If The Old Testament Were

Religious Believers Of The World, You Are Free To Continue To Debate The Simple, Narrow Question That Divides You From Atheists, But You Have No Right, In So Doing, To Treat The Humanists Of The World With Contempt. You Owe Them A Deep Debt Of Gratitude, For Not Only Have They Shed Much Light On A Naturally Dark World But They Have Very Probably Helped Civilize Your Own Specific Religion.

To Those Who Wish To Punish Others -- Or At Least To See Them Punished, If The Avengers Are Too Cowardly To Take Matters In To Their Own Hands -- The Belief In A Fiery, Hideous Hell Appears To Be A Great Source Of Comfort.

I Do Not Understand Those Who Take Little Or No Interest In The Subject Of Religion. If Religion Embodies A Truth, It Is Certainly The Most Important Truth Of Human Existence. If It Is Largely Error, Then It Is One Of Monumentally Tragic Proportions—and Should Be Vigorously Opposed.

I Cannot See How It Can Be Argued That One Should Speak In Tones Of Reverence And Awe About The Alleged Divine Instruction-in Psalms-to Grab The Defenseless Bodies Of Innocent Infants And Dash Their Brains Out Against The Nearest Rocks Or Walls.

Consider The Wave Of Revulsion That Floods The Average Person When He Or She Hears Of The Practice Of Human Sacrifice By The Aztecs And Other So-called Primitive Peoples. How Savage And Barbaric Such Practices Seem. But When A Christian Or Jew Comes Across Human Sacrifice In The Bible (see Jephthah's Immolation Of His Daughter In Judges 11:30-40), Is He Or She Repulsed?