My name is Kari Bian and I would like to share with you my views on a rather delicate subject. I realize my opinions on this matter will be quite radical and disturbing to some of you, but I urge you to consider them just the same.

It is my belief that much of the world’s problems, including our current economic crisis is caused by religion.
Yes, religion.
The very thing that should unite people, is the source of division between us. What should bring us together, in love and peace and mutual respect, instead divides one people against another. It is the cause of countless wars, deaths and untold destruction and has been so since the beginning of time. It pits nation against nation, in modern times as much as tribe against tribe in the distant past, all because of our differences in religion.

Rather than succumb to its own evil, religion has only grown stronger and is now more than just the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about. It has truly become the monster that will destroy us, feeding on hate, generating more and more hatred in the world in order to grow more and more powerful. And in our modern technological era, the power truly exists to destroy our planet. The atomic bomb, chemical warfare, biological weapons. The list is too frightening to contemplate, but contemplate it we must.
After all, our existence is at stake!

Perhaps you think I’m being a little extreme. Think about religion on a less dramatic scale of destruction. Religion has taken away our fundamental rights to freedom, to choice and in some parts of the world, to even show our faces. It demands of us our blind trust, our slavish unquestioning devotion to its rules and rituals, and even demands our hard earned cash! And what do we get in return? Only you can answer this for yourself. Have you gotten peace, at home, or in the world? An end to hunger? An end to war, racism, disease? No. Religion grows more and more aggressive. It is the ultimate hypocrite. It claims to be all about peace and love and tolerance, yet when you look at religion deep down it is about prejudice, superiority and hatred and destruction of the other. No wonder the world is in such a mess!

It is time to take a stand—against religion! I want my children and grandchildren to grow up in a world that truly lives in peace; that solves its problems in a civilized manner, without hatred, without the anxiety and stress of impending doom brought about religion and its intolerant nature. I want my children to really know happiness and freedom. And I think the only true path to this ideal is without religion!

Kari Bian