So, since religion is going to be a hot topic in the next year or so (with election time rolling around) and everything related,
(sexuality/abortion/etc)... I figured I would throw my two cents into the mix.
Religion.
Woooo. Spooky!
Just the name alone elicits shudders from all the sinners and infidels out there... Damn them for eternity.
...an Image pops up in my mind though...
Ah, there it is.
Religion [Politics]
That's better, now I can actually speak on the subject. They say there is separation of church and state in the US, and if you compare it to Saudi
Arabia there certainly is. But the reality of the situation, in North America, is that religion is about as synonymous to religion as donuts are to...
well... more donuts.
MmmMmm... Donuts.
Frankly, I would sooner prey to the donut before praying to god, and I might even pray to the donut too, probably with better effect.
I learned as a kid that religion and church was a house of crazy just looking for something to hold on to as life is fleeting and we don't really get
much of an explanation as to why we are here in the first place. (After being ejected from our Mother's washroom place.)
That's the real kicker. We are all spat out like bowel movement and the rest of our lives we have to look our Moms in the eye like it isn't the
grossest thing imaginable... Oh, but then you have your own kids, or you watch a sister or wife of a friend take on the terrible task. Then it doesn't
seem so bad. Then you can say sorry to your Mom for that awkward feeling you had for 20 years.
Sorry mum. Love ya!
Okay, before I run off on a tangent, lets refocus.
So you see the miracle of birth a few times and you really question life. Why do we do this to ourselves, why do we just keep popping out more mouths
to feed? And it's quite simple. If we didn't we wouldn't be here and then the question wouldn't need to be asked.
Back to the god stuff circa 1980's Sunday School.
So I may have eventually figured out why Mom pushed me from her loins but it was something she was grappling with herself. She bounced from church to
church looking for a
cult religious group to take her in. Ended up as Christians, had our head dunked and everything. I was probably
about 6 years old at the time.
Sunday School didn't work for me. They specifically asked my mom not to let me come back. Something about a kid telling me dinosaurs don't exist and
me telling him he's an idiot. Then there was that whole part where a Sunday School teacher told me I would go to hell if I wasn't good, and I told him
that he would go to hell for trying to scare me. I didn't believe in hell.
A month later after a good attempt of brainwashing by my mom and her new found
overlords friends, I had a dream about hell, woke up
the entire house, told my mom hell is stupid and I never wanna dream that again.
She stopped taking us to church.
If I never heard the stories of hell, I never would of had the dream. But good on you for trying to scare the hell out of a 6 year old mom. (No pun
intended).
Fast forward a few years
Let's go bullet points:
♦ I have some friends that maintain the faithful life, their parents are fighting because the mom cheated on the dad.
♦ Few girls in a youth group get introduced to me. I break a few commandments, they do some pretty sinful stuff, we all hope their boyfriends don't
find out.
♦ Move in to a rental unit where the landlord is running groups out of his house for an offshoot of a Arab faith, don't remember which kind, his
girlfriend is a prostitute and I'm pretty sure he's having sex with guys that rent rooms from him. The guy talks about god and reminds me of how I
have to be "good"... he doesn't know that I know his secrets.
♦ Another youth group girl, this one is older, still goes because of parental guilt, tells me all about the "honesty" talks the group has. Every
single member, all "sinners" including the adults that just tell them it's a stage and they need to repent.
♦ See a few charity scams, crooked faith groups, other nonsense... Nothing majorly affects me as I don't really care, few people broken up about
it.
♦ Muslim friend, watched him commit just about every harum known to man. Never seen someone wash their face so many times on a Friday.
♦ Watch a friend turn Muslim cause he thinks Halal food tastes better... What about Kosher?
♦ Volunteered at a Christian camp (reasons redacted), met the oldest weirdest catholic fellow I ever met. I believe that place will have a horror
movie written about it one day. Didn't see anything strange, besides all the people there...
♦ See some standard manipulation across every faithful person I meet, specifics would be 5 threads long....
The point of all this, (and there really are a lot more bullet points that could be written) is that I always look for the bad in people, and I always
find it. And I take comfort in that...
So where did my opinion on religion form? Well, I figure 1000 years ago or so people were just as crafty as they are today. And if you look at
politics today, you will see some pretty obvious "faith based" politics. And forget religion. Politics is like its own religion today.
Democrats VS Republicans, Liberal VS Conservative. It's like the good VS evil in the bible, god VS satan, except that everyone thinks they are on the
right side.
Where am I going with this?
1000 years ago, to 2000, to 3-4-5000 years ago, they didn't have communication the way we do. Knowledge was limited. Over the eons there were
civilized points and not so civilized points. But they used to have politics, just like we do, and they infused religion into it in many
circumstances.
And if there were no politics, there was religion. And if there was religion, there was politics.
In other words, I don't believe in god, because I believe in the Human power to manipulate. And it's a whole lot easier to manipulate others if
everyone believes you have good intentions.
I just never seen the difference between the two. Getting people to believe in you, trust you, and then shed all responsibility afterward. The two are
one in the same.
edit on 30-4-2012 by boncho because: (no reason given)
edit on 30-4-2012 by boncho because: (no reason
given)
edit on 30-4-2012 by boncho because: (no reason given)