Why Organized Religion is Morally Depraved 

Tempted to send this to Grandma but I don't want to be disowned... because that's Christian love for you

Religion can make people do evil things while making them believe it’s good

“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. ….He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!” George Carlin

“Religion Poisons Everything” - Christopher Hitchens

All these "faithful" people - so smug and superior, so infuriatingly dedicated to ignorance.

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

God didn't make man in his image. Man made God in his image. And the proof of that is everywhere.

The idea that people might need to look in a book to determine whether they should physically or sexually abuse another person is terrifying.

"It's difficult to free fools from the chains they revere ". Voltaire

Most religions are not based on reason, but on being trained like a pavlovian dog.

Reading the Bible was what got me there to abandoning Christianity. It’s easily recognized that this is not literature authored by divinity.

I was a Christian from birth. When I was around 12 I asked Grandma why am I not allowed to question God if he welcomes it, to which she responded with “Just have faith God is doing what’s right”. Afterwards I showed her God welcomes questions and she put me in time out. That’s when I began stop believing.

I believe we people who were raised with religion should file a class action suit against the church for the life long traumas that it has caused. No joke intended. When you tell a 8 year old that swearing is a hell worthy offense, that's mental cruelty of the most dangerous kind.

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." Blaise Pascal

EVIDENCE !!! " I don't want faith, I want knowledge"

So True!!! NOTHING has set Mankind back more than belief in "gods"!!!

Theology + fascism = religion

“In order to be free you must be a slave to Jesus.” “A free thinker is Satan’s slave.” You know what that sounds like? “Slavery is freedom.” George Orwell, 1984. It’s tight control.

Literally yesterday and almost daily, I am hearing religious folks explain and justify their faith. Always leaving out the fear and the evil humanistic manner their God is. Hell, Judgment, Demons and Devils... if you dont give your love, obedience, attention to him or her. That sounds exactly like my abusive ex-stepfather. (R.I.P.) I'm an Ex-Christian for many of good reasons. The best and easiest reason why? I read the bible front to back several times. I ask for 'truth' to set me free. 'I am' an Ex-Christian...

I, personally, don't care about which faith someone is following but when people use those beliefs to control and hurt others it is a problem.

I am much more free as an Atheist. I was introduced to a God. As a young child. I had questions that I could never ask. I never called myself a Christian ever. I’m glad to discovered Atheist. I’m free. Still a work in progress 11:06

Stephen Fry's take on the sexual obsession of the catholic church, and using the parallel of anorexics and obese people being the ones who are the most food obsessed, was most enlightening. Respect!

Even when i was young there was a red flag going off in my head that something just didn't feel right with a god that would tell me " love me, mean it, believe what i say or terrible things your mortal mind couldn't begin to wrap around will happen to you. But hey, i LoVe you." It's one of the driving forces that made me leave organized religion for good. It's like poison someone willingly drinks because someone constantly insits that it's a cure.

Best summary of churche and fiew on sex: Church: "Everyone is sinfull due to wanting sex" Asexual people: "well we don't feel sexual attraction." Church: "What a pitty, you'll never know gods graitest gift to humanity./You are not fully human." WTF

I think religious people in general mean well within their own set of morals and beliefs, but what really bothers me is that they don’t stop to think whether what they have been taught is true - truth to them is irrelevant. That really bothers me.

As a child that lost mom to cancer at 5 years old & on top of that had a Baptist preacher as a pa-pa (whom I loved dearly) I started fearing hell at 5 years old . I spent way too many hours in deep deep thought terrified about burning in hell always from my mother from a way to young age. I had night terrors and panic attacks. I cried constantly. I spent my whole childhood worrying about my eternal soul bc what I was taught in church about burning eternally in hell with fire and brimstone. All I knew was people talked about my mom like she was an angel so I knew she was in heaven and I knew I had to go there tp be with her. Losing my mother was traumatizing enough but spending my entire childhood and next 35 years in fear I would do something wrong and not make it to heaven was way more traumatizing and I made life choices I never would have if it wasn’t bc of religion and the Bible. I had my doubts even as a child about the Bible and all the contradictions and I questioned why would A good God take my angel of a mother at 25 years old and spare many many more evil POS? Finally after 35 years of devoting my entire life and money devoted to a fictional character and not even a good one the lightbulb went off and now I am soo angry having lies forced upon me as a 5 year old , which completely changed my life in a negative way . Religion is extremely damaging especially coming from a perspective like mine .

