Religion is an impulse to explain. A natural impulse that everyone has and everyone grapples with. It's an impulse that, sadly and ironically, has been exploited to convince people to take actions that defy and demean that impulse. The exploiters are (FUDGE-not these guys again!) the ruling elite of nearly every society, in every era, and ours is no exception. It's not hard to understand the false sense of security of faith that religion provides. A lot of us have been through it and can understand how hard it can be to shake the grip of dogma. Religious dogma, which is a set of rules, is a tool used by people in power to keep other people powerless, and to coerce them into serving the interests of the powerful. History is flooded with examples of religion used to defend and promote most of humanity's dumbest moves. Like genocide: the holocaust and the annihilation of the world's indigenous populations. Like war: from the beginnings of "civilization" to the Gulf War and beyond. Like prejudice: the continued subjugation of women in all the major religions. Like poverty: as a tool of capitalism, religion has taught the poor to accept injustice. Probably the worst affect religion has on us is its' ability to create divisions so remarkably deep that people will kill for them. FUDGE, scratch at any major conflict in the world today and just beneath the skin of diplomacy and territorial demands you will a fundamentalist, bloodthirsty form of one or more or more organized religions. Many "progressive" people involved in religions believe they can work within their religious institutions to change them for the better. It's an understandable desire- we all work within institutions to some extent, but it's kinda dumb in the same way that the Catholic Church's motivation for feeding the hungry is kinda dumb: their writings and dogma tell them to. Shouldn't they be motivated by simply knowing that feeding the hungry is the right thing to do? People indoctrinated in religions (including the religions if ideology...not mentioning any names), seem to believe that a moral code cannot exist outside of their institution. It can and it does. We have the ability (and the duty!) to do the right thing without the rhetoric of dogmas, the threat of hierarchies or the fear if some old coot in a beard firing a FREAKING lightning bolt at our sinful , hairy, zitty, little BUTTS. The saddest thing about religion is what is lost. Religion, or accurately, I suppose, the appropriators and exploiters of religion, have taken our purest impulses of solidarity, compassion, celebration of the wonder and mystery of our lives, and turned them against us. This, most of all, is why I reject religion: so that I can reclaim these impulses for the causes they deserve...love and justice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you, the reader, disagree with all this, fine. I think you are wrong, but I respect your choices. But if you are such a moral Christian, stop wasting your time at church, and go help someone! Volunteer , join anti-racist group, or something. Don't sit there, sing, and then have some guy tell you how to live your life. On the other hand, if reading this made you uncomfortable, and/or you think this stuff is sacrilegious, then you proved their point! Religion (when I say religion, I essentially mean Christianity, only because I haven't had enough first hand knowledge to critique other religions. Yet.) scares you into submission and doesn't want you to think beyond its narrow boundaries. Religion has oppressed thinking throughout time. It wasn't too long ago that the church was burning people for saying the earth was not the center of the universe? It was deemed sacrilegious. Seems like every time we make an advance as a society, the religious is opposing it it some way or another. Oppressing free thinking, innovation, and progress are not the only things done in the name of religion. What other stuff, you say? How about murdering millions of people throughout time? "You aren't Christian? Oh, well, convert or die." Or defending and promoting prejudice against homosexuals today? "The bible says it's a sin." What Would Jesus Do? I will tell you what he wouldn't do. He wouldn't use your name to promote murder, oppression, ignorance, and prejudice. So don't be part of something that uses his name to do exactly that. FUDGE religion. -Ben And if your faith in Christianity rests upon the authority of The Bible, do yourself a favor. Read The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine. It will concisely explain all the contradictions in the book that many call, incorrectly, the "inspired word of God."
-Waffleboy
E-mail Waffleboy at benb@fgi.net