Probably written about the same time as my previous literary find (around 1994), a short diatribe about religion found its way onto paper, thus preserving my hubristic ramblings forever. I still agree with a fair amount of what I wrote then, though there is also a great deal that oversimplifies the subject, and probably just as much that is wrong; however, regardless the validity of the text, I definitely come across as a supercilious pansophist, which fits perfectly with the erstwhile teenage/young adult Jon. Despite the arrogance of it all, here it is:

The main problem with Western religion is the tenet that we are born as sinners and that our only salvation is to repent, to give ourselves over, to a higher being.

Most of our anxieties, our fears, our inhibitions, are given to us in childhood, and this notion of eternal damnation through constant indoctrination reinforces our inadequacies as human beings.

The sooner we recognise the falacy of religion, the sooner we shake off this self-limiting ideology, then the sooner we can realise the inherent goodness that lies repressed at the very centre of each of us.

The real evil reveals itself when religious and political indoctrination is complete, when sexual, racial and gender bigotry, competitiveness and unemotional apathy are the norm, whilst harmony, co-operation and community responsibility are ill-conceived utopian ideas to be scorned.

It is time that each and every one of us realises the truth. Then, and only then, can we begin to repair the damage done, and remember: at the very base of our being we have had the potential to do incredible things for the Universe.

Realise this and we are at the beginning of true enlightenment.