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Just finished a book with that title by Mr. Richard Dawkins and I have to say that it’s been some time since some book made me think so much. I was born in Christian family and so I have been raised Christian, but throughout life my faith was less and less what Church would it like it to be, I suppose. I still believe in God, but my faith is different. This book made it different even more.

Mr. Dawkins says that most of the bad things happening in the world are to be blamed on religion, one or the other or all of them. I disagree, not because I particularly care for religion, but because I think people are to be blamed for all that is happening in the world. Religion is just one of universal – and powerful – excuses for doing bad things. Or all things. Faith is for people who cannot think for themselves or are too weak-minded to be able to. Faith is an evil precisely because it requires no justification and brooks no argument writes Mr. Dawkins and I agree. If children were taught to question and think through their beliefs, instead of being taught the superior virtue of faith without question, it is a good bet there would be no suicide bombers – and here I only partially agree. Ability to think critically and question everything is something that every one of us should be taught, but by whom? Not all parents or teachers can, simply because average mind cannot tackle such things and maybe this is the reason why it runs towards faith. And if not faith, then something else – greed, lack of perspectives, some other delusion, or simply depression – would supply us with suicide bombers.

Belief may be something providing mental stability to mind occupied with whatever surrounds it. Maybe faith is a fail-safe, giving us sort of ready-made explanation for all things we cannot explain ourselves, maybe this is also why there is so many people but relatively small number of recognized mass religions… we like to sign-up to ready-made recipes of the world, however questionable those may be, simply because we just are too insecure to question endlessly without finding answers. I may be following here old adage that religion is for the masses. But it really is, isn’t it?

Mr. Dawkins says something else that is very interesting: not a single atom that is in your body today was there when [past] event took place… Whatever you are, therefore, you are not the stuff of which you are made.

If that is really so, if all atoms of our bodies are in constant movement and are being replaced with new or other ones, then where our memories are coming from? How come those are stored for many years? I am sure that either Mr. Dawkins simplifies, or I have found another one of those riddles where the easiest solution to it lies in faith: the easiest answer is, our soul remembers all those things, not our bodies… not atoms, not matter.

Read this book. Regardless if you have faith or not.