The FidoNet HolySmoke discussion forum continues to be a quality arena for the discussion of and debunking of religious beliefs. Among the most evil of religious beliefs are:

• Everyone "sins" and needs "salvation" from the disease.
• Love (and other emotions) come from gods or demons. Those who don't believe in the claimant's particular pantheon of gods and demons are incapable of love.
• Non-believers or believers in other brands of theism are "in denial" or "in rebellion" against the claimant's chosen gods and demons.
• Death is not the end; paradise awaits the faithful; life is nothing but a minor pre-show event before the main show; that loved ones who have died are still "waiting" somewhere and will be met when one dies.

How easy is it to deprive innocent millions of their rights by invoking the natural consequences of these evil religious beliefs? The history of religion provides the answer to this question.

John Prewett, a fundamentalist Christian who believes that John F. Kennedy really isn't dead (his assination was faked) and that he will "rise up" arm-in-arm with Henry Kissinger to take over the world and rule it as a minion of the "Satan" god, professed his belief that atheists don't believe in his deity constructs out of fear of the consequences of their actual existence. He opined four phases of Christianity wherein one such phase is atheism.

Rod Swift stepped up to the plate and corrected these mistaken beliefs clearly and totally. Provided below are the claims and their debunkings. (Note: The typical poor spelling of the fundy has not been corrected and has been faithfully reproduced below.)

Stage one - Childish belief in whatever religion one is naturally born into.

Rod Swift
I disagree -- Stage one is the immoral brainwashing and indoctrination of superstition and religion into the children of parents. Such indoctrination I consider child abuse.

John Prewett
Stage two - Outgrow childhood religion. Atheist. Enjoy playing "god" by making up one's own rules of right and wrong.

Rod Swift
I disagree -- Stage two, as I see it, is the self-discovery that the indoctrination one has received as a child is less and less relevant to life. Hence, search for more apt philosophies of freethought, and secularism. Rebellion from organized religion.

John Prewett
Stage three - Become aware of the dismal, depressing ramifications of atheism. Become aware of spiritual activity in the world that you realize you don't understand.

Rod Swift
I disagree -- Stage three is only reached by the emotional wet-blanket types, moral basketcases, and the feeble among humans. I classify the stage three types as those who dispense with reality in favor of fantasy when they are:

• 1) being unable to deal with the consequence of mortality
• 2) being in a hopeless position
• 3) being in a position of despair
• 4) without a philosophical moral compass, and hence require one out of a book of religion
• 5) being in an escapist mindset from reality

I am sure there are other reasons why people turn to religion because of what they fear...

John Prewett
I'm in stage four. Personal faith in the living Jesus Christ.

Rod Swift
I disagree -- Stage four, self-deception through *personal choice*. Note, stage one is deception through indoctrination, and is rebelled against because of the forced nature of such childhood indoctrination.

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