I'm not talkin' Michaelangelo. I'm talkin' here and now.
In 2000, more than 5.9 million people received emergency services such as cash assistance, clothing, help with utility bills, temporary shelter, and food through soup kitchens and food banks.
In 2000, more than 4 million people received social services including adoption, family support, help for at-risk children, housing assistance, job training, respite care, home care, parenting education, pregnancy counseling, prison ministry, refugee and immigration assistance, and treatment for drug and alcohol abuse.
And that's just from one single organization run by the Catholic Church, called "Catholic Charities", and is just one typical year.
That doesn't even take into account the excellent schools provided not just by Catholics but by a lot of other religions as well. People complain about public schools being so terrible - and they are - but don't realize that the vast majority of private schools (most of which are FAR better than most public schools) are provided by religious organizations.
How about all the hospitals provided by various religious organizations?
How about the health care and education opportunities being provided to children and families in third world countries all of the planet?
How about the incredible strides the Catholic church has made in securing women's rights and equality? (So they can't be priests - they still run most of the biggest organizations within the church.)
These are just a small sample of what religious organizations do each and every day to help reduce suffering in the world.
The International Red Cross Organization is the only secular organization to even be comparable in the amount of help given to ease suffering in the world. But Red Cross has a narrower scope. As much good as they have done (and I'm not belittling it - I'm a big Red Cross supporter and I donate platelets every two weeks to the Red Cross), it doesn't hold a candle to the good works by the religious organizations that you so easily dismiss.
If education and the elimination of poverty are what you want, then you should take a closer look at what the Catholic church does, because those are two of its biggest focuses.
While Jesus never actually said it your bible puts the following words into his mouth:
"My God, My God, why hath thou forsaken Me?"
The ultimate act of hypocrisy but clearly indicative of reality.
I don't see any hypocrisy there at all. How could he NOT feel forsaken for a while there? Christ didn't say, "God must not be real, or else I wouldn't suffer so." He wasn't talking to the people around him telling them that he was abandoning God. He was pleading TO God, in desperate pain and suffering. It wouldn't make sense for him to be addressing God if, as you say, he was hypocritical and didn't believe his own teachings. Remember that while Christ and God are two aspects of the same being, his incarnation here on Earth was as a mortal man. He had the same temptations, the same desires, the same motivations as any other man. That he was able to live without giving into sin was only due to his divine nature. So when he hung dying from the cross, of COURSE he felt forsaken. That it was in fulfillment of prophesy and must happen in order to form his kingdom would be of little comfort to a man with spikes driven through his wrists and ankles.
I respect your beliefs, Dan. You have every right to deny God. That's fine with me. But I would ask that you stop behaving as though the religious organizations have done nothing good for the world. You know better. Whether their foundations are based on truth or fiction, there are millions and millions (perhaps billions) of people in the world who have received direct help from one or more religious organizations that wouldn't exist at all if not for faith in God.
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