The opening paragraph of the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand hits close to home, for this collection of writings and information. It begins, “It is a sin to write this.”
It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. …And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have broken the laws. … May we be forgiven!
This collection, by me, is a sin. It is a sin of thought, and if the Church finds out about it, that it’s me, it will swing a wrecking ball my way that will affect my family, and may cost me some friends.
If they do, i will not shrink at their threats, although it does give me pause whether this work will ultimately cause pain to my family. To me, this is not more important than them, exposing the lie of religion. To the contrary, I hope someday to help them with this collection.
The Church has a stranglehold on the minds of my family. And what it’s prepared to do with that power, is intimidating. One can count on it to demonstrate ungodly jealousy against every threat of independent thought rather than allow the Church to lose power and tithe payers. They’re the church and they will never bend. But they must be opposed. In the words of Christopher Hitchens:
…[religion] is used by wicked people to exploit the credulousness of innocent people, to create not an eternal life or life of freedom in another world, but a real, actual, material, secular dictatorship now claimed by people who have the arrogance to say that they themselves are acting in the name of god. And that’s why it has to be opposed.