The Pros and Cons of Religion; Uprooting Religion, A Movement.

I have been participating in a couple of religious blogs lately, so this has been on my mind. The blogs were basically a call for the California Supreme Court to uphold the "majority" opinion that Gay Marriage should be banned. Since the California Supreme Court had just done the opposite, this fundamentalist Asshat is "righteously" pissed off. That he is in fact an asshat is upheld here.

You can find his blog in MY blog below this one.
So, in the course of the arguments I engaged in, it came out that I most specifically deny the existence of God. I found myself defending these views, just a little, and attacking the faith of those that believed, once again, just a little. I was trying to point out that he was trying to get the supreme courts to trample on the civil liberties of other individuals, something they are meant specifically to defend AGAINST! One point of this nation being founded, was for freedom of religion. This can also be defined as freedom FROM religion. This man, David, wants to see his own personal beliefs rammed down the throats of the rest of the nation, and probably the world, if he was to get his way. Anybody who knows me, also knows that I am much faster to jump into the fray defending someone else being treated unfairly, than I do on my own behalf. Being the kind, and size, of guy that I am, most hesitate to be unfair to me :)

So, naturally, this pissed me off. So I went to town. I stayed respectful, did not curse(it WAS a christian blog, after all), tried very hard not to attack religion, and tried to be as informative and communicative as I could. Most of the people treated me the same, even while defending their position.

As a week or so has progressed, my own personal views have been changing. See, I used to be what I referred to as an antagonistic agnostic. I would actively seek confrontations with believers just for the joy of ridiculing their beliefs. When I went to concerts, I would find the guy holding a sign that read "Jesus loves you", then I would tell him my mom loves me too, and she treats me like shit. Of course, there the debate would begin, with me having offended him. I was almost single handedly responsible for the "Jesus Freaks" at the Marilyn Manson concert in Orlando FL rioting, most of them ended up in jail. I must admit, I STILL get pleasure from that memory......

Anywho, I thought that I eventually saw the error of my ways. I grew up a little by the time I turned 25. They say age mellows one, and that seems to have been true. I figured that I should not belittle those with faith, as it is a comfort to them. Who was I to try to remove that comfort?
I have stuck to that. I was raised a catholic, I even wanted to be a priest. I have a mother, and two sisters, that are VERY strong in their Christianity. I have an uncle who is a priest. My grandmother, who raised me, was VERY catholic. My grandfather is strong in his beliefs, but he keeps those pretty much to himself. My views could offend them, and I love them very much, so I try not to discuss it with them. It is possible for families to be divided by a difference of views on religion, and I did not want to be responsible for dividing mine.

But enough is enough. I look at the world around me today, and I can SEE the root causes for many of our problems, both as a nation, and as a world. Pharmaceutical companies, Insurance companies, Corporate greed, and RELIGIOUS NUTJOBS account for most of our problems, as a society, as a nation, and as an international community.

We have Muslim Extremists who are the new Nazi's. You best believe, they want the whole world to be governed the same way the Taliban governed in Afghanistan. These fuck balls are willing to kill thousands upon thousands of innocent people, just to make a statement.
So called spiritual leaders around the world have duped followers into providing comfort for themselves, while demanding devotion to the point of poverty.

Here in the US, we have the so called moral majority, christian nut jobs who want the governance of our country to follow the teachings of the bible. And that is the crux of my argument.

Not satisfied with being allowed to worship as they choose, they want the rest of us to obey the laws they want to create, as dictated by their holy book of lies.

They are forever trying to take control of science. For those of you not in the know, creationists, and Intelligent Design supporters, do not want evolution taught as science. To accomplish this, they are trying to have Intelligent Design, or ID, taught alongside evolution, in the science classroom. This is just BUNK! No matter what you believe, ID CANNOT be called science. Science deals with what can be observed, measured, and predicted in the NATURAL world. To say that GOD(supernatural) had a hand in it, explains NOTHING in the natural world that can be seen or measured. As a supporter of evolution, I personally would not mind so much if it were to be taught as philosophy, but science? Please.

