*Forgive the bias toward Christianity…like everybody else, my worldview has largely been influenced by my place of birth (the first piece of evidence that religion is illegitimate).
I label myself an agnostic. I don’t know one way or the other whether God exists, nor can I offer definitive proof either way. There are people way smarter than me to hold that debate. But if there is a God, I’m pretty certain that he/she isn’t the smarmy bastard depicted by the Abrahamic religions. What I do believe is that religion, in the theistic sense, has been a huge detriment to our society and is a shining example of human weakness.
Religions are dependent upon brainwashing children in order to survive. Let’s take Christianity. Imagine trying to sell the religion to an intelligent adult, who just happens to have no knowledge of your belief system. I picture a conversation going something like this:
“Joe Heathen, I’m worried about the destiny of your soul after you die. I have just the thing to get you on the righteous track so you can rest in paradise for all eternity. It’s called Christianity.”
“Well, geez, I’m all for paradise. Tell me a little more about this Christianity thing.”
“See Joe, we’ve got God. Now, he created the world in six days, during which he created man in his image. Then God took one of the man’s ribs and made a woman. One day, the woman was having a nice conversation with a snake and he tricked her into eating from the tree of knowledge. She, in turn, gave the man fruit from the tree and they both learned the secrets of good and evil. This pissed God off and he cast them out of the Garden of Eden.”
“But sir, how could the woman or the man have known it was wrong to disobey God if they couldn’t discriminate between good and evil before they ate from the tree of knowledge?”
“Uh…uh, God’s ways are just higher than ours. Moving along. People were sinful—especially the queers—and God wiped out the earth with a flood, made the Jews wander the desert for forty years, and turned a great fish into a temporary residence for Jonah. Despite all the warnings, people were still sinful—mostly the queers—but ours is a forgiving God so he sent us a chance for salvation. See God is a three part being, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
“So you believe in three Gods?”
“No, it’s just one. Trust me. God’s ways are higher. Anyway, God sent us his son to the earth, who was really himself, in order to sacrifice this son/himself for the sake of humanity. Jesus Christ was born to a virgin and over the course of his life he walked on water, made the blind see, fed thousands of men with a few fish and a couple loaves of bread, and he raised the dead. He was perfect. Though he did get mad at that fig tree one time…”
Hearty belly laughs from Joe Heathen followed by an awkward pause…
“Oh, you’re serious?”
Tell these stories to a child and threaten them with eternal damnation if they don’t follow the rules and—BAM!—Religion survives another generation. In the immortal words of George Carlin, “When it comes to bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims—Religion.”
People have used faith to commit atrocities, to cast out people they don't like, to murder cartoonists who speak out against their prophet, to mutilate women’s genitals, and issue fatwas against authors. The Old Testament is a handbook of genocide. Evil is done by believers and non-believers, alike. Evil in the name of God is no better than evil without God.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” –Voltaire.
Morality doesn’t require God, only a necessity to survive while living together in a community. Once we stopped wandering the Eastern Steppe, I can't imagine it took too long to figure out we shouldn’t kill each other. Humans ascribe moral standards to things. Some things we get right. Murder, rape, pedophilia—BAD. Some things we get horribly wrong. Gays, women—GOOD. Institutionalized religion is a human creation and its roots are with our excessive fear of death and an inherent need to have explanations (whether or not they’re based in evidence).
Belief isn’t in itself bad. Using your beliefs to justify hate, war, killing, torture, and to deny rights to people who do nothing to hurt anybody else is bad. “God said so,” is not a legitimate argument. I’m sure religion is a good drug for those who live up to its standard, but it’s caused more anguish to those who fall short than almost any other human creation.
I don’t believe in the personal God of the Abrahamic religions. I don’t believe God created people and put them on earth to test our allegiance to him. That’s absurd and it’s evil. It’s putting a steak in front of a starving man and telling him not to eat. Only a God created by humans could be so petty and egoistic. I just don’t but it.
Then again, I could be wrong. In which case, I’ve got some splainin’ to do when I get to the pearly gates. Sorry, God, but you created me this way!
Yours,
Liz
No comments:
Post a Comment