Religion getting its own call-out in both mind and law is a self sustaining problem for the future. It needs to be lumped into and characterised as the superstition that it is.

I took two years of advanced theology classes with a focus on the ancient languages of the Bible. Seeing how poorly written and how poorly translated that book is , left me with deep doubt. Further study , caused me to lose my faith and deeper consideration, made me an agnostic atheist

Its wonderful to listen to someone talking sense, instead of with forked tongue, from an arrested intellect

Religion and its purpose - the BIGGEST and BEST con ever to lead humans in to avoiding what truth(s) we are able to discover.

The power of the promise of heaven or hell is a powerful hold on people. Power corrupts and the absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I eventually came to realize that my years in Catholic school were child abuse.

When you replace the word God, with love, you will find a lot of lies in the bible. probably works with the quran and the thora as well

The author Mark Twain said it best when he stated, "religion began when the first con artist met the first naive fool." How true!

I believe in a conscious singularity, I do not buy into religion. Consciousness does not die, and I’m not alone in knowing this.

Why not let children decide for themselves later in life

What an excellent compilation of speakers and arguments. Thanks!

Just every now and them something pops up and makes me think there is some hope for all of us!!!!!!

Religion is a blight on humanity.

I'm a 77 years old male and am grateful that at the early age of 18 years or so I became an atheist.

I wish I could express my thoughts that eloquently as those gentlemen.

I've always believed instinctually their was something not true about the religion I was born into by chance . Fortunately there came a time in my life when I questioned and answered the dogma using my adult reasoning and common sense and through choice left that religion . Now I'm my own philosopher and live a reasonably happy way of life . I'm only as happy as I make up my mind to be . I listen to everyone but follow no one . Now a humanist through choice .

Watching this infront of my christian family at over half volume🤩

Thomas Jefferson, who owned and violated human beings had the nerve to say we are naturally compassionate?

I’m the son of a baptist minister who truly believed what he preached. Ironically it’s he who made me an atheist. He made my six year old mind fear id die and go to hell. So when I was 10 I read the Bible cover to cover and even at that age I read things that made me question. At 17 I’d read it seven times! There should be an award just for putting oneself for through that. Each time I found more and more crazy, more depraved, and showed god as cruel beyond belief. Read the Old Testament and find where god asks for love? You won’t find much, but what you will find is his demand that you fear him! In fact he makes the Sa’tan look like a saint in comparison. I still have my Bible full of notes and underlined verses that conflict with others, or demonstrate what god approves of. Then I began to study the scholars of the Bible who had no horse in the race. In other words they wanted answers no matter what they found. Biblical scholars of faith simply cannot be unbiased sources. As I studied the history of Christianity and discovered the New Testament was written decades after Jesus death, and not by anyone who actually saw him. I knew I simply could not base my life on lies. By the way, the New Testament Gospels are all written in the third person so that alone should show one that whoever the authors were are recounting stories hand down. Otherwise they would say Jesus and me were talking, or I saw Jesus do this or that. Anyway it may shock some to know that the Bible as we know it was not created till some 300 years after Jesus death, and there are no eyewitness accounts of Jesus that have ever been found.

My take is, these channels showing the how ridiculous the god theory is, supports those who are cut off (or would be cut off from family and friends). I don’t give money but I do click/like/and subscribe if the channels are interesting and mind provoking. I think more and more people are deconstructing from religious ideology. It’s more difficult for the religious community to destroy free thought when they become the minority. It also helps to keep government and religion separate. I literally had nightmares when I began my deconstruction from the Pentecostal faith. Early on, I thought there were a few religions that I considered harmless but now I consider any religion harmful that *preaches the invisible man in the sky, *feels the need to proselytize *Or collects money in order to spread the faith (much of this money gets put into the collectors pockets for personal gain)

From day ONE, religion has taught me fear and manipulation.

Great video. I'm embarrassed that so many people believe this barbaric mythology represents reality.

If you are weak-minded, you reach out for religion. Catholics run to church every Sunday to helplessly sit in a pew and let their priest do everything: think for them, act for them, as if God created weakness as a prerequisite for salvation and then leave the church thinking God is happy with this act of helplessness!

Someone said that if we eliminated religion, we would solve 75% of the world's problems. RIGHT ON!

Truly excellent presentations by some of the brightest people on the planet.

I will not be controlled by the invisible, silent so called dictator in the sky. Grow up and throw away these imaginary toys for good . Spread the love ,not religious hate. We will all be a lot happier and free😊😊❤

Thank you for this!

