Religion is an industry. Unlike car makers who cheat on emissions, religion manufacturers cheat far more on polluting your brains with rubbish than a V-dub does with a few tons of extra sulphurous CO2 crap-altered algorithms. 

The purpose of religion is to make you believe in the value of the infinite pollution. It could be said that religious teaching is the only education industry where the teachers gloriously and analytically cheat while the naive students who did not do far, learn to believe in grand falsehoods... Often the teachers end up believing in their own bullshit because it provides them with employ. What is better than to be at the employ of god almighty and be paid by mortals to be so...
Show me a religion where cash or killing is not involved and I'll show you a peacenik rally. 

Religion is an industry, where the ministries are designed to collect the tax-less cash in exchange of bullshitting. The more cash they get, the more successful the bullshit, relatively. 

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington and the founder of Wisdom Commons. She is the author of "Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light" and "Deas and Other Imaginings." Her articles can be found at Awaypoint.Wordpress.com.

Valerie's main point is that "Thank God Bible-believing Christians don’t take the Good Book as seriously as they claim to."

Unfortunately some God Bible-believing Christians still take the bible seriously. Same with the Q'ran... The Imam believes and massages your brains! And they all use self- deceptive trickery to con the weak-minded people, as well as themselves about the worth of their bullshit. 

To some extend one could think that this is not a bad idea and this protects the weak from doing silly things. The weak-minded people could be swayed by ill-willed people to do naughty things. The only problem is that we all are relatively "weak-minded" people, and we often do believe the bullshit we are told to by the religious spruikers. We are brainwashed from a young age with little room to rebel when the God-believing religious nuts make us believe that righteousness can become a deadly crusade This is when naughty things become reasonable. It's hypocritical. 

"And all of them killeth each other with sticks from the "truth"... Leonisky 12:78 VH.

This is where fabulists, such as Dr. Peter W. Teague, come in. He has served as President of Lancaster Bible College since July 1, 1999. His presidency continues a ministry career that has spanned four decades of Christian education and leadership development. Hulla-oo. 

Of all people, perusing into the bible daily and being a "leadership developer", he should be able to see the massive flaws in the good book. And there are many. So many, it ends up showing god as a deceiving sadistic narcissistic demanding bully. A hypocrite that the religious teachers spend time to glorify and whitewash with lurve. The crap of the world is not god's fault... Teague tells us:

God's Word has been under attack ever since the Fall when Satan said, "Did God really say?" And if God didn't really say, why would we read the Bible, much less believe it? Why would we proclaim it, much less obey it?
When opposing Scripture as the Word of God, people are really opposing the authority and truthfulness of God. 

Gus: There no such thing as the Authority and truthfulness of god... How could Satan learn the tricks of deception, of sadism of narcissism and of bullying from anyone else but god himself?... When was the last time you looked in your book, cobber? Teague continues:

If God really did say, then we are compelled to obey the voice of God. We are confronted with our sin and utter unrighteousness. We are convinced of our need for a savior. We will have to do what is contrary to our natural desires. The doctrine of Scripture as God's Word has implications in every aspect and corner of our very being and living. It is so important to get this right and settled in our hearts and minds.

Gus: Okay folks, GET IT RIGHT. Hold it. Here, the bullshit is thick. Confronted with our sin and utter unrighteousness? Bullshit ! I don't sin and the original sin from mythical Eve and Adam is irrelevant. And I am not confronted by it.... Ah, yes, you, the more righteous than thou, you are referring to me when I had one more unnecessary slice of cake, don't you ? Idiot. I can be righteous as much as I like without having a godly reference point. I can take care of myself, I can care for others and this planet in a more caring way than being in the clutches of a terror maniac: according to the bible, God kills.

There are far more biblical stories of killing and destruction attributed to God (millions killed by god, including most of His creation being drowned) than to Satan (around 10 deaths or less) who to say the least never destroyed a fly. I suppose the believers will tell us that the 10 killed by Satan were good people while the millions killed by god were sinners idolaters and deserved to die. Bullshit.

