Stream of Consciousness #7

[snuffypuffer]

I grew up going to church every Sunday. I wasn’t a very good Christian, I napped during prayers, I always questioned the Preacher, and my Sunday school class voted me “most likely to become a terrorist.” But, my mom taught my Sunday school class, and I did work my way from shepherd to Joseph in the Christmas pageant we held every year. One year we even had real sheep, but since farm animals aren’t normally housebroken, this turned out to be a really bad idea. Still wish we could have gotten a hold of some real camels for my years as a Wise Man, but you take what you can get. We never really had a play for Easter, my church congregation liked to look on the bright side of things. I think we just had a big dinner. I also had a lot of fun smuggling Metallica tapes into church camp. My formative years were spent going to church, and for the most part I had a pretty good time. Never made it into the inner circle of holy rollers, never spoke in tongues, unless you count the time I went to a Pentecostal church with a friend and yelled “Yabba dabba doo,” sure I’m gonna do some time in Pergatory for that one, but for the most part I got along with religion and religion got along with me. Which is not the case for a lot of people in our troubled world.

Wanna know a secret? The three major religions, the ones that come from the Middle East, and nearly half of the world’s population follow, are all essentially different branches of the same religion. Christianity began as a continuation of Judaism, Islam began as a continuation of Christianity, and as they got more followers bits and pieces of other faiths got incorporated and they all went off into different directions. And now you have Muslims strapping bombs to their chests and detonating themselves in crowded streets, all because of a passage in the Qu’ran where it says the Jews turned their backs on God. Countless deaths over thousands of years over differences in semantics. Over who has the best approach to worshipping the same god. It’s enough to make you an atheist. What loving, peaceful god would allow this to happen, and all in his name, no less? Well, I think the answer is, it has nothing to do with god. God is just the excuse some very evil, very insecure little men use to corrupt desperately poor, malleable minds to further their own twisted agendas. People who see the light at the end of the tunnel do not become suicide bombers. And it’s not just a Muslim, Jew thing either, Christianity has a whole laundry list of atrocities all it’s own. Jesus, who preached love thy neighbor and turn the other cheek, is responsible, in name, for the Inquisition, witch trials, the Crusades, and centuries of war between Catholics and Protestants. He’s probably just thrown up his hands and said “screw it, I did my best.” Jesus, once again, is just an excuse for the age old human tradition of persecuting anyone who’s different from the rest of the herd.

Isn’t it sort of ironic that in the beginning, when Christianity was still in it’s infancy, Christians were persecuted by the Romans. Until there were enough Christians to do some persecuting themselves, and thus the cycle continued. And Christians, man, those folks can hold a grudge can’t they? Muslims, “witches”, heretics, even other Christians that didn’t quite fit the mold of whatever church was in power in that particular area, anyone even remotely different, got all kinds of nifty tortures and trials. And for all this, people still blame Jesus, it’s not his fault. He’s obviously a nice guy. It’s just some of the folks taking care of his legacy are using him as an excuse. Jesus is also really lucrative, look at all the shyster televangelists making a mint off him. Benny Hinn and others like him take advantage of blind faith and gullibility to take advantage of people who are really looking for any kind of hope in an otherwise extremely bleak situation. All this gives religion a very bad name. And it’s not really religion’s fault, it’s the people in charge of propagating the religion that have dropped the ball. When those people change, then religion will become the route to peace of mind it’s supposed to be.

Western religion is seriously in trouble. You never hear of a Buddhist group claiming responsibility for bombing a Shinto temple. Buddhism is a live and let live way of life. Shinto, well, we all know Shinto is the national religion of Japan, and their history isn’t all sunshine and daisies. But again, it’s people, not religion, to blame. Until we evolve, religion will always be the excuse used for bigots and other nasty people to do terrible things to other people. As a race, I don’t think we really deserve religion, in it’s true form. Religion, in it’s purest sense, is an attempt to answer the really old, hard questions, why are we here? Where are we going? What happens after this? And since none of those questions is really ever going to be answered until after we die, and as far as there’s no real “right” religion or “wrong” religion, I’m gonna be an agnostic. Seems like the best way to go. But that’s just my choice, you can be whatever you want to. Just don’t burn me at the stake because I’m not on the same path. It’s just plain rude.

[Nancy]

And since none of those questions is really ever going to be answered until after we die, and as far as there’s no real “right” religion or “wrong” religion, I’m gonna be an agnostic. Seems like the best way to go. But that’s just my choice, you can be whatever you want to. Just don’t burn me at the stake because I’m not on the same path. It’s just plain rude.

Snuffy? Thank you for your insights, your wisdom with that undying "Snuffs humor" tossed into the mix.

Burn you at the stake? Never happen....... what would Fridays be without another SOC gem?

N.

[Kira]

Isn’t it sort of ironic that in the beginning, when Christianity was still in it’s infancy, Christians were persecuted by the Romans.Until there were enough Christians to do some persecuting themselves, and thus the cycle continued. And Christians, man, those folks can hold a grudge can’t they? Muslims, “witches”, heretics, even other Christians that didn’t quite fit the mold of whatever church was in power in that particular area, anyone even remotely different, got all kinds of nifty tortures and trials.

And there Snuffy you have hit the nail squarely and firmly on the head... this is something that I have argued myself....

[PurpleStuart]

Very true. IMHO organised religon is wrong, your individual faith is everything and everyones individual faith is as valid as anyone else's until it impinges on those of anothers

[Xenojjin]

Some good points . I am just hoping you realize that those attrocities are not the religouns fault but more of the fault of the idiots practicing the religion at that time . If you actually read the torah and the holy bible you would find neither promote such insane crimes such as the crusades . It is not the religions that caused the stupidity , its the stupid ones who caused the stupidity .

As for the koran .. I am afraid i have no back up for them as their religous text does promote such insanity .

[thefirstman]

Very true Snuffy,religious beliefs were the cause for many deaths and murders in the past.and still are today.Religious persecution is wrong,people should be allowed to believe what they wish and have no discrimination held against them.

[snuffypuffer]

I am saying that it's the idiots practicing the religion committing the crimes, not the religion itself. It just seems that certain religions attract more evil schmucks than others.

[PurpleStuart]

I dopn't think it is any type of religion that is particularly predisposed towards "Evil Schmucks" its just that if a religion has more believers it follows that it will have more people in it using it for their own ends - i'm sure the ratio is roughly same.

[snuffypuffer]

I dopn't think it is any type of religion that is particularly predisposed towards "Evil Schmucks" its just that if a religion has more believers it follows that it will have more people in it using it for their own ends - i'm sure the ratio is roughly same.

You know, come to think of it, I you're exactly right.

And Xeno, can you give me some specific verses in the Qu'ran, I'm gonna have to dig mine out and check some of this out. I don't remember reading anything like that in there.