On one of my mailing lists, a member was posting about the fact that he felt powerless to change the way the world was going.
Someone else replied with this:
Many people to turn to religion because of the conflict they feel, teh same conflict you write about here. Can’t deal with all of the questions and find it more comforting to turn to faith in a higher power, or worship the “effin bee’s” or mother earth or whatever. And in spite of the evil done in the name of some deity or other, the faithful still seem to be on the winning side in the good vs. evil battle. I know, it’s not for everyone, I’m just sayin’.
I let go.
Rant Mode On
Ah, but this is a problem. People turn to religion so that they can say that all the bad stuff in the world is ‘God’s plan’ and then they don’t have to do anything about it. They can just accept it and go on about thier business. They take no responsibilty for their actions: ‘God told me to.’ ‘I prayed about it and felt it was the right thing to do.’
And then they tell everyone that is not a member of their particular branch of religion that they are bad people and are going to hell.
And most religions (including christianity – read the bible) tell their followers to kill the infidels that don’t believe in their particular God.
Thus adding to the bad stuff in the world.
This helps how?
Using your faith in a higher power to put the blinders on so you don’t have to deal with reality is a cop-out.
Religion forces you to believe things for which there is no proof. It causes you to use fuzzy thinking. This fuzzy thinking then bleeds into the non-religious part of your life (although for the truly religious, there is no non-religious part of your life.)
Do you believe in Zeus? Why not? The ancient Greeks did. Why were they wrong and ‘modern’ religions are right? Is there more ‘proof’ that your Great Sky Daddy exists then they had about Zeus?
When politicians start basing public policy on their religion and religious law, and then force these decisions on Americans that are not of their religion (or are atheists, like me), this is bad politics. And it’s contrary to the Constitution and what our founders intended. And it’s what the Republicans have been doing more and more. (Quite a few Democrats have done so also, but in the last four years it has escalated quite a bit.)
And the people who truly believe in the Rapture? They scare the shit out of me. They WANT nuclear war, they think it’s Armageddon.
And then you said “the faithful still seem to be on the winning side in the good vs. evil battle”
I have news for you. The Islamics fighting us and each other are all ‘faithful’. I’d be very interested in your definition of ‘good’ and ‘evil’.
Personally, I feel that Bush and Cheney and many others in our government fall much closer to the ‘evil’ side than the ‘good’ side. They are ripping the shit out of our Rights and the Constitution and they are pushing this un-winnable war on the nebulous concept of ‘terrorism’ down our throats as an excuse.
I am far more fearful of my government and what it can now do to me then I have ever been of the ‘terrorists’.
Rant Mode Off
You really don’t want to get me going on this. (Or maybe you do, I don’t know.) Oh, I guess it’s too late. But I could keep ranting on and on..
We will have to see how he responds to this.
