People seem amazed that otherwise intelligent Muslim men could be so stupid as to believe that if they murder enough people they'll end up with seventy-two virgins. I'm amazed that people are amazed. We are a culture that believes a virgin was impregnated by a "holy ghost" and as a result she gave birth to the "Son of God" who also happened to be "God." This "God" brought dead people back to life, cursed fig trees to death, then after he was murdered, the bodies of "saints" clambered out of their graves, strolled into Jerusalem and "appeared unto many..." (Matthew 27:50-53.) Then the cadaver that was "God" sprang back to life and the ghastly corpse with holes in its hands and feet shared dinner with its cretinous disciples before flying bodily up to somewhere known as "heaven" to sit on the right hand of itself.The reason that almost two billion simpletons believe this utter garbage is because it was rammed into their brains when they were children. The brain is like a sponge, drop it into a bucket of sewage and it will soak up the urine and the excrement until sodden and there's no room for another drop. Intelligence is no defense against brain pollution. You could have an IQ of 200 yet still be convinced that Samson slew 1,000 soldiers with the jawbone of an ass. Why? Because the Bible says he did.
Imagine a child born into a society which insists that on the third day of the third month, every three years, in the dead of night while everyone's fast asleep, pigs fly. Furthermore, these pigs are all powerful, all knowing, very angry pigs. The only way to prevent these flying pigs from destroying civilisation as we know it is to sacrifice four white ducks.
Without a shadow of doubt there would be millions of people all over the world sacrificing ducks on the third of March ever three years. Now you could talk to these "true believers" till you're blue in the face, use logic and every reasonable tactic you can think of to disprove their theory, but they would look at you with tears in their eyes, and say, "It is written, therefore it's true." And they would point to their "holy scriptures." And you would reply, "Just because it's in writing, doesn't make it true!" "Oh yes it does," they would argue, "because you see, it was written three thousand years ago, and therefore it's ancient."
Exasperated, you would point out that people three millennia ago were just as prone to dishonesty and exaggeration as are people today. Probably more so. "Goodness me," would come the reply, "have you never heard of Ancient Wisdom? The two go together, see how easily they roll off the tongue... Ancient Wisdom. So if it was written three thousand years ago it MUST be the truth. Besides, One hundred million of us believe it's the truth, so that proves it."
This is an opportune moment, in my opinion, to give up.
The only way to prevent the spread of this disease – for in reality, religion is a deliberately spread disease – is to gain access to young brains before they turn septic. Get to them while they're young, because once their brains are oozing and dripping the green slime of "faith," it's way to late. By the time they're eighteen they'll be on their hands and knees worshipping a fence post at Cronulla, or genuflecting whenever they glimpse a pig.
"A man may be a good mathematician, a learned chemist, and an accomplished astronomer, and still believe Mohammed has half of the moon up his sleeve." Voltaire