In the bible, god is portrayed as jealous, angry, hostile, demanding, intolerant, murderous, unpredictable, genocidal and warlike — with a bit of prejudicial favouritism given on the side for those who fear Him, the Chosen people, who from time to time still misbehaved... And because "we're all sinners", we need a Savior to believe in. Bullshit. I do not sin, nor do I have inherited a black mark against my name supposedly because a couple of idiots fucked up in paradise. But Teague insists:

The Lancaster Bible College "Statement of Faith" declares our position on the Bible: "We believe the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the New Testament are the Word of God and are verbally inspired of God and inerrant in the original writings.
We believe that this inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts of the Scriptures, and that they are thesupreme and final authority in faith and life." (John 17:17; Galatians 3:16; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21.)We do not profess this based on tradition, blind faith, or wishful thinking. No, our belief is based on irrefutable evidence.

Gus: Oi? Belief and irrefutable evidence cannot coexist in the same sentence... But Teague carries on regardless:

In 1832, Jacob Abbott addressed this issue of evidence in a book entitled, "The Young Christian" (New York, American Tract Society, 1832) by telling a story that shows the different ways in which we can be sure this great library of Sacred Books, which we call the Bible, is really the Word of God, His revelation to mankind. Abbott used this story to explain three different kinds of evidence – (1) Historical, (2) Internal, and (3) Experimental.
He tells about a gentleman who sent a boy to the chemist's to get some phosphorus, a crystalline acid that absorbsoxygen rapidly, and when exposed to light, ignites spontaneously at room temperature. The boy brought back a littlepacket; was it phosphorus? The boy reported that he went to the shop and asked for phosphorus, that the chemist went to his shelves, took some kind of stuff from a jar, put it in the little packet, and gave it to him, and that he had brought it straight back. That was the Historical Evidence that the packet had phosphorus in it. Then the gentleman opened the Then he put a light to it — "See how it burns?!" That was the Experimental Evidence (137).
With regard to the Word of God: it SEEMS to be; it CLAIMS to be; and it PROVES to be. The answer is not in any one of these answers taken by itself, but in the three together which constitute irrefutable proof that the Bible is of divine origin, and therefore of sovereign authority; that is — it is the Word of God.

Gus: there the good old theology spruiker makes a gigantic leap of faith. There not a skerrick of relationship between phosphorus and religion. The use of pseudo-scientific analysis here is idiotic and does not add up. It's a circular argument. It's so bad, it's not even sophistry. The three premises together do not make a proof in religious subjectivity. Irrefutable proof that the word of god is the bible? These are the words of old men trying to corralled women, more likely — and find "reasons" (excuses) to go and conquer someone else's land. So the good preacher carries on with enticement to young illiterate since they don't question the teacher.

Teague: I am not here this morning to present a detailed apologetic on the divine inspiration, authority and infallibility of the Bible; you will get plenty of that in your studies at LBC. Rather I want to encourage you at the start that your commitment to study God's Word is rightly placed, good and reasonable.

Bullshit. There is no reasonable apologetic. The infallibility of the bible is bunkum, its authority only declared by snake-oil merchants and its inspiration is ghastly. And you don't have to read between the lines to see this. It's a book of old decrees that have no reality to reality. 

Here are a few notable passages, extracted by Valerie Tarico, that the Bible-believing Christians might like to gloss over — like the times of the inquisition, during which people were murdered for not believing in their goodly god...:
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To list all of the verses in these categories would take a book almost the size of the Bible; one the size of the Bible minus the Jefferson Bible (http://www.thejeffersonbible.com/), to be precise. I’ll limit myself to a couple tantalizing tidbits of each kind, and the curious reader who wants more can go to the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible (http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/categories.html) or simply dig out the old family tome and start reading at Genesis, Chapter I.

