The internet group Anonymous has declared a “war on religion”, according to some websites, and targeted a number of religious websites, among them the Vatican’s. Other websites include those of Bethel Outreach International Church, Charlotte International Church, and Crossfire Ministries (see here and here for more, as well as here). While the attack on the Vatican website was claimed to be the work of an Italian group calling itself Anonyomous Italia, the defacement of the American websites was accompanied with the following declaration:
Greetings fellow pirates,
Let us be clear from the start: any kind of religion is a sickness to this world. A sickness that creates hate and intolerance, a sickness that brings people to wage war on their fellow people, a sickness that has come to this world long time ago, when mankind wasn’t educated, a sickness that brought false hope and suppression to those who believed and often even more terror and suppression to those who dared not to believe.
Religions are authoritarian hierarchies, designed to dominate your free will. Religions are mind control.They’re power structures that aim to convince you to give away your power for the benefit of those who enjoy dominating people. When you subscribe to a religion, you enroll in a mindless minion training program. Religions don’t market themselves as such, but this is essentially how they operate. In case you ever wondered why religious teachings are invariably mysterious, confusing, and incongruent? This is no accident — it’s intentional.
We see religion pretty much the same way as we see many governments. Fear mongering and making lots of money,so a small group of ppl will become insanely rich, while the believing masses can eat dirt. As long as they are afraid that “omgomg god will come and strike great vengeance upon me” all is good.
To quote Encyclopedia Dramatica (bringing you answers to life, the universe and everything since last Thursday) on this issue:
»Religion is a severe mental illness created over 9000 years ago, at the same time as the Earth. Since then, religion has been one of the biggest sources of drama, f—-try, and unwarranted self-importance in the world today, secondary only to the internet. It is responsible for such insanity as Christf-gs believing that beating someone half to death with a 2,000 year old book will heal them and Muslims believing that if they blow themselves up they will get 72 virgins. Even atheists are not immune to the psychotomimetic effects of religion; the mere mention of religion is enough to send any atheist into hours of butthurt sh-tfits.«
So people of the world, don’t let religion control your life. Don’t fight against each other for contrary beliefs.This world and our life can be a wonderful adventure, where you have the unique chance to help mankind and your fellow citizens. Where we can all work together to make this earth a better place for ourselves,our children and all those generations who will come after us. ^(;,;)^
(See here for the official statement of Anonymous Italia in the original Italian)
While I can’t condone illegal acts, of course, I can’t deny their stance against religion does resonate with me.
euroatheist 