Well the only way I believe something as true is if there is proof to back it up. I just don't go believing everything that some dusty old book says. Is it too much to ask for proof of something before you present it to me as fact?
I've directly interacted with spiritual beings that were physically present with me that have physically affected my body.
Well, that is the best argument I got. Also don't ask, I don't suffer from hallucinations, these experiences were not characteristic of any known mental illness and were always in an extremely explicit and magickally involved situation.
Not in my experience. Every religious person I have met has told me that God exists and that is a fact and that if I don't accept that fact, I will go to hell, another fact. All I am saying is prove it.
There's a Hell? News to me. Also what is "God", oh! They must of meant "The God". See, there are thousands of gods, though I recognize seven and two hidden in nine as the manifestations of "The God", however I doubled-up that system to also be metaphors for the external and internal too so that it can either be a agnosticlly theist or atheist should i change my mind later, I'm a strong theist as of now though, but always like to have some skepticism to prevent myself from seeing The Greater Gods in every little event. This system works for me, so hey, why not work with the model? I've found actually though that the external/internal as opposed to extra-physical/physical dualities to be more useful anyways.
My main point is that most of Religion directly conflicts with what we know about the universe. It makes no logical sense to believe in such things. It was our first attempt at understanding our world but it is now obsolete. There is no reason to believe such nonsense.
If taken literally, some of the mainstream religions do, however I've noticed that with religions like my own, we take the scientific view of The Universe anyways, and with religions like Hinduism it's a lot of analogies for greater truths that have not for hundreds of years been taken literally, even if the forms of The All are seen as objectively real (someone correct me if I am wrong).
However disguarding all religion as "nonsense" is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Many, many of the newer religions coming up from the Left hand Path and Paganism seems to get along just fine with science. Hell, a number of Satanists are even atheists and anti-theists! Also I've noticed that Buddhism seems to be very scientifically compatible. Also some are willing to admit that perhaps ancient things like Genesis should be valued more for their mythological and spiritual meaning behind them, I've even seen someone explain how Gensis was w ritten as a numerological myth to more tell some greater spiritual truth. Kind how like Jesus's parables were not literal events, but narratives to make some point of bring some greater truth. In that light, I think that many Old Testament stories were written with perhaps that intent, even if I don't accept the Old Testament as part of my canon. Actually, I don't accept any book as my canon, other than maybe one I've been trying to write down all my beliefs in, but I go through revisions to correct and get rid of broken or useless parts and try different things all the time to make that a somewhat hard endeavor.
Though I could go on and on, spirituality is a very important part of many people's lives, and I don't think it's as useless as you think. Also again I've only really noticed this concept of "Hell" as torture to only really exist in Islam and Christianity. Even in Judaism there is no Hell, but there is Sheol ,the grave.
Ave Satana, that is, Hail Satan.