Brilliant and *Correct.* The benefits of a Reason-Based worldview. People may pray in cathedrals, but I've never seen or heard of prayer building them. Prayer and faith have yet to put two bricks together. *That* takes a lot of Science (e.g. architecture and engineering), and a lot of hard work. All from *Reason* alone.

In this age of information, ignorance and stupidity are a choice ... soon the world will no longer tolerate nor accept ignorance and stupidity, and all religions and their gods shall vanish

All these arguments work great when they come from someone with a microphone and everyone is there to listen to them. When I try this with a co worker they don't even let me talk. They get triggered, start yelling about how I have parent issues and how I just don't understand the Bible and I'm not able to grasp it etc...its just not worth it. I know all these arguments. I read all the books. You can never succeed in changing someone's mind who does not consider themselves being capable of being wrong.

The greatest scam ever in human history.

Great video, too bad most people don't want to admit they're being controlled and exploited through fear.

well said Stephen :)

excellent video , thank you

Organized religion is nothing more then crowd control

Religion alone is benign. Combine it with conservatism, and the atrocity we've seen develop over the last 3,500 years is the result.

Typical Christian argument: "without God's morality, how can you know murder is wrong?" me: "If you don't understand why murder is wrong, then I hope you keep believing in God."

Worrying about going to Hell has ruined my life. I am in fear all the time.

So.... There should only be 4 commandments? I agree! The other 6 are what a narcissist would command of the people around him.

I remember one time that I had been told to seeks the truth and the truth shall be revealed when I was a religious back then and when I follow the truth and knowledge I discovered the ultimate truth that every Clergyman are laying what's ever they know they are laying or not it irrelevant

THANK YOU!!!!!! Pure gold!! 😁

"If we want to deal with our real problems, we need to accept what nature is telling us instead of imposing our beliefs on nature." DAYUM

Yes, threatening otherwise good people with "hell" is emotional abuse, regardless of age. And I did wrestle with it as a youth. The Spirit of Truth helped me realize that the concept of "original sin" was bankrupt, just as it is helping atheists reach the same conclusion. A simple reality check told me I was a good person; thus, hell was not in my future. Nowadays, I recognize the concept of 'hell' for what it is, a psychological cudgel for enforcing conformity to the group's ethos. We no longer have one ethos to conform to. In America, the Constitution is our guiding legal principle. The worst it can do, is lock people up until they're dead. And 'hell' is just one of many concepts from the Bible that are now counterproductive. But there are other concepts in the Bible that are worthwhile, and it's the rare atheist that is willing to acknowledge that. I have yet to see anyone claim 'loving your neighbor as yourself' is a bad idea.

These great humans sown seeds and now they became big trees of reason and logic.

Did I hear Stephen Fry say he does a lot of work in Uganda? This video I think was recorded somewhere in 2009. Isn't that the country that in 2023 just passed the anti-gay bill that puts you in jail for LIFE for just saying you're gay? I hope Fry isn't spending much time there now.

It's very difficult to love a God that you are terrified of. Christopher Hitchens said something like this.

Religion is based on two principles...FEAR AND CONTROL!!

How are believers and religious people so sure of what they believe is true without a scrap of evidence ?

God of the bible is ridiculous.

In my RC church we schoolchildren were brought in to partake in a "ring-kissing ceremony" where the Archbishop sat on the altar steps and we queued up to kiss his ring while an altar boy wiped it with a cloth after each kiss. The cloth was not changed meaning it contained the bugs of the saliva of 800 children. But what an act of hubris. They can't show you God, so just worship them.

Because it's not about "Religion", It's about political parties.

Religion = Men Power and Money - that covers it .

When will we stop using “ in god we trust” & “ so help me god” on our money & in our courts & politics. 🤷🏽‍♂️ Separation of state & church seems to be fading in this current GOP.

Theists are more afraid of going to whatever their version of hell is or hope to reap awards in whatever their version of heaven is than willfully becoming a better person without calculation

The cognitive dissonance that I buried for half of my life was finally relieved once I decided to Google and found out that there were people like Dan Barker, and Christopher Hitchins. I found out that I wasn't the only one who thought religion was filled w massive contradictions and anti-science crap- so for decades I told myself I was wrong, and did not have, could not acquire, the proper faith required. Ahhahha! How we doubt ourselves. Of course, through religion, women have been taught we dont have minds equal to men. More absurd crapola.

