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It is so commonly believed today that religion is a source of goodness and charity for so many people. It is also believed that to oppose religion is also to oppose the goodness and charity stipulated to be with it. When I ask others to abandon religion, they will reply, "Why would you want to abandon something that has produced so many helpful things?" But I am not asking people to give up the affectionate and tender ways, laced with gentleness and humanity. I am not asking that they give up mercy or justice, things which are just as easily attainable without religion, if not easier. I am asking people to give up their fear of hell and daemons, their belief in a soul and ghosts, their hope of an afterlife and a god, the creeds founded on the credulous superstitions of their ancestors. I am not asking the human species to relinquish the things that are good and accompany every warm heart -- I am asking the human species to ameliorate the ideology that a god exists that will punish nonbelievers and reward believers, that will smile at the sufferings of the damned and fortunes of the saved. I am asking others to abandon religion, which has been a never-ending source of intolerance for those who have harnessed any sort of bigotry.