I figure that i should take a more circumspect view of the world as it relates to the divine but i have found that so often people absolutely refuse to think before they speak. on of my favorites for all time are the men who would say that God doesn't love, nor did he create, gays. now i would say if you're believing in a God who created every single thing in the universe you'd necessarily have to concede that he made gays, end of story. if he made everything and gays are alive then obviously he created gays. very simple logic there. easy to tie together. you can't hide behind the guise of God to disguise your own ignorance and prejudice. because one of the things that i see most often is that those who believe in the Christian God do so because they are weak individuals who need a crutch. every person who has ever lived has done something wrong. even the Lord doubted God on the cross- if either or them are what some people think they are. the truth is that religion is a way of staving off death and a way of attempting to make ourselves feel a purpose in our short time on earth. i am already at least a quarter of the way through my life. and it feels like i've barely begun. i will say that this unknown arena after death is something that i don't like but it is something that i can't examine with reason. and anything that i cannot examine with reason is something that i will put off until later. considering i've got an easy way into heaven if i'm wrong i'm not that worried. am i going to go to hell? you can't possibly know. i'll say that i've commited enough sins to go if it's real. but you and i don't know if it is do we?
so i will say that for the longest time i've gone to church without the faintest idea of what i was there for. i must have a sceptic running my soul because only once did i feel the presence of God in my 18 years of being a churchgoer. nothing of it rang true to me. it was the hour of my life that i lost every week to be around people i never felt comfortable around. they were the people i was convinced were judging my every move. and the gossip that spread like wildfire only served to confirm my beliefs: the church is the place for the weak hearted or the hypocrites. the most righteous men know little of it and instead follow personal responsibility to salvation. again, if any of this exists.
what do you think? Is religion really the opiate of the masses or is it the only thing keeping us human anymore?
so i will say that for the longest time i've gone to church without the faintest idea of what i was there for. i must have a sceptic running my soul because only once did i feel the presence of God in my 18 years of being a churchgoer. nothing of it rang true to me. it was the hour of my life that i lost every week to be around people i never felt comfortable around. they were the people i was convinced were judging my every move. and the gossip that spread like wildfire only served to confirm my beliefs: the church is the place for the weak hearted or the hypocrites. the most righteous men know little of it and instead follow personal responsibility to salvation. again, if any of this exists.
what do you think? Is religion really the opiate of the masses or is it the only thing keeping us human anymore?
posted by Anonymous at
19:18
7 Comments:
Oh, but didn't you know that homosexuals choose to be that way? That's what the religious zealots claim, at least. That's the most infuriating thing, for me.
And I agree that religion is rather useless, or at least unnecessary, for spiritual growth. It has caused so much more pain than joy...
Great piece.
By
Bored Housewife, at 8:49 PM
Oh, I was going to say it, but Lisa beat me to it. Yes, the religious right in this country claim that homosexuals are not born this way, but who would honestly "choose" to live that way? It has to be due to some kind of alteration in the brain, like numerous studies have shown. Oh, but wait... do these religious zealots believe in the "voodoo" of science?
By
Sara, at 10:43 AM
i think that morals, ethics, standards to live by, should exist independently of the existence or non existence of god, beyond the notion of heaven and hell, reward or punishment. if we can't be good without the threat of eternal punishment, then religion won't do it for us.
And there's nothing wrong with gays either. Whether they are born like that or they choose to be that way, or develop to like people of the same sex, i don't care. The only thing that matters to me, is that this is a personal choice that harms noone, so, it must be respected, and celebrated just like any other relationship.
By
x, at 12:41 PM
no joke, all.
A) religion: september 11th wouldn't be holy without it, nor would it be morally right to kill innocent civilians like we're doing now. and who could forget about the greatest high points in european history, the crusades and inquisition. those were certainly not based on religious intollerance or anything.
B) If you need it to keep you going the "right" direction, you're obviously a sociopath or a weak person. as we speak some saint is making a list of ways to smite me, lol.
smite is a great word.
but i really don't care if they marry anymore i just want to quit fighting about it. i just want to stop fighting over worthless stuff in general. so let's give up war, graft, corruption and caring and just become a continent of pot smoking dumbasses. it's much easier than trying to make everyone's lives better, right?
By
Anonymous, at 8:24 PM
Brilliant as usual! Wise beyond your years...and yes, Marx was right.
By
sumo, at 1:19 AM
hmmm, i'll have to go against the flow here and say that i think faith can be quite a beautiful thing. not when it's used an excuse or when it's warped, but when i've seen people be quite honestly carried through the toughest shit you could imagine through their faith - of course you could call it a crutch, but what's wrong with a crutch if it means that they come through holding onto their joy in life and refusing to be bitter?
i also do think some of the essential messages, which again are too often warped beyond belief, are bloody powerful. forgiveness, love... they're great ideas to live by.
problem is i think we humans tend to be all too human and greedy and ignorant and manipulative etc etc so things get right royally fucked up. eg in christian belief (the one i know the best) it's never "morally right" to kill innocents, or even the guilty, and yet so-called "christians" somehow manage to fit war and capital punishment into their belief systems. madness.
anyway, these are my seven or so cents on this stuff... it's a bit long, sorry, just got carried away!!
By
shoopska, at 6:08 AM
shoopska's in my zone.
When not used to rationalized preset biases and/or agendas, religion can be a good thing.
Regardless of wether or not you think you use it now to form your moral compass, the morality you most likely ascribe to owes its existance to religious movement in the distant past.
Its bad to kill other humans.
Its good to treat the weak gently, and to help them out.
Being wealthy is not the same as being good.
Its bad to eat human flesh.
These are all notions that man came up with whilst in a religious stupor, and even the secular among us see merit in them.
That isn't to say that the ancient forms of the root religions are still relavant. They aren't! Any anthropologist or archeaologist or linguist or historian worth their salt can point to how the Bible and Coran were manufactured revelations, products of their time, and that its no wonder ascribants find it challenging to find contemporary interpretations of these nasty old texts.
That people can, with a straight face, use scripture to support diametrically opposed arguments shows that either the Bible and Coran are NOT the unerrant word of God on Earth....or God is one perverse mother-fucker.
Transcendant being, what did you mean by steal not my neighbor's ass?!?
By
SafeTinspector, at 3:13 AM
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