I haveoften thought of these three entities as something that should bediscussed together as they are intrinsically related, and theirrelationship, if understood, might enable Man to take a giant steptoward peace in this world.

Homer Smithin his book "Man and his Gods" has pointed out that mankind hasworshiped no less than 4000 Gods during his life on earth, and hasexplained the mythic origins of virtually all of them. It is hisbelief that Man is part of Nature, no more and no less, and that Manis nothing more than an evolved animal, the highest of all thespecies. There is a natural explanation for his presence and no needfor any supernatural hypotheses. All religions were human created andwere appropriate to their times and places .All served to explain the"inexplicable," or phenomena that were not understood. Some were assimple as worshiping the sun, as the origin of all energy and life,while others were extremely complex. In short, however, all sought topacify Man's concerns and fears. Unfortunately, over time, manyreligions became competitive and fought each other. Today, as in thepast, many of the world's problems are directly traceable toreligious differences and are a problem for mankind to resolve in thefuture. Is it possible to reduce the numbers of religions in theworld? I think so.

All religionsvie, in one sense or another, with each other for converts and soulsand are selling "redemption," "salvation," "paradise," or a "lifehereafter," etc. All are selling one thing or another and arecompetitive. By taxing all religions there are many which could notmake it and would disappear. There wouldn't be a church on everycorner. To be sure it is the major religions in this world that arethe culprits and we must focus our attention on convincing them thatthey were all products of myths and that none has any more validitythan the others. Reason must prevail and ignorance be eliminated.Science must take over and solve our problems. Science answers thequestion of "How" things happen, whereas Religions try to answer"Why" things happen. They seeks philosophical answers. Dr. Beadle, anoble laureate in Genetics , said he could explain everything onearth given the atomic table (allowing time to fill in some gaps)except the origin of hydrogen, and at that point he was stumped. Notuntil that stage did he accept the need for an original creator orGod.