This country is staring at the fact that not enough students are getting involved in science and engineering. This will cause a large gap, that other nations will fill in the future. We have become great as a scientific leader in the world, but that may change. Along comes the ID crowd, trying to undermine us even more. Teaching ID in science would just be a start, next we would have a whole lot of linoleum lizards growing up to change the laws, following the bible. Enter theocracy. Does anyone remember WHY the dark ages are called the dark ages? While utilizing all the technology science has brought us, these bungholes want us to deny that same science, and plunge our nation into another dark age.

The catholic church wants us to NOT use birth control, condoms, or abortion. Do we really need uncontrolled population growth, children born of rape and incest, and uncontrollable spread of life threatening disease?

Fundamentalist Christians want us to legislate who can, and cannot marry, based on religious belief.

Muslim extremists think all infidels should either start believing, or DIE!

Gandhi slept nude with teenage girls, because his wife's face reminded him of a cow. When she sickened, he forced her to follow his teachings, and not utilize modern medicine, and she DIED. When his own ox was gored, however, this hypocrite used the best medicine technology could provide, and he LIVED!

Mother Theresa, oh yes, the same adored my many around the world, allowed brutal suffering, and many other atrocities, to go on in her homes that she established, while sending untold millions to the Vatican. I despise Mother Theresa, see here,or Google "mother Theresa truth"

Now, don't get me wrong. Many churches, and religious organizations do a LOT of good in this world. Feeding the hungry, feeding the poor, and generally helping many communities through their charitable contributions. Seems to me though, that other groups of helpful individuals could do the same thing, without invoking a deity. I am a helping, loving, caring man, and I do not need a god to tell me that is how I should be. I will look to history for my immortality, not a pie in the sky figment of imagination.

Theism, all of it, is BULLSHIT.

So here is my proposal, my call, my challenge to all right thinking individuals in the world.
We need to teach our children that this world was NOT created by a supreme being, that forcing religious views down the throats of others is wrong. Teach them to teach their own children the same. Pass this word, and this challenge, to everyone you know. While churches are everyday trying to spread the word of god, we should be doing everything in our power to counter it. Who knows, perhaps, in a few generations, we, as a world, can put the stupidity of deity worship, and all of its inherent EVILS, behind us.

If you have any questions, comments, arguments, suggestions, criticism, other pros of religion, or cons of religion, please keep this in mind. Do not resort to Ad hominem arguments. Attack ideas, not individuals. Anything else just makes you appear unintelligent.

This blog is also on my personal myspace

The war in Iraq: A matter of belief.

I just recently read a post on valley of the shadow. It truly helped to inspire this blog, and the topic, when inspiration for this blog was needed. Thanks again to that writer!
If you click on here, and read the article it links to, you may become very disturbed(unless you are a member of an extremist terrorist organization).
It would seem that the bad guys, al-Qaida that is, are looking to do more than to merely piss off the west. Folks, what we are speaking of here is a long range plan with an eye to world domination. Sounds familiar to me.
I remember the cold war, and the threat of nuclear war with Russia, starting from when I was very young. There were TV shows about nuclear winter, and how little the chances of survival would be. There was talk everywhere of how oppressive the government of the U.S.S.R was, and how they did not allow religious worship. The rally cry was that no American in their right mind would want their freedoms taken away by a government like this. As a small child, this was very frightening. I would wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares about nuclear war, and the devastation left behind. As a country, however, "better red than dead" didn't catch on. Despite air headed critics yammering about nuclear proliferation, we "stayed the course", and it was rewarded. Rewarded with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the advance of Democracy in Russia, and all the other things that are now a shining part of the history of the Reagan administration.
Fast forward to today. We now face an enemy even greater than communism. Even worse than no religion, these extremists wish to force the beliefs of their religion on the world as law. Beliefs founded on, and perpetuated by violence. Violence of the worst sort, perpetrated by cowards who will attack any innocent, knowing they are innocent, so that their message will carry that much more impact. Beliefs that would have your wife beaten because she dared to show her face in public. Beliefs that would not allow you to have your own faith. A Belief that would not allow this, or any other diatribe against it to be published
Despite the fact that no WMD's were found, and that many believe Bush lied, the war in Iraq must be continued. We have to rebuild the country we destroyed. It is of utmost importance that democracy reign there. Then democracy must spread from there, as well as tolerance for what others believe. The reward will be that even more people in this world can believe the way they wish to, not the way they are told to.
And that is Pauls Way.