The mind boggles

Financially, think what the world would be like if every dollar earmarked for religious places of worship was instead invested in economics, health and medicinal research, science, equality, famine, etc. 

One afternoon I turned onto a street and headed west and I saw a Methodist Church as soon as my car righted itself. The thought popped into my head, "I wonder how many churches are on this street?" 

This thought and street were purely random and didn't reside in any particularly religious town or state, just chance occurrences. My car hadn't yet traveled two miles and the count for places of worship was 10. 

Now, I want you to really digest that for a minute: 10 places of worship in a less-than-two-mile stretch, and each of those places has completely different beliefs, different dogmas. Using those numbers, does that mean nine out of 10 people go to "hell?" 

The money it must have taken to build these institutions is staggering, not to mention the money it takes to keep them thriving. And this was just a two-mile stretch of random road. Try to formulate how many places of worship there are in America, or the world. The mind boggles at the money, materials and time wasted. 

And if we're looking for money to save the economy, how about lifting tax exemptions on all churches? Imagine how quickly these institutions would shut down. Why allow tax breaks for obvious fraudulent practices, especially if there is only one true god?