[Harvey]

To some people, religion plays a large role in their life. For this reason, I think if you're going to do it, you should carefully select the religion you want in your life. Some people will sadly be 'born into' a religious view, but those wise enough will one day make a decision on their religious views.

For a religion supposedly based on the gospel of 'love', Christianity is actually based on a system of fear. You shall fear the devil, you shall fear hell. To someone with absolutely zero knowledge of religion or Christianity, this hardly seems to be a warm welcoming.

Secondly, the ten commandments seem seriously dated and superficial. No murdering, no adultery, no stealing. Those I can agree with. But then it starts talking about your neighbour? It seems as though when the ten commandments was written, the only important things were not stealing and not fucking with your neighbour... Can I go to the people down the road whom I wouldn't consider my neighbour and fuck his donkey? I realise these were probably written in a metaphorical sense, but still. It seems bizarre and there's nothing to establish whether it was intended to be taken literally or figuratively. The whole list of commandments seems very nonsensical and I'm sure there are other values we should put more consideration into.

Why is it that 'pride' is a sin? I can't get over this. Without pride, we surely won't achieve any degree of quality in our work. It only makes sense to take pride in what we do. Once again, very poorly worded or perhaps completely dated. Same goes for 'envy'. Envy inspires and motivates us making us more productive and potentially successful. Lust, seriously? Why would we believe in a religion that promotes something so counter-intuitive. Lust is hard-wired into us through chemicals and hormones. It really seems ridiculous to go against yourself as a natural, carnal animal.

Oh yeah, the concept of 'forgiveness' is ridiculous to me as well. This was particularly well talked about by Evangelist when he interviewed a Christian priest. In Christianity, you're not allowed to do a bunch of things. But if you do break the rules because you don't give a fuck, did so accidentally, or aren't really a true Christian like 95% of Christians will claim, you can be forgiven and all is well. We all know you're going to fuck your neighbour's donkey again. But that's okay, because god will forgive you over and over again.

In fact, since the only benefit of being a Christian is that you get to go chill out in heaven, drink wine with the angels and shit for the rest of eternity, you may as well do whatever the fuck you like now and ask for forgiveness on your deathbed. Because we all know god will forgive you. Why not have the best of both worlds?

Perhaps Christianity would have been appropriate a thousand years ago where we were all far less educated and didn't have a sense of logic. But in today's society, living a life of abstinence while clinging to the false hope that Jesus will return and all will be well just seems ridiculous and unproductive.

All I'm saying is, if you're Christian, perhaps consider converting yourself to something more modern. Yeah, wearing a cross around your neck and praying and being a 'part of something' as well as 'believing something greater exists' is all well and good. But you don't need to call yourself a Christian to do that.

Instead, consider what's valuable to you. What do you want? Do you want success and/or happiness? And do you really need a Christian belief set to help you achieve your goals?