by the long Christian tradition of blaming Jews as Christ killers.

There is in every village a torch-the teacher; and an extinguisher – the clergyman.

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. (Voltaire)”

What we are seeing in Iraq is religious cleansing.

The Bible is a blueprint of in-group morality, complete with instructions for genocide, enslavement of out-group, and world domination.

…without religion there would be no labels by which to decide whom to oppress and whom to avenge.

[Evil] means private thoughts and actions that are not to the Christian majority’s liking.

The danger of religious faith is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Pantheism is sexed-up atheism. Deism is watered down theism.

…why deem [killing] to be a sin if you sincerely believe that you are accelerating a journey to heaven?

All religions are the same. Religion is basically guilt, with different holidays.

It is surely true that black slaves in America were consoled by promises of another life, which blunted their dissatisfactions with this one and thereby benefitted their owners.

…it is remarkable that a religion should adopt an instrument of torture and execution as its sacred symbol.

…The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.

…a proper understanding of the magnificence of the real world, while never becoming a religion, can fill the inspirational role that religion has historically – and inadequately usurped…


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