French philosopher Blaise Pascal wagered “that one would be wise to believe in God, since in the end the believer would lose nothing, unbelievers everything, if proved wrong.” Assuming that the God he was talking about is the God of the Bible I argue the opposite. If one leads a life based on a certain belief and that belief goes counter to the way one might otherwise lead his or her life, it could be a wasted life.

What if the purpose of life were pleasure? What if a successful life were measured in sexual intercourse? Picture the Pope arriving at the Pearly Gates expecting to be welcomed warmly but St. Peter says, “Man, you really messed up.”

Pope: What!? I led an exemplary life. I helped people. I was their moral leader. I guided millions of people to do right.

St. Peter: Yeah, you did some good things but you failed sexually.

Pope (hangs his head sheepishly): Oh, God, I didn’t masturbate that much. Forgive me.

St. Peter: I’m not God.

Pope: Sorry.

St. Peter: You misused your God-given body.

Pope: I’m sorry. I fought it all the time but it felt so good and I was weak.

St. Peter: It felt good? Where did that feeling come from?

Pope: The devil?

St. Peter: Did the devil give you your body?

Pope: No.

St. Peter: No. God gave you your body with all the senses. God gave you your erections. You denied yourself one of the greatest features of your God-given body. What did you think when, at the height of your pleasure you gasped, “Oh God”? Did you think this was blasphemy? Did it never occur to you that this was when you were closest to God, closest to paradise? You can come on in if you want to but I suggest you take another life and try again.

This is just a whimsical tale to illustrate a different point of view. Where did the notion come from that celibacy was a good idea? Certainly not from thinking that our bodies were God-given. Who would want to take away pleasures of the flesh? Certainly not the giver of those pleasures.

We are all different so I don’t want to suggest that someone who does not get pleasure from sex should seek it out against his or her senses. If I am to believe the religious people who wonder what keeps nonbelievers from committing crimes, then I most emphatically say that those people should hold onto their belief that they will go to hell if they don’t follow the Bible. We are all different so I cannot say that anyone else has a moral compass built into their being. Personally I would not consider a sexual pleasure other than with a consenting adult or onanisticly. Anyone who does not have those moral constraints built into their psyche or soul should, by all means, hang onto whatever moral rule or law or commandment keeps them from violating another.

If our belief causes us to live out life in a way different than we otherwise would, then Pascal is in error when he says we have nothing to lose by believing.

How could anyone say that after it has been called “The Good Book” for so many years? There is much to be said for it but there is also much to be said against it. It is certainly to be respected for the tremendous influence it has had on Western civilization directly and on all of our species in some way. While most would argue the influence has been positive, I, as a contrarian, must argue otherwise. The easy part of this argument is the wars, holy wars of the crusades and the holy wars going on today in the Middle East, the Balkans and the United States.

Holy war in the US? What else would you call the debate over abortion and other issues that fundamentalists champion with such hatred and the Catholics with slightly less hatred? Vitriolic hatred express by some to the extent that others, weaker minded, foot soldiers, have committed murder and other acts of violence. Those expressing the hatred are doing it in the name of their religious beliefs, they are quoting the Bible. That is an outcome of the Bible. To say that it is misguided men (mostly men) who are doing it and that it does not reflect on the Bible is nonsense. Misguided, of course, but none the less reflecting on the Bible.

Generally people think of the outcomes of the Bible and the religions it has spawned as doing good by creating sins and punishments for sin. Certainly burning in hell for eternity should be a deterrent to crime. I asked 50 people who had registered as “experts” in their faith on a web site if they thought people who believed in God were more or less likely to commit crime and more or less likely to commit crime if they had had a religious upbringing. Those of Jewish, Protestant, Islamic faiths were unanimous in their response that people who believed in God and people who had been raised in a religion were less likely to commit a crime. Of the Catholics responding they were unanimous in their opinion that religious upbringing would be a deterrent but a couple of them backed off on whether a belief in God was a deterrent to crime. Perhaps they were thinking of the Mafia who are always portrayed as being devout Catholics.

My research uncovered quite different facts. I was unable to find any studies that delve into the religious upbringing of criminals. However, I did uncover the information for a few notorious criminals. The father of John George Haigh (The Acid Bath Murderer) was described as “intensely religious”. The NY Mad Bomber and Hitler were Roman Catholic. Joseph Kallinger was adopted by sadistic Catholic parents. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer “came from a religious family.” I found none who came from an irreligious family or who were irreligious. Edward W. Mitchell in his paper The aetiology of serial murder: towards an integrated model writes, “An analysis of the role of religion in the life of the serial murderer and its relationship to internal justification of his crimes would be of considerable interest.” Wouldn’t you think that someone of religion who believed that religion was, at the very least, a deterrent to crime would have done the research by now? Perhaps they have and decided not to publish it.

Two studies of criminals done in the early 1900s found very few irreligious among them. One study of 28,351 prisoners found 57 who said they had no religion. When a sample of 12 of the 57 was interviewed more closely it turned out only 1/3 was truly irreligious. That comes to less than .03% or 99.97% were found to be religious. “Of 700 criminals examined by Ferri one alone was an atheist, one was indifferent, and seven were devout and even found religion an excuse for their crime.” “Among 200 Italian murderers Ferri did not find one who was irreligious.” The Criminal by Havelock Ellis (1910). My research is superficial, to be sure. One of the reasons research along this line has not been done is because most research into the criminal mind is to try to understand it so crime can be prevented. No one is likely to come along and try to make a case for overthrowing religion to eliminate crime, not even me. But to say that we live in a more civilized world because of religion cannot be supported. In other words, an outcome of the Bible is not less crime.

A book reviewer of the Bible would have to say that the language was stilted and obscure. The beatitudes are certainly an incredible bore. There are many, many inconsistencies. Amazing that so many base their lives on this book. Even more amazing since so few of them have even read it. Another interesting bit of research would be to find out how many devout followers understand the Bible very well, not from what they have been taught but from actually reading it.

So why is it so popular, the best selling book of all time? The answer is that there are some basic truths that we recognize as such and these truths are told in stories that are easily understood and memorable. Unfortunately these stories are taken by some to be historically accurate and absolute rather than parables, myths and teaching aids. The book has also been used to exploit those who “needed help interpreting it.” The exploiters have no intention letting go their hold on their flock. It is to their advantage to keep it obscure so they can maintain a position as God’s interpreter. If the myths were identified as myths (read Joseph Campbell) and the truths exposed in their simplest form, many in the flock could take up staffs, live with greater independence and be more helpful to others.