h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's easy. I didn't say that I believed in the devil, only that I consider the catholics to worship a false god (i.e. the pope) in loco deis.

Catholics don't worship the pope. Most of them, as far as I can see, don't even hold him in very high regard. The pope is only considered infallible if he speaks "ex cathedra", and he never does. Most Catholics I know would question the pope's judgement if he makes very outrageous claims.

Most of the pope's claims are outrageous... principly that god exists is the most outrageous and totally illogical claim ever in the entire history of the human race. I think it so sad that otherwise intelligent folk fall at this first hurdle, in wanting to believe in some kind of afterlife, and in some omniscient, omnipresent being in whom they can have faith for the simple reason that they have no faith in themselves or their own judgement or decisions.

The simple laws of physics prove that is no hell, and the claims of each religion that if you are not one of them, you can't get into heaven, precludes everyone on the planet from entering heaven, so then what? Yes, you got it, an interminable queue at the so-called pearly gates, with one 'guardian' telling the applicants "You can't come in - you're not Jewish", another one saying "You can't come in - you're not Christian" and yet another saying "You can't come in - you're not a Muslim"!

'God told me to do it!' Yeah, right! Of course he did! Was that by email, snailmail, IM, telephone, blog, a meeting in the street, or merely a figment of your troubled mind?

Religion and faith in a higher being comes under the heading of 'delusional psychosis' but is given as a specific exception when assessing a mentally ill patient. 'I believe in god' would be ok, but 'I believe in the tooth fairey' would seriously damage my chances of being declared perfectly sane!

And THAT is why I am an atheist... I don't believe in the tooth fairey!

Have some beer God showed us how to brew it!