That ole' time religion

[Tab]

This is a hot-water post, meaning that I'd be in hot water with someone if I actually had any readers.

Fortunately, I don't.

Religion is at the crux of so many controversies in this world right now. Dare I say it's at the crux of every controversy? Okay, maybe not every - for instance, "illegal" immigration. But it's behind a lot. It drives a lot of what this administration does. It's behind all the events in the middle east.

Religion, and the concept of gods, was originally a "feel-good" way to explain the unexplainable. Why did the volcano explode? Why did the sun disappear (in an eclipse)? Why did...?

It's comforting to think that there's someone or something controlling events and that we can have an effect on their outcome by modifying our behavior. "The god was angry, that's why he exploded the volcano. " (Change your behavior - it won't happen again).

But we've evolved, and grown up. I know people have grown up in the same homes that their religious parents have grown up, taught by their religious parents, so this stuff doesn't loosen easily, but c'mon people - apply something of what we've learned.

I have some friends who are very devout church-goers, and yet they think for themselves. They are Christians, but in the true sense of the word - they'll do anything for you, ask nothing in return, and yet they cast a critical eye on this administration and all that's come from it. They do not view Bush as God's President, far from it. Quite the opposite in fact.

Yet I've been down to the Bible Belt, and what a revelation (no pun intended) it was. Churches not just on every street, but every corner, and not steeple churches (although there was those) but simply have a building, hang up a sign, you're in business. Looking in the yellow pages for a movie theatre, you find one theatre and 26 pages of churches (mostly Baptist).

C'mon people, THINK! Evaluate, think, assess, use your brain! God did not send dinosaurs on Noah's ark, as a new museum postulates. If you want to believe in god, go ahead, but do so within the parameters of reality. The earth was made billions of years ago. Dinosaurs were made tens of millions of years ago. Humans date back some 50 or 60 thousand years. Deal with it.

The bible is a good story, but it was written by MANY people after supposed events occurred. Some, one may presume, had their own agenda. Others, one may presume, liked telling stories. Others may have colored a story for their own reasons. The problem is that people are treating the bible like, um, a bible - literally, and yet so much of it contradicts real life, and sometimes even the bible itself, or things we want to take from it. Read Leviticus for all kinds of things if you want to take the bible literally. You might not like what you read.

Personally, I'm spiritual. Scientifically I know there isn't a superior being out there guiding this, but personally there are times where I want there to be someone or something. As such, I'm an agnostic; I don't subscribe to any formal religion, but I don't want to just blanket state outright there's nothing out there, because I admit that I like the warm and fuzzy feeling too. But at least I can put it into context.

APPENDED POLITICAL CONTENT: To keep this in a political context
It drives me nuts that people will excuse anything Bush does by "oh, but he's a good Christian". State houses in Kentucky voting for creationism. It's a nice concept, but it doesn't hold water. That it makes it to the political forefront just blows me away. NO, Bush is NOT a good "christian", as I understand a good christian to be. No, praying before staff meetings doesn't mean shit. Preaching one way and bombing the other is hypocritical.

As in all things, it's not "what I say" but "what I do". Unfortunately, too many sheep latch onto "what I say" and never move from that position.

God help us all.


http://tabjulius.blogspot.com

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Tab, the mods are very likely to move this post

to Religion/Theology.

Personally, I think that religion is the excuse de jour for people doing what they want to do. When I was a child, the reason was economic systems--capitalism vs. communism. With the fall of communism, people had to find another system to justify their actions, and lit upon religion. It had already been used in a small way with the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and shown to be successful, even though the philosophies of the religions involved both condemned violence. But you see, that makes no difference. I've come to the conclusion that people are going to do things they want to do--and they will come up with some justification for their actions. Just as Marx never intended there to be killing fields based on his economic ideas, neither did Jesus or Moses or Mohammed intend to have their revelations be used to justify terrorism, bombings, and suicides.

[Nunyabiz]

4. Religious dogma has been the "justification" for

most of the worlds most horrible atrocities for 1000s of years.
You would think the human race would have moved on past the pre dark ages by now.

Jesus & Moses BTW are fictional characters, they never existed.

[sweetladybug]

2. Tab, we must think alike. I totally agree with you.

[Nunyabiz]

3. I agree

Religion does not make you a good person, if anyone thinks that then they have been cut off from reality.

