Religions are fantasies made of words
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees: None (Free)
Volume Numbering: 12
Issue Numbering: 1
Section: B
Theme Type: Idea
Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”
Theme Part: 29
Formal Sub-Theme: None.
Individual Publication Date: November 1, 2023
Issue Publication Date: January 1, 2024
Author(s): James A. Haught
Author(s) Bio(s): James A. Haught, syndicated by PeaceVoice, was the longtime editor at the Charleston Gazette and had been the editor emeritus since 2015. He was thought to have been the first investigative reporter in West Virginia. He won two dozen national newswriting awards and was author of 12 books and 150 magazine essays. He was also a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine and was writer-in-residence for the United Coalition of Reason. He died on Sunday, July 23, at the age of 91.
Word Count: 393
Image Credit: None
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*
Keywords: crucified, Egyptian, fantasies, God, James Haught, Jesus, love, mankind, Old Testament, reform, religions, words.
Religions are fantasies made of words
One of my friends is a devout churchgoer who tries to reform my heathen ways. He sent me an email saying:
God is love — period. He offers us eternal life through his son Jesus Christ who represented God and his love for mankind while he was on Earth. Jesus was crucified, died, buried and rose from death to eternal life by the eternal power of God. Jesus represents all of mankind to God, Jesus’ father and our father. We are one in Christ and Christ is one with the father. Because of this new relationship or new covenant with God, we will experience eternal life with Jesus and God our heavenly father. We will live with eternal bodies in a heavenly realm outside of time. … We know it happens at the point of our deaths, giving all of mankind eternal hope that our physical lives will not be lived in vain, without meaning and purpose.
Those rapturous words bear strong meaning for my friend, giving him a focus for his life. But I ask myself: Does he never consider that it may be just a fantasy concocted out of words, with no actual reality?
Churches and theologians build make-believe imagery, with no tangible evidence to support it. It’s merely a house of cards consisting of rhapsodic words, but no substance. They make a word picture of “eternal bodies in a heavenly realm outside of time,” but the realm itself isn’t real.
Actually, the “God is love” label doesn’t fit the Old Testament monster who killed multitudes of Egyptian children at Passover and drowned nearly everyone in Noah’s flood. And it doesn’t fit the divine creator who designed everything, including cancer, cerebral palsy and spina bifida. Nor the creator who designed tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes — and crafted hawks to kill rabbits or cobras to kill children. What sort of loving creator is this?
Stop and think: Thousands of different religions have existed — from Aztecs sacrificing people to an invisible feathered serpent to Hindus praying over models of Shiva’s penis, from Jehovah’s Witnesses awaiting the Battle of Armageddon to Mormons who think an angel showed golden plates to a convicted swindler — and each faith can be considered a mere fantasy made from words. It’s easy to invent word fantasies.
This column is adapted from a piece originally published at OpEd News and Daylight Atheism.
Bibliography
None
Footnotes
None
Citations
American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Haught J. Religions are fantasies made of words. November 2023; 12(1). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/religions-words
American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Haught, J. (2023, November 1). Religions are fantasies made of words. In-Sight Publishing. 12(1).
Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): HAUGHT, J. Religions are fantasies made of words. In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 12, n. 1, 2023.
Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Haught, James. 2023. “Religions are fantasies made of words.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 1 (Winter). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/religions-words.
Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Haught, J “Religions are fantasies made of words.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 1 (November 2023).http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/religions-words.
Harvard: Haught, J. (2023) ‘Religions are fantasies made of words’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 12(1). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/religions-words>.
Harvard (Australian): Haught, J 2023, ‘Religions are fantasies made of words’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 12, no. 1, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/religions-words>.
Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Haught, James. “Religions are fantasies made of words.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.12, no. 1, 2023, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/religions-words.
Vancouver/ICMJE: James H. Religions are fantasies made of words [Internet]. 2023 Nov; 12(1). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/religions-words.
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In-Sight Publishing 
I agree with your friend.
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