Accepting that all regions are man-made beliefs is the way to peace

ONCE again we read about the disgraceful sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church, with victims calling for the release of the names of thousands of priests being protected by the Vatican.

Elsewhere a priest is calling for homosexuals to be put to death, while a rugby player claims gays “will burn in hell for all eternity”.

In Burkina Faso, Muslim extremists are killing Christians in their churches. In Sri Lanka, Buddhists are targeting mosques and Muslims themselves and Jews and Palestinians are on the verge of allout war. One could go on and on.

The fact is not a day goes by without some atrocity being perpetuated in the name of God.

It’s pointless to claim that all of these acts are by people who have hijacked their religions. All of the religious bigotry and hatred can be explicitly linked to the holy books that religions are predicated on.

The Bible clearly tells you that the punishment for homosexuality is death and the Qur’an is explicitly genocidal towards non-Muslims.

The problem is that most people don’t even read these books, or if they do they simply ignore or disregard the texts they dislike.

So people can hold all the interfaith prayer meetings they like and they can condemn the bigotry and hatred ad nauseam, but only once they realise and understand that all religions are man-made beliefs, based on pre-existing myths and legends, can we ever hope to achieve any meaningful lasting peace in this world. GARY JAMES | Llandudno