Religion does not impart morality onto anyone, that's a natural attribute of simply being human. Atheist are every bit as moral, every bit as good hearted, every bit as willing to reach out and help, the only difference is an Atheist wont put a caveat on their feelings, an Atheist wont have a hidden agenda, an Atheist is far less likely to NOT reach out and help a fellow human for reasons that are generally purely religious in nature, such as Racism, for being different, believing different.

Atheist don't have that fictitious deity to kowtow to, an Atheist helps a fellow human simply because he's human, we know we are all here for a short time, we don't have some get outa death free card, some deity that doesn't exist to supposedly tell us what to do, we do what we do because it's intrinsically ingrained, not because some pie in the sky religion or super parent is telling us to.
We accept REALITY for what it is and face it, we inform ourselves about the world around us with REAL empirical, tangible factual information that is Falsifiable thus verifiable.
Adult Atheist do not believe in fairytales, and follow fables and parables written 1000s of years ago by ancient civilizations using what was at the time a societal norm then, as our reason for living in the 21st century.
We know that is what humans "believed" then, because they didn't know any better, they didn't know where Earthquakes came from, that has been answered, they didn't know where lightning came from, that has been answered, what causes diseases, answered, what causes eclipses, answered, how old the Earth is, answered, etc. etc. etc. and on & on.

These questions the human animal had no answers to 1000s of years ago they "imagined" in their "mind" must have had a "Super-Natural" or Mystical, magical answer or meaning.

Today these answers for those of us that can face reality, that have not been infected with this debilitating mind plague are fully aware come from Science using the Scientific method to garner the REAL TRUTH about what is, what isn't, why & how.
What HAS answered ALL these questions by ancient humans? Was it GOD that said Oh yeah BTW that Earthquake is caused by the shifting of tectonic plates? NO
As a matter of fact gods answer to that was "IT WAS ME", sorry but your Lord Parent is full of shit.

These REAL answers are in general, diametrically opposed to what all too many humans on this planet's Lord Parent has taught them, be they any of the 33,800 sects of Christianity, however many sects of Judaism, Islam, etc. ALL religions are the same, they all perform the same function.
The strange thing is that they are ALL WRONG & approx. 2/3s of this planet in one way or another and to varying degrees are infected with what amounts to be nothing but pure Mythology that festers into a Mind Plague, that destroys its hosts thinking and reasoning mind, thus throwing all logic right out the window in favor of nothing but a Faith, in some Belief, of some fictitious non existent Lord Parent, that ancient human culture & society imagined into being the *catch all answer for everything unexplainable*.

You can pray till your hands fall off, its not going to really change ANYTHING, but doesn't matter, because you THINK it will and that's good enough, The MIND controls everything, its a very powerful tool, its both an aid & a liability at the same time, that is intrinsic to the human animal through Evolution, we have evolved this intelligence as a defense, as our natural selection that has overall helped us a species survive, we can through our intelligence manipulate nature to provide us with medicines to prolong our lives, we can create our own environment with housing we heat or cool so we can survive anywhere on the planet, etc.

BUT we as a species have come to a crossroads, where sometime within the next few hundred years as a species in order to survive we are going to have to start accepting FACTUAL REALITY, I say this because we have a portion of the planet (about 1/3) that has moved on beyond the cultural norms of believing in fairytales & fables, following the advice of ancient mythological beings.
This portion of society has grown out of that "5 year old viewpoint" of what life is, how it is why it is, we have accepted "Factual reality" and its not that bad to grow up as a species, the human animal is very young, as a species we have only been on this planet a few million years, geologically that's about like being 5-10 years old as a species.
That's why we have so many on this planet still wanting to cling to that Lord Parent protector, yet a good 1/3 of us have moved on past that and growing up, we have accepted reality, just like you did when you accepted that Santa Claus wasn't real, or the Tooth Fairy.


All religion does in the long run is turn humans against humans for stupid, silly, completely fictitious, man made, mythological reasons.

Look at the Catholics Vs the Protestants, Christians Vs Muslims.

The reason there are 33,800 some odd different sects of Christianity in the first place, is that NOBODY really has a clue that what they ALL are really looking at is nothing but a book of Parables.
The entire Bible was initially never meant to be taken as REAL/Historical.

It has been Misinterpreted over & over countless times, now why would you think that a supposedly inerrant word of God be interpreted 1000s of different ways? How you might ask is that even possible?
Leaving each and every different sect that ignorantly believe that THEIR sect is the TRUE, the one and ONLY TRUTH?
Meanwhile all the rest are abominations, because even though there are 33,800 different sects you see only ONE can be right, because the Bible is infallible, the Bible cant be wrong, for some odd reason that is about the one and only thing all the 33,800 sects actually agree on.
This is where the "Divisiveness" begins, this is where the brain starts it's obsession.

