The following two paragraphs appeared under the name of Mudulyn O'HairI have taken the liberty of including them in this article because of their clarity.

"After all, the real question is not whether the Bible is inspired, but whether it is true. If it is true, it does not need to be inspired. If it is true, it makes no difference whether it is written by a man or a God, The multiplication table is just as useful, just as true as though God had arranged the figures-himself. If the Bible Is really true, the claim of inspiration need not be urged, if it is not true, its inspiration can hardly be established.As a matter of fact, the truth does not need to be inspired. Nothing needs inspiration except a falsehood or a mistake. Where truth ends, where probability stops. Inspiration begins. A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth does not need the assistance of a miracle. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe because it is the product of all other facts. A lie will fit nothing except another lie made for the express purpose of fitting it.

If the Bible is really the work of God, it should contain the grandest and sublimest truths. It should, in all respects, excel the works of man. With this book should be found the best and loftiest definitions of justice; the truest conception of human liberty; the clearest outline of duty; the tenderest. highest and noblest thoughts - not that the human mind has produced, but that the human mind is capable of receiving, Upon every page should be found the luminous evidence of its divine origin. Unless it contains grander and more wonderful things than man has written. we say that it was written bv no being superior to man. It may be said that it is unfair to call attention to certain bad things In the Bible, while the good are not so much mentioned. To this may be replied that a divine being would not put bad things in a book. Certainly a being of infinite intelligence, power and goodness could never fall below the ideal of depraved and barbarous man",

The following are some of the realisations which made me finally and totally abandon the notion of a God,

1. The Bible is a faulty source of knowledge. It contains hundreds of serious contradictions; scientific impossibilities; immoralities; absurdities; unfulfilled promises; inaccuracies and obscenities. Here is just one example. The Bible states that God cannot lie. Numb. 23:19, Prov. 12:22, Heb. 6:18. It also states that God sends lying spirits, 2 Thes. 2:11, 1 Kings 22:23, Jer. 15:18, Ezek. 14:9. So we learn that God does lie by proxy.

2. The basis of Christian thought is that Jesus died a substitutional death for the sins of mankind, thus "cleansing them from all sin". It is unjust to charge an innocent person with the crimes of someone else. Equally, it Is a travesty of justice to attribute the virtue of someone else to a guilty person Yet this is the Christian doctrine which sprang from the ancient Hebrew belief In animal sacrifice for the sins of the people. It is convoluted Hebrew reasoning, unworthy of intelligent human beings,

3. The Christian religion relies on scientifically unprovable suppositions (a) that there is a supreme creator God- (b) a human person has an eternal soul- (c) the memory and guilts of this life can be transferred to another existence. When there, the sins of mankind may be punished in a never ending hell. So the whole basis of Christianity is built on unscientific superstitions and colossal cruelty,

4. The Christian religion diminishes human dignity by dependence on an unscientific myth. It tends to rob a person of the most important asset of self esteem or self worth by regarding him to be unworthy by himself. In its place it offers borrowed virtue. It mast first convince a person of unworthiness before offering the supposed imputed virtue of Jesus The religion denies that human virtue is purely a human quality and a facet of our innate social nature. Religion always encourages dependence on divinity instead of human potential.

5. The Christian religion is an elitist antisocial doctrine equal to tribalistic racism. It divides people into 'saved and damned'. Its history is full of cruelty, wars and suffering caused by religious power and fanaticism. Christians, Jews and Muslims all claim the same God, Not only have they killed each other, they fight their own kind in the name of the same God. Millions have died because of belief in God, What are the compelling reasons which make men to do this or believe in such a God,