Quote Originally Posted by Bopa the Magyar
I take it you have little respect for the intelligence of people whom practise religion?
I beleive that if people are mature and intelligent then they don't need other people to tell them what to beleive.

Therefore. in my opinon, anyone willing to accept everything they are told to beleive by someone else is by definition gullible, and in if the subject is religious dogma then also usually desperate too.

Consequently, throughout history religion has been explioted by devious people to manipulate the desperate and gullible into doing whatever it is they want from giving them money and food, letting them have sex with their children, killing other people they personally don't like and even killing themselves.

If people were not desperate and gullible then such manipulation would not be possible and those in power would never have bothered inventing it.