Dear God,

I believed in you once. Strange, isn’t it? One moment you are there in my heart, the next you are not. But yes, I believed, and I prayed, hoping that you were there, listening. However, that was years ago, our little (one sided) chats. I miss it. I miss having the belief that someone is overlooking the actions of the world, reprimanding the cruel and protecting the weak. I miss having the belief that there is such a thing as fate, as destiny. But it is hard to miss something, or someone, that does not exist, that never did. So no, I do not believe in you, and I never will. And yet here I am, not writing to you, but the idea of you.

Because look at what you have done. Can’t you see it? The pain, the hurt, the misery. Isn’t it your goal to unify people in love, not hate? Shouldn’t you be promoting friendship, not war? People die for you, and even worse, they kill for you. They start never ending wars and oppress individuals until they are no more human than farm animals. But the worst part of it all is why. When asked why, why did they kill so many people, why did they ruin the lives of fellow humans, they scream your name. No, they do not take the blame, they do not admit wrongdoing. With the Bible, the Torah, or the Koran as their weapon and your name on their lips, they are relinquished from punishment. After all, they are the loyal followers of God. After all, their religion is true, and everyone else is simply wrong.

Look at what you have done. You have defined perfection in society that is unachievable, you have created the ideal human being without regards to the others. According to your book, servants are inferior to their masters, women are inferior to men, and homosexuals are inferior to heterosexuals. People blindly follow your given rules, without questioning the meaning of it all. Two hundred years ago, slave owners beat their servants centimeters from death due to the verses of the Bible that protected their behavior. However, these very verses (Exodus 21: 20-21 if you need a reminder) are somehow masked and forgotten by the very people who preach the truth and goodness of the Bible. In today’s society, there are things such as “too feminist”, as if wanting equal rights for men and women is somehow wrong. Some of my peers still scoff at feminists, and use the term not as a description but an insult. Today, some of my peers still view gays and lesbians as wrong and weird. They see two men or two women happy and in love, and they mock it. And all for what? Why?

It has been so long for them. So long they have been blindly following your rules and your book that they forget to see past it. So long they have listened to their parents like good little boys and girls, just like the generation before them did, that it is as if they do not have a mind of their own. And, in the end, who can you blame. Is it them? No, because how can you expect an entire society to stop doing exactly what they are being told. All due to you and your book and the different variations of it, the world weeps.

So, look at what you have done. Can’t you see it now? A little girl cries silently as she realizes that she may never be regarded with the same authority as a male. A little boy whimpers as he realizes that he likes other boys and may never be regarded with the same authority as a heterosexual. A family, a community, an entire city falls apart due to differing religious beliefs. And now the world weeps, because it is slowly deteriorating.
I am sorry if I have offended you. I really am, and I am sure that this is not easy to read. Maybe I’m the one who is blind, blind to the beauty of religion. Maybe I’m identifying the wrong problem, maybe I’m just a crazy immoral atheist. I may never change my beliefs, and therefore I cannot expect the rest of the world to. I pappcannot expect people to abandon the set of laws they have followed their entire lives. However, I really hope you do not exist. Because if you do, you should be ashamed. You should be ashamed of the lives your book has abused and taken. You should be ashamed, ashamed that you are sitting up there in heaven, watching the globe set fire.
                                                                                                         

Once yours,
Anita K.