Two billion Christians have been lied to. They've been told that the Bible contains the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, when in fact it contains exaggerations, fabrications and outright lies.

No humane person who worships a "Merciful Father" can possibly believe that he ordered the destruction of several cities insisting that no one be left alive – "Let none survive, kill every man, woman, child and baby." No humane person believes that "God" – creator of the universe – burned all the children and babies of Sodom to death because he disapproved of their parents' behavior.

No one who worships a loving "Christ" can possibly believe that he baulked at curing a sick child because she wasn't a Jew – "It isn't right for the master to waste his power on DOGS." And did he really curse a fig tree to death for disobeying him? Did he really drown 2,000 pigs to cure one man of a mental disorder? And does he really expect men to hack off one hand and gouge out one eye to avoid the fires of hell, then complete the job by castrating ourselves "for heaven's sake"? Such a "Christ" is beneath contempt. Were he alive today he would be institutionalized.

The Bible is a mish-mash of nonsense and evil, with just a smattering of good. Even the Ten Commandments are suspect when spoken by a hideous deity who celebrates murder, theft and slavery. What was the first thing Moses did after receiving the Ten Commandments? He slaughtered 3,000 innocent people for failing to obey him, so clearly Moses had no respect for the Ten Commandments nor for the deity who uttered them.

Anyone who takes the trouble to read the Bible soon discovers that its authors were, in the main, savages. King David, writing in Psalms, said, "Happy is the man who taketh and dasheth thy children against the stones!" Was that inspired by a merciful God do you reckon? Clearly not.

And yet, it has to be said, that there are some good bits in the Bible. Both the Old and New Testaments contain snippets of intelligence and kindness if you search hard enough for them. The same applies to the Qur'an, once you get past the bits about burning infidels to death you find passages of extraordinary compassion and wisdom.

And so it becomes obvious to anyone with half an active brain cell that these books were written by a variety of people, some good, some evil and others quite mad. The reason the world has been at war since time immemorial is because people take on board the whole gamut of racist, religious, warlike garbage and they structure their entire belief system around it.

That's how Christians justified the capture and brutalization of millions of slaves – because the Old Testament deity encouraged them to seize and trade in slaves. Jesus condoned slavery so where's the problem? That's why the Spanish Inquisition and the Protestant clergy happily tortured, hanged, drowned or burned to death millions of "witches" – because the Bible says 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". That's how Muslim extremists justify flying planes into tall building and killing thousands of innocent people, and blowing up trains and buses – because the Qur'an instructs them to murder infidels.

And that's how, when they feel the time is right, evangelical Christians will find it in their hearts to trigger the nuclear holocaust that annihilates all life on planet Earth – because they believe it's prophesied in the Bible. God wills it.

Depending on which part of the Old Testament, the New Testament or the Qur'an you read, you can either be a sadistic mass murderer or you can devote your life to caring for other people. Whichever you choose, you'll find passages in your "holy" book to support and encourage you.

That, to me, is plain stupid. What kind of a guide book is it that tells you to "love thine enemies" yet "hate thy family" – to "turn the other cheek" yet "slay mine enemies before me" – to preach compassion while condemning non believers to an eternity spent writhing in the flames of hell? Either we become assassins and go out of our way to kill each other – as righteous Jews, Christians and Muslims have always done and are still doing to this day – or we choose ethics based on the passages from each book which encourage kindness, compassion and understanding.

And so we have formed ZenGnostics. ZenGnostics select the good bits from each "holy" book and rejects the rest. We have ended up with a very thin volume, but what it lacks in bulk it more than makes up for in wisdom and compassion. Whether or not you believe in a "God" and an afterlife is entirely up to you. We don't care. All we know with absolute 100% certainty is that if the world continues on it's crazy "I'm right and everyone else is wrong" course, it can only result in nuclear war and the destruction of all life on planet Earth.

Cult Busters
Armageddon
Left Behind - Madness!
ZenGnostics - not a cult
ZenGnostic Bible
Rescuing God from Religion
Nuclear Warnings