Happy greetings to my readers!
This week, I take another personal issue to the people, one that many have asked me about over the years. Namely, that I am an Atheist. As such, I endure questions and even attacks about why I don't believe in God, along with why I believe religion in general is not a good idea. I have decided to take a break from the political, and attack the philosophical and religious side of my interests. I plan to explain to you all the logical fallacies I see in religion, as well as why I think that religion is just another thing that screws with our daily lives. On a side note, this week's quote is taken from a photo on tumblr.com, of some Iranian protester with bread sticks tied to his hat. While I can't remember who posted it, it struck me as funny, so there you go. I have no affiliation to tumblr (although I do have an account) and take no responsibility for the quote.
Alright, let's begin. I'll start with an obvious question that many people ask as they get older: Why does God allow so many terrible things to happen in the world, like human trafficking, terrorism, violence, death, disease, the list goes on and on. When you ask a religious person or authority, many times they will respond with time honored responses like "everything happens for a reason," or because "it's part of God's plan." Because most religions don't allow God to be questioned, it is a perfect response, within the limitations of religion. But once this response is taken out of the bounds of religion, it is exposed for what it truly is; avoiding the question. Or so I view it, anyway. Whenever people who are religious cannot answer a question that destabilizes the foundations of their faith, they turn to God, and questioning God is a sin. Right? No, that is wrong. "Questioning God" is not a sin, at least not anymore. For those that haven't noticed, the Dark Ages ended centuries ago, and religion no longer holds that kind of power. Just like politicians are held responsible today, so too is religion. The goal of all religions is to answer all of life's questions, be they easy or hard. When a religion cannot answer all questions, it has failed in its purpose and is therefore null and void.
My answer to the above question is simple, although somewhat pessimistic: All these terrible things happen because we allow them to happen, not because of some phony God. We kill each other, and we commit crimes against each other of our own volition. It doesn't occur because God wants it to. It happens because we choose it to happen. We bring most of life's horrors upon ourselves. It's a sad fact of humanity, but we must face it. And the faster we realize that we are the problem and not God, the faster we can come up with solutions.
Another thing that I don't like about religions is that they all treat people unequally. Christianity says that Gays are to be put to death. Islam does it similarly. Both treat women as lesser beings than men (though not to the extent you may be led to believe). Even Judaism, my favorite one, requires that women and men be separated in synagogue and other social interactions. This may be just Orthodox Judaism, but the fact of the matter is that all religions divide people. One question I like to ask is this: if all people can get into heaven, why do certain people get better lives on earth? What have they done to deserve stronger rights than their peers? Once again, religion has no true answer, with most clerics of my youth simply replying that "it is tradition." Yeah, well witch trials were a tradition for a while in the USA. That doesn't make them right, and it doesn't mean things can't change like they did with witch trials. My view is as follows: because we die and simply rot in the ground, we have all the more reason to make our lives here better. We need not separate people to ensure salvation, if salvation doesn't exist. We don't need to hurt, kill, or ostracize our brethren to make ourselves appear better to a nonexistent God. We need to bring ourselves together to make our lives better. Life is all we get, or so I believe. Why waste it with hate?
That is my biggest beef with religion: the hate it inspires. Ever since the start, religion has done nothing but divide people and cause racism and violence. The Dark Ages were characterized by harsh scientific repression by the Catholic Church, which used religious authority to control the people for centuries. At the same time, hundreds of years of holy wars were waged during the Crusades out of hate for Muslims by the same groups. And while Christianity may have inspired Renaissance art, that doesn't make up for those crimes. Nowadays, radical Islamist fundamentals wage attacks on Jews and Christians alike in the name of Jihad, in order to achieve an afterlife in heaven. Even in modern America, a place where the constitution decries a bond between religion and politics, religion holds political clout. I'll address that soon, but first I'd like to note the hate religion still inspires here. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and all minority religions get bullied across the country simply because they are different. Especially now, Muslims receive the brunt of our hate. For example, the Ground Zero Mosque, remember that? We all lost our shit because local Islamic leaders wanted to build a Mosque near Ground Zero (note: not directly on it, like assholes claim). Don't believe that? Well here you go: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-sledge/just-how-far-is-the-groun_b_660585.html. Conservative leaders at the time claimed that they believed strongly that Muslims had the full rights to build a Mosque wherever they pleased with proper legal framework. But simultaneously, they asked this question: should they? This religious hatred allowed political figures to both defend and attack religious rights, sometimes in the same sentence. This is bullshit. The fact that we can even tie the September 11 bombers' religious fanaticism to the simple building of a mosque is astonishing. It just exposes the extreme hate we suffer from. Who's to blame? Religion.
And religious hate screws people over in other places, too. Saudi Arabia and Iran have strongly theocratic governments which repress their people, especially Iran. In Saudi Arabia, at least they have some support for their system. Iran? No, not quite as much. And while radicalism may persist in Iran, the truth is that most Iranians today hate Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. They are completely unrepresentative leaders that restrict their country. Saudi Arabia is not necessarily any better. Women can't even drive there. They can't leave the house without a man. Sure, they may be able to vote soon, but the steps are small and far too slow. A HUGE amount of religious hate surfaces on the Palestine issue, with small groups on both sides becoming indifferent to the other over religious intolerance. Additionally, for those that don't know Baha'ism is also persecuted in Iran without real reason. Europe, while a much safer place religiously speaking, is overwhelmingly Christian. The European Union has laws in place that make it illegal to pronounce statements delegitimizing or denying the Holocaust (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/world/europe/19iht-eu.4.5359640.html). The fact that they even need these laws in place sickens me. What makes it worse for me especially is that in America we don't have these laws. We allow the American Nazi Party to exist. And don't give me bullshit about their right to free speech. Those people DESERVE to die. The fact that Nazism is still a force fills me with dread. All this religious hate of all different people only serves to cause violence and divide along lines we don't need.
And so, my atheist beliefs come into place. We can prove that the universe has been created absent of a God (with the Big Bang Theory, which is also a hilarious TV show). And if it was, then how would the Garden of Eden worked out? There were only two people, meaning that no matter how many kids they had eventually Adam and Eve would have died. Meaning that in order for humanity to survive, there is going to be a ton of incest. The genetic disorders would have killed us off early on if the story was true. But, obviously, it is not. If we can see that we have the ability to make this world a better place, maybe we would be a little more active in doing so. Many people say "hey, let God handle it." No. You must be the one to make a change. It doesn't require much. Recycle a little, if you get a pet get it from the shelter, donate a little cash to charity. Help the homeless with a little change when you pass by instead of ignoring the dying person you see. If everyone did this, we could start to progress a little faster, and maybe things would be a little bit easier on everyone if religion never existed at all.
Well, that sums up this week, and I hope everyone enjoyed my response. If you have questions, comments, or whatever, post in the comments section. Or, you can send me something on Facebook or Twitter. My email is still zerospintop@live.com, so that is all. This is SuperJew McLovin, signing off.
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