1. Weird insults and curses. The Monty Python crew may have coined some of the best insults of the last 100 years: Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. But for centuries the reigning master was Shakespeare: It is certain that when he makes water his urine is congealed ice. Had John Cleese or William Shakespeare lived in the Iron Age, though, some of the Bible writers might have given him a run for his money.
Christians may scoot past these passages, but one hell-bound humorist used them to create a biblical curse generator (http://ship.saintsimeon.co.uk/curses/index.html).
She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. Ezekiel 23:20 NIV
You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not bereturned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. . . . The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. Deuteronomy 28:30- 31,35

2. Awkwardly useless commandments. The Bible is chock-a-block with do’s and don’ts. Some of them are simply statements of universal ethical principles, like do to others what you would have them do to you, or don’t lie, or don’t covet your neighbor’s possessions. But from a moral standpoint most of them are simply useless or even embarrassing—especially if you think God could have used the space to say don’t have sex with anyone who doesn’twant you to, or wash your hands after you go to the bathroom.
Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material. Leviticus 19:19
Ye shall not round the corners of your heads. Leviticus 19:27

3. Silly food rules. The early Hebrews probably didn’t have an obesity epidemic like the one that has spread around the globe today. Even so, one might think that if an unchanging and eternal God were going to give out food rules he might have considered the earnest Middle-American believers who would be coming along in 2014. A little divine focus on amping up leafy green vegetables and avoiding sweets might have gone a long way.Instead, the Bible strictly forbids (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_animals_that_the_Bible_forbids_hu...) eating rabbit, shellfish, pork, weasels, scavengers, reptiles, and owls. As is, Christians simply ignore the eating advisories in the Old Testament, even though they claim that edicts like the Ten Commandments and the anti-queer clobber verses(http://www.religioustolerance.org/hombiblnt.htm) still apply.
All that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you. Leviticus 9:10
Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. Exodus 23:19

4. Holy hangups about genitals. God, or the Bible writers, is hung up about sexual anatomy in a way many modern Christians, fortunately, are not. In “The Year of Living Biblically,” the author, A.J. Jacobs, attempts to obey(http://www.asylum.com/2008/02/22/the-weirdest-and-toughest-laws-in-the-b...) Mosaic laws about menstruation. When his wife finds out what those laws actually are, she gives him the middle finger by sitting on every chair in the house.
When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. Leviticus 15: 19-20
When men fight with one another, and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, then you shall cut off her hand. Deuteronomy 25:11-12

5. God’s temper tantrums. Modern Christians may talk about God as a loving father, or even a Jesus buddy, the kind you’d want to play golf with, but in reality Bible-God goes out of his way to be intimidating. Worse, he appears to lose control of his temper at times, lashing out like an oversized thwarted three-year-old; and his earthly representatives— including Jesus—do the same.
Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. 2 Kings 2:23-25 NIV
Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. Matthew 21:18-22 NIV

6. Times when the Bible God is worse than Satan. In the Bible, Satan is described as a roaring lion who prowls the earth, seeking whom he may devour. But if you actually read the stories, Satan doesn’t do much other than to tempt people into disobeying the dictates of Yahweh, who acts like a heavenly dictator with borderline personality disorder. God, by contrast, professes his undying love, kindness and mercy, but then commands his minions to commit brutal atrocities when he isn’t up for it himself. Some of the stories are so bad even Hollywood, with its passion for glorious biblical sex and violenced human sacrifice.
Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves. Numbers 31:17-18
He [Josiah] executed the priests of the pagan shrines on their own altars, and he burned human bones on the altars to desecrate them.... He did this in obedience to all the laws written in the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the LORD's Temple. Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since. 2 Kings 23:20-25 NLT

7. Instructions for slave masters. The reality is that the Bible says much more in support of slavery than against it. Even the New Testament Jesus never says owning people is wrong. Instead, the Bible gives explicit instructions to masters and slaves. Awkward.