I believe there may be some kind of Creator or Source. I also believe that it would not be found in these "holy books"

Damn this is a good video. Stephen Fry sharp as always.

Accusing others while secretly guilty of the same behavior.

5:51 if there's only one true god, then why did man 5:51 invent so many different gods.

Bottom line: Religion has been dividing mankind since it's inception.

Religion is mythology

Thank you ❤❤❤

Our planet earth is so insignificant in our solar system and our solar system is so insignificant in our galaxy and our Milky Way galaxy is one of trillions of galaxies in the universe. Our human differances and silly troubles are a pointless exercise of our own making. We have nothing whatsoever to do with existance, if we blow ourselves up in our silly wars, it will not matter on little bit to the universe, it will just carry on without us.

It was all about power and control, not much has changed has it?

Only one rule you should obey and that is do not disrespect anyone .

Thank you Panel for your illumination of the wonderful truth. The “Bible” is simply the rule book for one tribe- the Israelites/Jewish People. Here is a powerful definition of the Bible, including the New Testament. “ The Bible is an overarching set of rules to BIND the human spirit to imagined higher powers of control and judgment, designed by, and for the benefit of, the Priestly/Ruling Class.” As a child my darling wife had nightmares about going to hell. The world is better off without the preacher man and his Book. Reason, commonsense, and love is what nourishes the human spirit.

My wife is not religious and she has an amazing sense of humour. On our wedding night, she couldn't stop laughing

