I feel sorry for people who believe the Bible to be the absolute truth. They listen to their priests and ministers telling them about this place called Hell where they will go if they do not believe or live a certain way and be loyal to the Church. Of course, being loyal to the church means giving money to the church.

What does this almighty God need money for? If he has the capability of creating whatever he wants to create, why doesn't he create whatever money will buy? Why can't a God-loving person give what money they would to a church to some organization set up to help others if that is truly what the purpose of giving is. Most Christians I know give money to churches because they think it will get them a place in Heaven, or they want to impress their fellow church-goers. TV preachers are on every day begging for money, promising people that they will get a blessing ten-fold if they give money. It seems to me that greed is the motivator in that case.

Fundamentalists believe that God created man, but man is imperfect. If man is created in the image of God, then God is not perfect. Man is a sinner, but all of the sins are from human nature. But, you can always absolve your sins by being a loyal church-goer. That, of course, means giving money.

Why teach aspects of human nature are sinful? Why not teach people to indulge the so-called sins, but not to allow the sins to control their lives? If it weren't for sin, which is all created in the minds of men who want to retain power, people would not give money to the churches. That is not to say that people should go about and indulge in destruction of others. Indulging sin simply means to enjoy the aspects of human nature that bring pleasure or survival. All of the seven deadly sins are neccessary to a degree to insure the survival of the human race.

To most fundamentalists, the questioning of God is blasphemy. If God did not want to be questioned, why did he create man with a brain? That old story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden doesn't make sense to me. I think somebody made it up to scare people into thinking that if they disobeyed God, something terrible would happen. Of course, disobeying your priest or minister, is disobeying God.

In the story of the Garden, the serpent tells Eve that she would not surely die if she ate the fruit. Well, God had said they would. Who told the truth here? They did not die. It seems to me that the serpent came to liberate humankind from blind obedience. Supposedly, the serpent is God's creation, too. But is he? If God can't control what goes on in his own garden, is he really in control? What was the purpose of creating the world, especially humans? Perhaps to toy with them?

TV preachers are always talking about earthquakes and floods and other natrual disasters taking place in places they consider ungodly as being God's judgement? What about when these catastrophes hit churches? People who believe in the mercy of God surely must be confused about this. That old "mysterious ways" explanation doesn't cut it. But, it keeps people coming back to church and giving money. If God is so mysterious, why does he demand blind obedience?

If you love your god, do you really need some intermediary to do his or her work? Take your money and do good works with it where you believe it will be done. Pray to your god yourself or with friends in your homes. If you do that, you won't have to build gilded temples to a man who preached outdoors or pay a priest or minister to talk to your god for you.