IN RESPONSE TO AN ARTICLE FROM THE GUARDIAN:

Why creationism matters – and irks so many people

I am not an atheist. Perhaps I am a Deist like Thomas Jefferson and others of the Founding Fathers of USA and great thinkers like Thomas Paine who totally debunked Judaism and Christianity over 200 years ago in his 18th century work : "The Age of Reason".

Paine believed that institutional religion was outright evil and malevolent and was responsible for most of the terrible things that had happened throughout history, and that it was totally destructive of all scientific progress. Likewise, 21st century author and lecturer, Sam Harris states the same in his modern work " The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason"

One wonders how institutional religion has survived 200 years beyond Paine's very convincing and corroborative evidence. Are superstitious people simply plugging their ears and refusing to acknowledge the very glaring and obvious flaws in their religions or are they just reticent to toss a battered and worn out garment into the trash simply because it was something that an ancestor wore and somehow keeps them united with those who have gone before them?

If you interview Jews, Muslims and Christians today, and even their clergy, most barely believe in God at all and most certainly don't adhere to the moral teachings of their religions. I mean, if they did, then we certainly wouldn't have the current 50-60% birthrate to unwed mothers that we are experiencing and the outrageous divorce rate, not to mention the rate of infidelity and social diseases like HIV-AIDS rampant in most of the world.

So one wonders: Why do people continue to cling to something that they really don't even believe in? What's the point in clinging to the Torah if one doesn't even believe in God? And what's the point of receiving communion or the "body and blood of Christ" if you don't even believe that there was such an historical person?

Is it simply that the thought that we are in "free fall" and at the mercy of a very random and uncontrollable Universe  and that there is no  Santa Clause-like Deity out there to catch us, just too frightening?  Or does belief in a Deity give us a false sense of control of our destinies because we can bribe Him and manipulate Him through prayers and offerings to be certain that WE prosper and that WE win wars and that WE survive to the detriment of our enemies? If that is the case, then religious belief can actually have some very selfish motivations at it's roots.