Sad thought about Jesus.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Yeah, some of his ideas are nice. Some of them are stupid and immoral. We only ever get the nice ones quoted, and often out of context.

That is why I recommend Victor Stenger's book "The New Atheism", not for those who accept it or have already read it, but for both atheists and believers.

Common arguments from empathetic liberal believers I have seen in a couple of forums in an attempt to explain all the different religions.

1. "Religion is universal, most people believe..........."

2. "That is simply god speaking in different languages"

Even what people claim to be the "atheistic" religions of Asia are still religions. They are also attempts to explain our species behaviors.

Stenger's book explains all the common ideas and motifs religions claim that explain good and moral. He rightfully challenges the reader to consider that if we are all capable of good and empathy, then we need to consider that our good acts are not coming from a book, but humans falsely take the evolutionary good side of our species and create gap answers in the form of holy books and religion.

Yes you can find stories of kindness and ideas of caring for others in all the word's religions. Unfortunately while those things do foster order because most humans don't have a global view or natural understanding, those acts of kindness and motifs of compassion for others gets distorted to unrealistic fantastic explanations like we find Luke Sky Walker good and Yoda good and find Darth Vader bad, while another group will find Captain Kirk good and Khan bad. Bot camps have their heros and villains, but in religion, it goes beyond mere taste and these claims of antiquity get political and for whatever good people can point to in any religion, it does not resolve our divisions.

I really do love liberals being one myself and liberal theists as well. They reflect the good side of evolution. However, where my well intended liberal friends fail, is that they hide behind those arguments above. Religion is only universal in the context that it is a natural flaw in our species perceptions. Just like it was understandable that the Egyptians falsely gap filled which resulted to them truly believing that Ra was the head god who controlled the sun. Religion is only natural like a placebo or sugar pill. But it also unfortunately sets up the in group vs out group that divides humans and also allows us too come to bad conclusions.

Be kind to your neighbor, feed the poor you can find those motifs in Jewish, and Christian and Islam and Hinduism and Buddhism ect ect ect, they just have different words and different icons in their holy writings all claiming too be the gatekeepers of what constitutes wisdom and good. When you see a domestic house cat on youtube defend a kid from a dog attacking the kid and chase it away, it becomes quite obvious where empathy comes from, evolution.

Religions and governments go hand in glove.  Religions push total belief and complete obedience without exception.  That gives governments legitimacy when the ruler tells his band of idiots to run over the hill and kill the people in the next town and destroy their stuff.  That's the prime directive in the First Commandment in Exodus 34:12-13.  How can you disobey and show mercy when your favorite deity tells you to kill the  scum?  That's how governments get "good" people to do very bad things.

The Repubs claim to be "good" religious people but they never display any of the kindness and mercy associated with being "good".  They are spiteful, mean, and callous toward everyone who isn't in their small clique. If there's a hell they need to be permanent inmates in it.  

In the Star Wars films Luke Skywalker and the Jedi are really religious terrorists who are intent on destroying  freedom and stability in order to impose religious control over the galaxy.  The "evil" emperor was actually the champion of the secular state and wanted to have a political system based on merit instead of religion.  The Jedi are the Taliban/ISIS terrorists in that galaxy.