The Main Reasons I'm an Atheist: 2. Religions are Unreliable

There are numerous reasons to why I'm an atheist.
In the next blog posts I'll be listing the main ones.

For the first post, please click here:
http://bigheadatheist.blogspot.co.il/2014/05/the-main-reasons-im-atheist-1-world-is.html


2. Religions are Unreliable

An important question every religious person must ask themselves is this:
"How can I know that my religion is the correct one?"

Given the literally thousands of different religions out there, which also very often contradict each other, this is indeed a very difficult question.
Each of these religions has 'holy scriptures' just like yours.
The followers of each religion have 'divine experiences' just like yours.
Each has an internally consistent doctrine just like yours.
And yet... Followers of one religion are considered heretics of another.
The followers destined for the heaven of one religion, are destined for the hell of another.
This situation is completely ridiculous!

If religions were indeed divinely inspired by a single god or a single group of gods, then obviously there would be consistency between them. Not only that, but you'd expect the same religion to show up independently in different parts of the world.
Did this ever happen? No. Not ever. Not even once.

But if religions are indeed man-made, then you'd expect each religion to suit the character of the culture within which it was created. You would expect religions to be different from one another and often contradictory. You would expect new religions to pop up all over the place all the time.
Does this ever happen? YES. ALL THE TIME. EVEN TODAY.

The Jewish religion is characterized by the Mesopotamian culture from whence it came.
The Christian religion is characterized by both the Jewish-Mesopotamian culture from which it evolved, as well as the Greek Mithraistic culture where it was developed.
The Muslim religion is characterized by the desert-dwelling Arabian Peninsula culture.
Every Pagan religion is also characterized by the culture and environment where it was created.

Lets look at more recent examples:
Scientology? Characterized by science-fiction tales, as fitting for the science fiction author who created it.
Mormonism? Characterized by the North-American culture in which Josef Smith grew up.
Both of which, by the way, are documented con-men.

In India, there's a new self-proclaimed Hindu messiah just about every month.

Despite all this ridiculous amount of contradicting evidence, a huge number of people still fall for it.
Is it so hard to believe that ancient people were just as gullible as they are today?
In fact, given the documented ridiculous beliefs people used to hold, wouldn't it make sense that ancient people were even more gullible and dumber than we are today?

So...
How CAN you know that your religion is the correct one?
Obviously, you can't. Most religions rely on unfalsifiable and infallible claims which you cannot verify or disprove.
The few claims which are falsifiable... Have already been falsified - repeatedly.
The more logical conclusion is therefore - ALL religions are false.
Including yours.

The following YouTube series demonstrates just how psychologically fallible the human mind is.
It shows what kind of psychological vulnerabilities are being exploited by just about every single religion out there.

I highly recommend you watch all of it:
Psychology of Belief

The Main Reasons I'm an Atheist: 1. The World is Full of Evil and Suffering

There are numerous reasons I'm an atheist.
In the next blog posts I'll be listing the main ones.

1. The World is Full of Evil and Suffering

Before:
Maybe I'm just a too sympathetic guy, but I can't bring myself to reconcile with the fact there's so much suffering around the world, and at the same time there's some all-powerful dude out there who is doing nothing to fix it.
It started with me being rather selfish as a child (I see it now), and being rather dumbfounded that I'm doing my best to be a "good boy", and yet the "bad guys" are the ones who get popular, get all the girls, and all in all seem successful... while I'm being picked on by thugs for no reason, and can't get any girl to like me.
In a world where good people are supposed to be rewarded and bad people are supposed to be punished, this state of affairs did not make sense to me.

In time, as I grew up, I was exposed to more and more suffering around the world. There are no words to express just how much evil exists in the world... And the most ironic part? The worst possible atrocities are committed in the name of... you guessed it: Religion.

After:
Once I came to accept the fact that there's no God, and there's no divine reward/punishment system in place, I came to the following conclusion:
Humans are aggressive and selfish animals. They are social animals, but at the same time, the concept of the strong survives is still biologically important. It's natural selection. It's simple math:
Take two groups of people: One is aggressive, the other is docile.
Put them in the same location. What would happen?
Since the first group is aggressive, it'll behave aggressively towards the second group.
Since the second group is docile, it will not respond aggressively to the first group.
The first group will eventually exterminate the second group.
Thus the aggressive group flourishes, while the docile group perishes; the 'aggressive genes' move on, while the 'docile genes' go extinct.

Here's another scenario:
Take two groups of people which are identical in terms of aggressiveness.
Put each of them in a different ecosystem: One is in a lush and fertile environment. The other in a harsh desert environment.
The first group can breed and sustain itself rather easily because resources and food are plentiful and easy to access.
The second group has a limited amount of available resources and food. If the group keeps breeding, soon enough they'll exhaust the resources of the environment. They'll have two options:
Either emigrate to a different ecosystem.
Or fight over the resources among themselves.
Those that stay and fight will in time develop instinctive aggressive traits, because that's how they'll survive. They'll be more protective of their bloodline because trust will be difficult to come by (it's easier to trust your own family to not kill you over a well of water for example).
And thus, in time, the first group becomes more docile, while the second group becomes aggressive and over-protective.

There are other examples of scenarios that can explain why would humans become aggressive and selfish. But I don't think there's a point of listing all of them here. If you just put your head to it and/or do some research, it's rather easy to think about such scenarios.

So in conclusion, there are biological, environmental, and genetic explanations to why there's evil and suffering in the world.

Put a divine entity into the mix and suddenly it won't make sense:
An all-powerful being could equalize the environments and give a fair chance to all groups. In a perfect world, there's no need to fight over resources. If you were an all-powerful being, you could think of countless ways to make things better.

But take the divine entity out of the equation, and everything falls into place: The world has evil and suffering because that's how humans survive in a limited-resources environment - on the expense of others. It makes so much more sense, and most importantly - these scenarios are SCIENTIFICALLY DEMONSTRABLE. There were numerous scientific experiments which were done on mice and apes, where exactly this outcome has happened.
Watch the world news at any point in time, and you'll see the same outcome in humans.