Quote Originally Posted by spankythehippo View Post
Alright. So, I'm a nihilistic atheist.

My theory is that all Abrahamic religions were created by very intelligent leaders as a way to control the populace. They then became, holy men. They controlled the people by putting the fear of God into them. But when the innovators died, their descendents took over. And when they died, the same thing happened. As time went on, these holy men actually started to believe what they were preaching to the people. And then they got greedy.

Look back at history. Huge amounts of taxes were paid to churches in medieval times. Beacuse people wanted to believe in a god. They wanted to believe that there was a big flying spaghetti monster controlling things out of their reach. And they believe this god has the power to take your life and send you to hell, if you don't obey his will. The churches capitalised on this fear. They Christians spread their religion as far and as wide as possible, ruining cultures in the process.
They did not preserve the other peoples cultures. They destroyed them. Most notable example is in Scandinavia. They tried to teach the vikings the ways of Jeebus. It worked. What happened? They started ignoring Odin, Thor, Freyr etc. A lot of vikings fought against the Christians to preserve their way of life, but they were either killed or succumbed to this disease called religion. That's how lands were "Christianised". By killing most, if not all, of the pagan population.
What problems occurred in the world before the formation of religion? Petty ones, like "Oh s!@#, there's no more food!!!"
What was the answer to their problem, look for food.
Unlike what's happening now. Now, people are trying to hide this problem by hushing the truth.

I'm very anti-religious and anti-capitalist (not so much). But that doesn't mean I don't think religious teachings are bad. Religion is good as a set of morals. I, personally, do not follow any religion, since I have created my own set of morals to be used only by me. If other people adopt my system, good for them, but I don't care.

If you have any other theories, or would like to question what I've written, feel free to do whatever.
You're a hypocrite - if religion is a lie then the religious doctrines do not stand up and should be opposed. Without a forgiving God christianity is a crock and totally nonsensicle.

Beyond that, your position is absurd and worthy od ridicule, it is based on the sort of historical ignorance practiced as a virtue by the segment of the urban population who wish to consider themselves intelligent and everyone else stupid. I suggest you look into the actual history of the Christianising of Scandanavia, particularly before Cnut put the full force of the Norwegian throne behind it.

I'll get you started, the english had a boast, "we were the only people who did not murder the missionaries sent to us".

You might also want to look at the cultural practices that were actually "supressed", it wasn't Yule, Yule logs, or Hobby Horses - it was rather more the hanging of dead men for the pleasure of Odin and the sacrificing, or ritual maiming, of captives to please the Gods.

Finally, if you think that a culture which glorifies death, violence, murder and rape, sees the world as spiralling down to the doom of Ragnorak and whose chief God is an undead Necromancer who exacts bloody vengence upon his enemies, and I mean really bloody, - is prefereable to ANY form of Christianity you are, frankly dangerously insane.

Go ask the Anglo Saxons how they felt about Danish Paganism, maybe ask Alfred why he spent a year in a swamp while his people were slaughtered and made into slaves.