At a convenient date in the future, all governments should
bring a law into force that all religious leaders must pass an
examination to qualify as teachers of religion.
Here is an example of such an examination.
Some Questions for Religious People (Simple
Level)
These should be answered by any religious person who wishes to
take up a position in teaching or administration or wishes to
advise or instruct others on their conduct.
1. List the recorded communications with your deity (or
deities), that are in your holy book, which were shared by two
or more humans at the same time.
(See Note 1.)
2. List the recorded communications between your deity
(or deities) and a single human that can be proven not to have
been hallucinations, dreams, visions or inventions.
(See Note 2.)
3. List the recorded communications with your deity which
have provided useful practical information that was not known
to the local community at the time when the communications occurred.
(See Note 3.)
4. List the aspects of your religion which are not based
on the laws and traditions of a tribal culture. (The answer may
include all information given in the answers to questions 1 to
3.)
5. Give the name or names of people who have definitely
been to paradise, heaven or hell and have returned to describe
precisely where the place visited is, and what it is like.
6. Please say how your religious leaders are initially
selected. (This does not include promotions.) What value do you
ascribe to unchecked self-appointments?
7. Would you believe that God told me to write this?
(See Note 4.)
8. How would you use only the answers to questions from
1 to 5 to promote and justify your religion?
(See Note 5.)
A Thought
The Gods of many religions are recorded as having communicated
with with a number of humans. The number of humans contacted is
presumably the number that the God in question is happy to communicate
with at any one time. Religious leaders should therefore arrange
that the same number of people are permitted to communicate with
the appropriate God at any one time in the future.
More Specific Questions
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More Specific Questions
1. Please give an indication of the percentage of children in
all countries who are brought up to have the same religion as
their parents.
2. Please give an indication of the percentage of children who
reject the religion of their parents.
3. There is a biblical story about a man called Moses. What was
the religion of his parents?
4. It is recorded that Moses was for a time a member of the Egyptian
Pharoah's court who subsequently fell out of favour. It is not
recorded when or if he suddenly changed his religion after leaving
the Egyptian court. What was his religion when he promised the
Israelites a land of their own to live in?
5. What was/is the religion of the parents of the modern Israeli
settlers in Palestine?
6. Moses led a group of people that are referred to in the English
Bible as the Israelites. The only reference in the Bible to their
religion, before Moses imposed the ten commandments on them, was
the worship of a golden calf.
7. State the level of literacy of A. the Israelites and B. Moses
when the ten commandments were produced.
8. A theocratic regime was in power from the time that the Israelites
reached Canaan until Pontius Pilate was the Roman in charge of
the region around Jerusalem. This represents a period of more
than 1,500 years. State the progress in the literacy of the ordinary
people during that time. (There is a report in the Christian New
Testament that Jesus drove the tax gatherers and scribes out of
the temple.) Compare your answer with the rate of progress in
general literacy among Roman citizens during the 300 years preceding
the same time.
9. It is recorded that the Pope, as leader of the Roman Catholic
Church, prosecuted Galileo for claiming that the Earth was not
at the centre of the universe. If the Pope had been in contact
with God at the time, he would have been informed that Galileo
was correct. It therefore follows that the Pope was not in contact
with God at the time. When did the Roman Catholic Church re-establish
contact with God?
10. Please indicate what events have taken place on Earth during
the last 3,000 years which can be proven to have been caused by
God alone.
11 Please state why God has not supported or stopped any group
of humans killing other humans because of their religion.
12. Cosmologists think that the Universe has been in existence
for around 14 thousand million years and the solar system has
been in existence for around 4.5 thousand million years. Anthropologists
have shown that the first humans can be traced back to around
half a million years ago. Archaeologists have traced the first
human civilisations to around 10,000 years ago. The Egyptian religion
of the Sun God is reckoned to have started more than 6,000 years
ago. When did your religion come into existence?
13. If a million years is represented by one mile, the age of
the universe is just over half the circumference of the Earth
and the age of the Solar System is around 1 fifth of the cicumference
of the Earth. (This is roughly the distance from London to Chicago.)
On this scale, the first humans appeared 5 miles away. The first
recorded civilisations began less than 53 feet away. What distance
is represented by your religion on this scale? Why did your God
take so long to get things started? Is it recorded anywhere that
your God reported to more than one human - when, how and why he
started things off?
14. Please explain why there are no records of female religious
leaders in your holy book?
Note 1
If your deity has only been recorded as communicating with one
person at a time, please explain how the deity can deal with thousands
(if not millions) of prayers simultaneously.
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Note 2
Modern science has shown that food deprivation often leads to
hallucinations. Many major religions regard fasting (self imposed
food deprivation) as a way to become closer to a deity. Hallucinations
seem real to the person who has them. Hardly anything was known
about the causes and effects of hallucinations before the middle
of the 20th century. It is therefore reasonable to infer that
many claims of contact with a deity (that are written about in
ancient books) were based on hallucinations. The compiler of this
questionnaire knows of no reports of communications with the Deity
concerning two or more individuals at the same time in the ancient
literature. There are many reports of such communications with
individuals that mention visions and dreams. This indicates that
few, if any, reports of such communications would be regarded
as reliable today.
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Note 3
Practical information in this instance should relate to things
like: advice on animal husbandry and crop husbandry; advice on
medicines, care for the sick and physical and mental illnesses;
information about the nature of the world, information about the
nature of the universe, information about the weather and climate;
advice on the sterilisation, preparation and storage of food;
advice on sanitation, how to deal with pests and parasites like
lice, fleas and worms, etc. etc.
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Note 4
If you would not believe that someone you could meet and talk
to (like me) had been in communication with God, why would you
believe that someone who may have lived many years ago, who you
have only heard about, had been in contact with God?
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Note 5
Religious people should be restricted to using only the answer
to question 8 in any administrative, teaching or advisory capacity
that concerns people of any religion or no religion at all. Children
should not be taught anything about the spiritual aspects of a
religion (as above) before attending high school.
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