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1. Comment by Keri, 18 Mar, 2010

   Well done!
   You are exactly right in every respect.
   Except for the last bit.
   Chocolate is a lovely lovely drug and emphatically, does not deserve to be included under the ghastly ghostie gormless label of religion.
   Religion is - where humans send their brains & instinct of compassion to die -

   Cheers - and thank you for the site- n/n Keri

2. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 18 Mar, 2010

   Thanks Keri, and of course you're right, chocolate is wonderful and thankfully no religion has got their slimy tentacles on to it.

3. Comment by Anonymous, 04 Oct, 2010

   Intellectually written and well argued. Unfortunately, I fear, it will only be read by non-believers. Cult members (billions of them) are petrified of reading home truths.

   All the best.

4. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 05 Oct, 2010

   Thanks, and you're right of course, cult members avoid reason like the plague. Our hope is though, that the more non-believers that can recognise and argue against religions and cults, the greater chance that someone will be able to prevent a family member, friend or associate from entering a cult in the first place. Prevention is better than cure. Too many people enter cults because they are simply seeking answers, and unfortunately it is often only religious nutters that are only too happy to try and answer those questions. For example Alcoholics Anonymous and many community help organisations are religiously motivated and religious chaplains stalk the hospital wards looking for vulnerable souls. Non-believers need to speak up and show that religion is not the answer.

5. Comment by Chris, 11 Mar, 2011

   I've just read your article on cults and mainstream religion and felt compelled to say what an excellent piece of work it is.

   I drifted onto your article while researching some population statistics today. In the course of my research I was absolutely astonished to come across several sources that listed just 2% - 5% of the population of the Earth as being atheist.

   It totally amazes me that the overwhelming majority of planet Earth's people believe in gods, angels, demons, the afterlife and reincarnation, animal spirits and other nonsense I would expect to find in the pages of a Tolkien book or scratched onto the walls of a mental asylum.

   Are we really that backward? In the days before scientific investigation was made possible, before we had microscopes and telescopes and before our bodies were not completely covered in hair I can certainly accept that things were unclear, and that it was easy for religious leaders to claim they had the answers and take advantage of otherwise intelligent people.

   But today, in the modern world, where we can communicate with anybody who owns a computer or mobile phone instantly, travel across oceans in a matter of hours, deconstruct our own bodies and rebuild them how we choose, and have the capability to set foot on other worlds? Honestly, seriously, between 95% and 98% of the people who live in this age of enlightenment and discovery still fervently believe in mind-warpingly childish stories and stupefyingly absurd ideas while the organisations that propagate these mad ideas commit horrendous atrocities across the entire world?

   This must be what it feels like to be a sane prisoner in a lunatic asylum where even the guards are all mad. It depresses me that one day people will look back at this epoch in Mankind's history and pity us for our idiocy.

   Thanks for an interesting read, all the best.

6. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 11 Mar, 2011

   Thank you Chris for your insightful observations. It is totally amazing that the majority still believe in fantasies, in the Western world at least. It is weird because modern society is the way it is because of science, which while not strictly atheistic, is certainly secular and couldn't care less about gods and spirits. And people worldwide clamour for its gifts while still harbouring a contradictory belief in powerful beings. Like you we don't understand how people can live these dual lives, with their day to day existence walled off from their weekly visits to churches, mosques and temples.

   We love your lunatic asylum analogy, and look on the bright side, if in the future people view this period in history the way we view the dark ages, at least that means that mankind has finally thrown off the shackles of superstition. If we all speak out now, we can all do our bit to ensure that day finally arrives, and sooner rather than later.

7. Comment by Ted, 12 Mar, 2011

   Did anybody else see the delicious irony in this, which appeared in the Herald a couple of weeks ago ?

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/religion-and-beliefs/news/article.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10706749

   Now sometimes Garth writes very pertinent social comment; he isn't silly all the time. Unfortunately, once he starts talking about his religion, reason flies out the window and wisdom turns to wind. Garth is a diehard Catholic and Catholicism seems a cult to me by most definitions. It's just thousands of times more stupid and damaging than Tamaki's lot. The whole comparison is a matter of degree is it not ?

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