The Irrationality of Theism

The Rational Response Squad recently published an article called "The Irrationality of Theism," by Samuel Thomas Poling. Some extracts:

But then again, why should they doubt the existence of God? It’s easier to believe? Isn’t it more comforting to believe? Isn’t a loving God that will take care of you, even after death, what you want to be true? Maybe it is. And when a human wants something to be true they tend to not question it that much.

People of the religious creeds of the world separate their worlds of reason and faith -faith for their doctrine, reason for everything else. Why is it that all of God’s great reality relies on thinking and evidence, where as he, himself, is somehow above that? Being the intelligent, loving God that he is, why doesn’t he hold reason highest of all? He expects the ultimate, final form of stupidity from his greatest of subjects. And they do it. They surrender their minds to what could not exist. In every other aspect of their lives they can be helpful, loving, intelligent people but where religions black, cold hand reaches, and it does indeed reach far into the deeply faithful’s lives, it continues to sever the ties of reason and put on a highest pedestal sheer idiocy. Where this hand reaches, reason vanishes.

What good is Pascal’s Wager then? You are purchasing, if anything, a greater chance at hell for the definite cost of your mind. Are you willing to pay?

And when you die, if you are an atheist, you will be damned to hell. Would it pay to be an atheist then? As a further and final refute to Pascal’s bullshit, I say yes it does pay to be an atheist then. If there is a God who will damn a human being who has the courage and intelligence to think and doubt then he, most definitely, is no God of mine.