Comment by Hobert Church on November 4, 2011 at 4:34pm

John, I agree with a lot of what you're saying on here.  However, I feel that it's necessary to clarify something that I've found in my own experience: Religion is harmful because of its inherent need to proselytize.  Religious people feel that they have gained an absolute truth that is beneficial to them and others.  If they do not share that truth, whatever they believe it to be, with other people, there are only a few possible reasons why.  One reason is that a condition of the truth's revelation is to keep silent.  If this is true, then that person's belief (religion) is promoting selfishness.  Another reason may be that proselytizing is unnecessary.  This seems to be the case with universalists who believe that everyone can get to heaven just by being a good person.  If that were true, though, there would be no need for a revelation to begin with, would there?  Thus, religion contradicts itself and promotes blind faith yet again.  Lastly, the only logical reason for someone not trying to convince another of an absolute truth that would give them eternal peace and joy is that it's already too late; there's no point in trying to convert someone when they've missed the deadline anyway.  Religion creates a sense of moral superiority and wisdom when in fact all it spreads is ignorance and fear, and this is evident in every single religion ever created.  Religion is not the only problem in the world, granted, but it is a pretty fucking big one.  

Back to my original point, which is that proselytizing is necessary to all religion: If your religion dictates that you have to convert others, and you begin to do so, you have officially crossed the line from kooky theist to pushy fanatic, and that is where the majority of atheists have a problem.  You can be spiritual, you can worship your imaginary friends, just leave us the hell out of it so we can do something productive with our lives.  Religion isn't content with that, though.  We have to be ministered to so we can be saved and try to cow others before the end of days!  In this way, religion is a negative force in the world, regardless of how it's sugar-coated and made to seem unobtrusive.  I agree that religion could be broken down into its most basic form and be left almost harmless.  The problem is that almost isn't good enough.  That little "almost" grows and grows until people start preaching again, start witnessing again, start brainwashing children again.  Religion is like a virus, and it needs to be stopped.  

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