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«Resisting religious indoctrination» by Marcel Délèze
Overview
«Resisting religious indoctrination» aims to help people who wish to free themselves from the grip of religion, de-dramatise life and refuse the subordination of conscience to a religious ideology.
The first part, entitled "Resisting the Social Control of the Church", takes a critical look at the Catholic Church from various angles including morality and secularism.
The second part, entitled "Resisting Religious Faith", subjects concepts such as God, Hell, the Last Judgment, Truth, Pascal's wager, faith, agnosticism, atheism and the fear of death to a scathing analysis.
Excerpt: The menace of Hell
Some avatars of the French adage "He who loves well punishes well" are flamboyant.
Churches praise God's love without insisting as much as in the past on the intimidation that accompanies it:
[Matthew 13:41-42] "The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Believers hold their breath, but find it right that God resorts to eternal torments. One would have expected a justice more concerned with proportionality, for on earth, even inflicted by the worst sadists, every punishment has an end. Moreover, justice that respects human rights does not resort to punitive torture.
What a striking contrast with the message of forgiveness:
[Matthew 5:44] "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you".
Unfortunately, any approach that falls under the principle "Do as I say, but not as I do" is unconvincing.
This is an internal contradiction whose enormity seriously discredits the Bible and clearly shows the logical impossibility that the Christian doctrine of the Last Judgement is Truth.
More circumspection should be shown in the face of preconceived ideas. We know that many imaginary and absurd stories are circulating. Hell is one of them, and undrinkable moreover. The appetite for faith must be restrained by the need for coherence.
More excerpts: Revocation of the divine judge
"Resisting Religious Indoctrination" is available in three forms:
- The website
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The e-book
- from the author, PDF format, 167 pages, free download, latest edition
- Mazze's blog on blogspot.com
The author
Marcel Délèze is a retired math teacher. In the public schools of French-speaking Switzerland, he has, throughout his life, resisted the institutionalized militancy of the Catholic cantons, which has now subsided, but whose devices have remained in place.
For the believer, the contradictions dissolve into a mystery that gives rise to spiritual wonder and even mysticism. But for the person whose reason is active and whose critical mind is alert, the contradictions are proof of the absurdity and emptiness of religious discourse.
Everyone finds pleasure where his or her aspirations take him or her: the surrender to trust in faith or the argumentative renunciation of obviously erroneous theories.