Being an outspoken atheist in the bible belt of the south and being a first hand witness to both the positives and negatives of religion, it is time we address the topic of delusion created by religion itself. Now to be fair I am not saying it is just one religion but all of the known religions in this world are fundamentally off base. While I expect more hate than likes on this article, I do wish to force people to a state of mind of reflection on what their life really is, how it is being defined, and how what they believe has some negative effects on everybody else in some ways.

First off I will say religion can be used as a force for good and I have seen people first hand who take the Quran or the Torah and yes even the Bible as a guide for a peaceful life of helping others and peaceful coexistence. While I do not want to totally demonize these religions, I do wish to point of some harmful effects they have on today's society and each humans psychological state. In turn I will take each of these three books representing a majority of religious individuals as base to prove this point.

The Quran, the holy book of the Muslim religion: I do not wish to agree with Trump's radical view on Muslim people, in fact I find Trump's xenophobic view on Muslim's disgusting. The Muslim holy book however has may verses which I find troubling when looking at the religion it represents as a whole. The first verse is pretty simple to understand why I and anyone even practicing Muslim's should find appalling is Quran 2:191 "Kill disbelievers wherever you find them". Yes the Quran literally says if you find someone who was born in a different place with a different culture and has never heard of your religion the only rightful thing to do is kill them. Again not to be offensive but this utterly barbaric. No discretion on use of violence and murder. One country in particular in the middle east, Saudi Arabia, has had an ambassador openly claim that all atheist are terrorist. Not only that, being an atheist in Saudi Arabia is a terrorist offence punishable by law. The ambassador continued to say the atheist who are trying to conscientiously spread their views in Saudi Arabia are "disturbing the peace". I would have agreed with him if he said "disturbing the peace of the lie" but of course that's only my humanity and basic scientific knowledge saying that, not a almighty god who sends his prophet into heaven on a flying donkey. Which was later transcribed as a winged horse, because that is more believable? Regardless a second verse which could easily be found distasteful by those who want a life of equality and peace is found in the Quran verse 4:34 "Good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah has guarded. As for those from whom you fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them". So we all know the Muslim religion does not treat women fairly as men to any stretch of the imagination, but this is truly a new low in terms of how far they can demean their own people. To treat women as livestock with no care for their feelings or aspirations, as only tools for the men around them sickens me physically. To know leaders of a country are actually so unintelligent they can not see the basic flaws in their own logic. To basically say all women who do not do as every man tells them to do should be scourged is pathetic and with how far humanity has come one would imagine people could do better than this. Also to think of all the verses which speak of peace and understanding in the Quran, maybe one of those verses would call out the hypocrisy of what one believes to be true.

This is the first part of a two part article. Read part two here.