Anytime a human has a "strongly held belief" threatened, the brains natural self defense mechanism kicks in "Cognitive Dissonance".
Religion becomes an obsession, the more Religious you are the more obsessed you become, the more obsessed you become the more important this "belief" becomes.
With religion this belief will generally take over your entire life, quite often making IT the most important THING in your life, such is the NATURE of an OBSESSION.
How many times have you heard some deeply religious nut when asked "What is important, or comes first in your life"?
Without a seconds hesitation even with this zealots spouse & or children sitting right there, what do you more often than not hear?

"JeeesaaaSuuuSaa" or "my lord and savior Jesus Christ" etc.

Now to me that just sickens me to no end, that poor deluded human needs desperately to be yanked up right then and there and forcibly Deprogrammed back to REALITY.

This person you can be certain has lost all grip on reality, has become absolutely obsessed with this fictitious father figure that doesn't really exist in a physical sense, just in their MIND.

Now once a person gets this messed up, this obsessed, in what they believe to be completely real, totally infallible, absolute truth.
Then when they hear anything that does not agree with their obsession, they can and all to often will become militant in their defense of this cognition.
It becomes not much if any different than someone attacking your Mother, you will jump all over them in instant defense. That is inherent to being human, it's a natural reflex.

The BIG difference is your Mother is REAL, your "Belief" is just in your MIND, but it makes no difference, because that obsession has become real to YOU. It doesn't matter how wrong it is, how absurd it is, how much hard tangible empirical evidence there is that clearly shows your obsession to be pure mythology, to be just a figment of an active imagination, because to you its just as real as your mother sitting there.

Such is the Mind Plague called Religion, now your religion, your "relationship" with this fictitious father figure gets attacked in whatever manner, be it by other zealots saying your father is wrong, theirs is right, or that your father has said that Gays are an abomination and are to be despised to be treated as less than human because they are going to hell.
Or maybe your father/religion has told you other races of people are not to be trusted because they will lead you away from me, and my teachings, and you know son that I would not lead you away from heaven, so you MUST distrust these other races.
Many times this distrust turns into HATE.

It would really be the same as your REAL parent instilling in you their belief that Gays are bad, Blacks are bad, etc.
Except as a general rule you stop believing that your REAL parent is some knowing all, does all, supplies all, can defeat all, can protect you against anything, super human, by the time you are about maybe 5 years old.
Now your "Lord Parent" has taken over that role that made you feel so safe as a child, this lord parent can do all, is all, was all, will heal you, help you, feed you, clothe you, and all you have to do is "pray" to him.

The perfect parent/child relationship.

Yet is only in your Mind.

This is why Religion is a diabolical insidious Mind Plague.
It is NOT real, it does NOT make you a better human being, I will not save you from anything especially death.
In some people it is almost dormant, in many others it is extremely debilitating even contagious.
In ALL humans it only serves as the most divisive behavior the human animal has against it, without it we would all be much more tolerant towards our fellow humans, be much more willing to accept factual reality & scientific fact thus move on as a growing species.

Authoritarian social control (religion) has brought humanity to its present most dangerous condition, an explosive mixture of over-population, mass ignorance, anger, frustration and power mongering, where the technological ability to destroy a planet comes under the control of people with essentially the mind-set of savages.

This is the scary part, we have scientist which have for years broken out of that primitive ignorance that society in general tries to impose upon them, this is why we have the technological advances we do today most are harmless, many very helpful such as medications etc. but there are also the areas of science that have brought into light very destructive forces such as all the various WMD be they Chemical, Biological, Nuclear created by those on a higher level of Consciousness , which is handed to what amounts to humans with no more base intelligence (George Bush) than that poor deluded human several thousand years ago whom perceived that thunder storm that just rumbled though his campsite as a sign of some supernatural Godman that’s pissed & hurling thunderbolts at him for reasons he can only imagine.

[Nunyabiz]

5. It is religion that was the root of WWII

Hitler was a devout Christian and avid Martin Luther adherent.

http://www.nobeliefs.com/luther.htm

http://www.tentmaker.org/books/MartinLuther-HitlersSpiritualAncestor.html

We are heading down this very same path today just replace Jew with Muslim and Hitler with Bush.
As Americans we are standing around doing nothing just like the German people did back in the 30s and for the very same reasons.