You may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Ephesians 6:5 NLT

8. Bizzare death penalties. Years ago, I wrote an article titled, “If the Bible Were Law Would You Qualify For the Death Penalty?” It identified 35 different offenses that earn a person capital punishment in the Bible. Hint: You probably qualify. And so does the dog who belongs to your kinky neighbor.

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die. Deuteronomy 21:18-21
If a man has sex with an animal, he must be put to death, and the animal must be killed. Leviticus 20:15 NLT

 

9. Denigration of handicapped people. The yuck factor is probably wired into humanity at the level of instinct, a way to avoid contamination and pathogens. Shit smells bad to us as does decaying flesh. Our revulsion at illness and injury fuels a whole Hollywood horror industry. The Bible writers had the same instincts, but unlike modern health professionals, who have the benefit of germ theory, they had no idea what was contagious and what wasn’t, and they blurred the ideas of physical purity with spiritual purity. Modern Christians largely escape their denigration of physical handicaps. 

No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the LORD. Deuteronomy 23:1 NRSV
Whosoever ... hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookback, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken ... He shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries. Leviticus 21:17-23 KJV

10. Moral edicts that demand too much.If much of the Bible gets ignored because it is morally irrelevant, immoral, outdated, or factually wrong, another portion gets ignored because it sets the bar too high, like putting divorce on par with—omg—homosexuality. If you want to send a conservative Bible-believer into a froth, try suggesting Jesus was a socialist. Then, when he goes all Jehovah on you, quote from the book of Ephesians. 

Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same. Luke 3:11 NIV
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place. Ephesians 5:4 NIV

11. Passages that are a waste of brain space and paper. Some years ago I worked on a website called Wisdom Commons, a library of timeless quotes and stories from many traditions. I had the idea that I would go through the Bible and pull out bits that were relevant, so I started reading.

What I found was that most of the Bible was neither horrible nor inspiring. It was simply dull and irrelevant: long genealogies written by men obsessed with racial purity; archaic stories about ancient squabbles over real estate and women; arcane rituals aimed at pleasing a volatile deity; folk medicine practices involving mandrakes and dove’s blood; superstition that equated cleanliness with spiritual purity and misfortune with divine disfavor; outdated insider politics.

On top of that, it was badly written, with some stories garbled and others repeated, though rarely in complete agreement about the facts. The Bible’s supposed author seemed like a psychological mess, and I found myself irritated. With a finite number of pages to set the course of human history, this was the best He could do?

Thank God Bible-believing Christians don’t take the Good Book as seriously as they claim to.

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington and the founder of Wisdom Commons. She is the author of "Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light" and "Deas and Other Imaginings." Her articles can be found at Awaypoint.Wordpress.com.
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In the end, Teague gives us one redeeming feature amongst the clairvoyant bible inspired prophets and the supernatural:
"From a handful of disciples in Jerusalem, to Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world, to 600 million evangelical Christians today in the world, Christianity has profoundly impacted society by changing lives and leading the charge in establishing an untold number of schools and universities, innumerable hospitals, orphanages, and other centers of charity."

Gus: Here I draw a line in the sand, but a wave of scepticism wipes it off straight away. Schools and Universities are Proselytising centres. Hospitals, orphanages and other centres of charity which sound like a heavenly mana, but only exist due to tax benefits that are not afforded to similar "secular" or atheistic organisation. 
This for several reasons. As mentioned before, atheists have nothing to sell, thus they have no collected cash from selling illusions to spend on institutions. All they have is pure and simple altruistic giving from the bottom of their heart. And they do not sin by not giving away half of what they own.
But atheist can make a racket in forcing upon government the need and the means to eliminate poverty and pain. Looking at it the Pope is doing a good job as that: He wants to eliminate poverty, ego sum, eliminate charity... This is why many evangelical organisations hate the guy for being too much of a socialist...