A segment from 'Saved by the Light of the Buddha Within'... My new understandings of what many call 'God -The Holy Spirit' - resulting from some of the extraordinary ongoing after-effects relating to my NDE... Myoho-Renge-Kyo represents the identity of what some scientists are now referring to as the unified field of consciousnesses. In other words, it’s the essence of all existence and non-existence - the ultimate creative force behind planets, stars, nebulae, people, animals, trees, fish, birds, and all phenomena, manifest or latent. All matter and intelligence are simply waves or ripples manifesting to and from this core source. Consciousness (enlightenment) is itself the actual creator of everything that exists now, ever existed in the past, or will exist in the future - right down to the minutest particles of dust - each being an individual ripple or wave. The big difference between chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo and most other conventional prayers is that instead of depending on a ‘middleman’ to connect us to our state of inner enlightenment, we’re able to do it ourselves. That’s because chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo allows us to tap directly into our enlightened state by way of this self-produced sound vibration. ‘Who or What Is God?’ If we compare the concept of God being a separate entity that is forever watching down on us, to the teachings of Nichiren, it makes more sense to me that the true omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of what most people perceive to be God, is the fantastic state of enlightenment that exists within each of us. Some say that God is an entity that’s beyond physical matter - I think that the vast amount of information continuously being conveyed via electromagnetic waves in today’s world gives us proof of how an invisible state of God could indeed exist. For example, it’s now widely known that specific data relayed by way of electromagnetic waves has the potential to help bring about extraordinary and powerful effects - including an instant global awareness of something or a mass emotional reaction. It’s also common knowledge that these invisible waves can easily be used to detonate a bomb or to enable NASA to control the movements of a robot as far away as the Moon or Mars - none of which is possible without a receiver to decode the information that’s being transmitted. Without the receiver, the data would remain impotent. In a very similar way, we need to have our own ‘receiver’ switched on so that we can activate a clear and precise understanding of our own life, all other life and what everything else in existence is. Chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo each day helps us to achieve this because it allows us to reach the core of our enlightenment and keep it switched on. That’s because Myoho-Renge-Kyo represents the identity of what scientists now refer to as the unified field of consciousnesses. To break it down - Myoho represents the Law of manifestation and latency (Nature) and consists of two alternating states. For example, the state of Myo is where everything in life that’s not obvious to us exists - including our stored memories when we’re not thinking about them - our hidden potential and inner emotions whenever they’re dormant - our desires, our fears, our wisdom, happiness, karma - and more importantly, our enlightenment. The other state, ho, is where everything in Life exists whenever it becomes evident to us, such as when a thought pops up from within our memory - whenever we experience or express our emotions - or whenever a good or bad cause manifests as an effect from our karma. When anything becomes apparent, it merely means that it’s come out of the state of Myo (dormancy/latency) and into a state of ho (manifestation). It’s the difference between consciousness and unconsciousness, being awake or asleep, or knowing and not knowing. The second law - Renge - Ren meaning cause and ge meaning effect, governs and controls the functions of Myoho - these two laws of Myoho and Renge, not only function together simultaneously but also underlies all spiritual and physical existence. The final and third part of the tri-combination - Kyo, is the Law that allows Myoho to integrate with Renge - or vice versa. It’s the great, invisible thread of energy that fuses and connects all Life and matter - as well as the past, present and future. It’s also sometimes termed the Universal Law of Communication - perhaps it could even be compared with the string theory that many scientists now suspect exists. Just as the cells in our body, our thoughts, feelings and everything else is continually fluctuating within us - all that exists in the world around us and beyond is also in a constant state of flux - constantly controlled by these three fundamental laws. In fact, more things are going back and forth between the two states of Myo and ho in a single moment than it would ever be possible to calculate or describe. And it doesn’t matter how big or small, famous or trivial anything or anyone may appear to be, everything that’s ever existed in the past, exists now or will exist in the future, exists only because of the workings of the Laws ‘Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ - the basis of the four fundamental forces, and if they didn’t function, neither we nor anything else could go on existing. That’s because all forms of existence, including the seasons, day, night, birth, death and so on, are moving forward in an ongoing flow of continuation - rhythmically reverting back and forth between the two fundamental states of Myo and ho in absolute accordance with Renge - and by way of Kyo. Even stars are dying and being reborn under the workings of what the combination ‘Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ represents. Nam, or Namu - which mean the same thing, are vibrational passwords or keys that allow us to reach deep into our life and fuse with or become one with ‘Myoho-Renge-Kyo’. On a more personal level, nothing ever happens by chance or coincidence, it’s the causes that we’ve made in our past, or are presently making, that determine how these laws function uniquely in each of our lives - as well as the environment from moment to moment. By facing east, in harmony with the direction that the Earth is spinning, and chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo for a minimum of, let’s say, ten minutes daily to start with, any of us can experience actual proof of its positive effects in our lives - even if it only makes us feel good on the inside, there will be a definite positive effect. That’s because we’re able to pierce through the thickest layers of our karma and activate our inherent Buddha Nature (our enlightened state). By so doing, we’re then able to bring forth the wisdom and good fortune that we need to challenge, overcome and change our adverse circumstances - turn them into positive ones - or manifest and gain even greater fulfilment in our daily lives from our accumulated good karma. This also allows us to bring forth the wisdom that can free us from the ignorance and stupidity that’s preventing us from accepting and being proud of the person that we indeed are - regardless of our race, colour, gender or sexuality. We’re also able to see and understand our circumstances and the environment far more clearly, as well as attract and connect with any needed external beneficial forces and situations. As I’ve already mentioned, everything is subject to the law of Cause and Effect - the ‘actual-proof-strength’ resulting from chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo always depends on our determination, sincerity and dedication. For example, the levels of difference could be compared to making a sound on a piano, creating a melody, producing a great song, and so on. Something else that’s very important to always respect and acknowledge is that the Law (or if you prefer God) is in everyone and everything. NB: There are frightening and disturbing sounds, and there are tranquil and relaxing sounds. It’s the emotional result of any noise or sound that can trigger off a mood or even instantly change one. When chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo each day, we are producing a sound vibration that’s the password to our true inner-self - this soon becomes apparent when you start reassessing your views on various things - such as your fears and desires etc. The best way to get the desired result when chanting is not to view things conventionally - rather than reaching out to an external source, we need to reach into our own lives and bring our needs and desires to fruition from within - including the good fortune and strength to achieve any help that we may need. Chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo also reaches out externally and draws us towards, or draws towards us, what we need to make us happy from our environment. For example, it helps us to be in the right place at the right time - to make better choices and decisions and so forth. We need to think of it as a seed within us that we’re watering and bringing sunshine to for it to grow, blossom and bring forth fruit or flowers. It’s also important to understand that everything we need in life, including the answer to every question and the potential to achieve every dream, already exists within us.

Quite obvious the ten commandments didn't come a god or ancient alien an Jesus didn't come to teach human emotions of love an forgiveness just tools for societal manipulation

Doubt is an unpleasant thing for man but certainity is absurd.... VOLTAIRE

He’s absolutely correct. I became an atheist after my husband harassed me into reading the bible

Two things: Thomas Jefferson owned over a hundred slaves, so he's in no position to be looked at as a paragon of morality. Second, early Christians mostly taught annihilation. 😊

The miracle of Evolution is too much to accept for many.

Love it❤thank you for spreading the light!