I like to claim to be anti-religious, but actually it's the toxic nature of crap hiding under righteous purity that pushes my buttons. Personally I think Jesus is a good idea but maybe a less elaborate version. It's not that Jesus isn't real, see, but he's imaginary. Like numbers are real too (sort of) but (like Jesus) they exist entirely in your head. Same with finance or any definition of anything. All the Son of God bullshit & immaculate birth are obsolete metaphors promoted like they're historical facts. Good 'ol Jesus is always your friend & always on call for advice about how to be good & happy to take a bullet for you. Nice plan but come on, religions then hang bags of qualification on the "service" that it supposedly provides in brushing away your existential fears. Fine: be good, forgive your enemies, be a punk for any priest or gangster, they're the same thing. Just keep those tithes a-comin' folks. It's ok to raze forests, pump the aquifers dry, dump Nitrates and radioactive waste because god gave the earth to us to do anything we want with, so it's not being irresponsible; it's Capitalism (or Communism, whatever).
Religion is an interesting scam. Before facebook or Truth Social, prehistoric people had to rely on popular rumor for direction in their lives, whoever controled the rumor controled the people. What happens when I die? Well you have this thing called a soul that you need to entrust to a proper authority (definitely not the devil) along with financial support or you burn in hell for eternity. Always trust the official rumor. By the way, it's entirely true that preparation of Holy water requires inclusion of a grain of salt.
“If there’re monsters moving in next door, Danny, you just ignore them. The more you believe in them, the more they’ll try to get you.” (The Far Side)
