Comment From a nonbeliever

While listening to a Gaither rendition of Leaning On the Everlasting Arms, I became interested in a nonbeliever's comment:

i am not christian and i am not a believer of any other religion. i believe that you live and you die. and as much as i have seen and known that is good enough for me. i am not here not here to make anyone doubt their religion i just anted to say that this song is beautiful and if human beings would start to notice how beautiful this life is that we have and how lucky we are to only get 1 chance at it then maybe killing each other over religion would stop. i love my country more then anything.

To which I replied:

@hom859 You made a beautiful statement of faith in human goodness. We can indeed be good, but it doesn't come naturally, and too often we attach that goodness to selfish motives, which WAY too often look like religion. Hope you don't mind that I copy your comment and my reply into my blog, The Well-Dressed Branch.

I hope @hom859 will search this blog to read my followup comments.

As I said, human religion masquerades as devotion to God, which is sometimes a good thing. But most often we contaminate it with selfish motives and ambitions, which makes it a bad thing — a TERRIBLY bad thing.

Atheists rightly observe history as a series of religious debacles, but tragically, they blame it on all religion. Human religion is nothing short of idolatry, whether it takes the form of self-aggrandizement, veneration of humans — dead or alive — pride in allegedly Biblical teachings and the people or denominations that propagate them, or literal idol-worship.

 James 1:26-27 ESV  If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.  (27)  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Religion, by that definition, benefits humanity as no other practice or ideology can. But only God's love can produce that blessed religion, and God's love is only accessible through our Master Jesus Christ.