God Is Dead

But his ghost is still kicking around. The ghost of god persists in two forms, one as religion and the other as spirituality (without religious organization). I should be more precise and state that when I say spirituality or spiritualism I mean it on a more personal level. Spirituality exists in many forms in organized religion, but it really is a much more personal aspect and can be viewed as independent of a religious institution.

Spirituality, I believe, is worse than the institution of religion. When combined with religion it is very dangerous indeed. This will upset many. After all, what harm is it to believe your own superstitions and keep them to yourself? It would seem that the real danger lies in large institutions such as the Catholic Church, which has historically carried out atrocities, or evangelical Christians with a warmongering agenda. Such institutions, however, must feed off of a spiritual populace, a populace open to faith, belief, and mystery. 

Superstitions, the belief in the supernatural, and faith are all corrosive aspects of a society that have become entangled in religious institutions and deeply wedded to them. In an early society, the religious institution serves primarily as the institution of law. At this stage, the religious institution itself could be viewed as a positive force on societal development. But as time progresses, the inflexibility of the religious institution will cause it to impede societal progress. The institution will seize upon superstition to maintain power in the face of decreasing relevance. But it would never be able to do so in a society that was unreceptive to superstition.

You Don't Get Your Morals From Your God

Religion does not, cannot, and never has provided a basis for morality. Many would contend that religion’s ability to provide morals to a society is one of its great virtues. They are wrong. If you adhere to a religious moral code, and I do mean strictly adhere, then you are a truly immoral person. On what basis do you accept this moral code? Either you accept it because it is what you were taught, you came to it through what you believe is divine revelation, or you came to it because you found it agreeable. These are all terrible reasons for selecting a moral code. The last possibility is the best of the three. If you came to adhere to the religious moral code because you found it agreeable, then you used your own moral judgement and critical thinking in assessing the moral code. But since you adhere strictly to this code, you really are a hypocrite. Why would you adhere strictly to a moral code if you came to that code based on your own judgement?  There’s no reason to abandon your judgement once you've agreed to a moral code. Your strict adherence requires you to suspend your judgement and critical thinking, something no moral individual would do.