Religion

First, my typical disclaimer.....these are my opinions and my opinions only. I do not mean to offend, but that may happen. I'm sorry. I try to be an equal opportunity offender. These are meant to be facts in the way I see the world and I realize they may not be the way you see the world. I would ask for the same as I give - respect for differing opinions. I do not mean to intentionally "pick on" or leave anyone else out. Usually, the instances I use are examples only. Thank you.

So, I'm not a terribly religious person. If you now me, the chances are you already know that. I'm not a big believer in God or any other deity, although I do believe in something bigger and more powerful than I am. But despite my lack of belief, I have respect. I don't speak down against any deity or "god" or God. I may speak down against the things you do for your deity, but not your deity. I may not believe it, or agree with it, but I will try my best to respect it.

For instance, I may speak down against suicide bombers but I won't speak down against Allah. It's not necessarily his fault. Sure, the bombers say Allah commands them to cleans the world of infidels or something like that, but are we really sure they aren't misunderstanding? We misunderstand each other all the time....what makes us think we can't misunderstand our chosen god?

Especially because Christians do so pretty wacked out stuff for their "God" too. Spanish inquision anyone? (I mostly identify with the Catholic faith, btw, if I were having to choose.) I speak out against doing anything that physically harms another person. I would say mentally, but then someone would use that "I just can't help it, my mind is so tortured by the fact that you believe differently than I do....I must make you believe the same as I do!" Really....I'm touched that you care. Now back off.

Anyway....How many times do we say "For the love of God, pick up your junk!" or something equally as pointless? God does't care about if your toys or papers are picked up. You may be walking a fine line about the "Obey thy father and mother" or "Honor they spouse" thing, but thats about it. Better yet, lets go from the insinificant to the multitude. How many wars ar fought for religion? The majority of wars have been based on it in some way. You can't tell me that any god or God wants us to kill each other in His/their name. Because every religion claims their god is the most powerful.....if he was so powerful and wanted all of the disbelievers dead, he would kill them himself, especially after so many years of such complete dismal failure on everyone's part. Or, he would just kill you for being such a failure. Either way, he's doing work himself.

Which finally leads me to my main point I guess. If we do all of these nasty things in our God's name....and he doesn't really aprove of them after all....then aren't we essentially taking his name in vain? And not just in the "God damn it" view, but in the we're-blaming-him-for-our-evil-actions-and-he's-gonna-be-PISSED view. How can we get pissy over saying "God damn it"....it's basically a plea for God to punish that thing....when we're doing much worse under the premise that he wants us to? I guess because in saying "God damn it", its like asking him to do his own dirty work and not hiding behidn the humans.... God wouldn't have the "free will" card to hide behind. "I didn't ask them to do it....free will!"

So basically I guess what I'm saying is we all need to self-examine. Do we really do things to honor our God? To be faithful and live the life that he would want? Or do we do things because we can't stand the idea of being wrong? Because we're scared to face the consequences of our own chosen actions?

I guess that's why I'm not too much into religion. For too many people, it seems to have become a hiding place....an excuse. Not a faith. The way I see it...I believe what I believe. You can believe what you believe. As long its not harming anyone...if I'm wrong and I go to hell, that's my business. If you're wrong and you go to hell, that's your business. No one can keep their noses out of someone else's business and that is a portion of what is wrong with this world today.

Now in retrospect, someone could say "but if we leave each other alone to believe whatever they want, then what's to stop the suicide bombers, etc from bombing everyone in the world??" Well, that's where the "You believe what you want, I believe what I want" comes in. If they were to have that view (the same view as me, irony right?) then they wouldn't be bombing everyone becuase they would just look at us "infidels" and go, "Oh well, they go to hell, who cares? Not my problem" and walk away. We all need to learn better when to walk away and when to fight. Choose your battles. A difference in religion should not be one of them.

(This message brought to you by the desire to yell at certain women that I know who's husbands have verbally abused them into changing everything about themselves and become submissive little whisps of their former selves because they are too insecure and prejudice to accept that woman for who she was. So instead of accepting her for who she was and working out your problems and accepting your differences you've completely broken and brainwashed her and your children....way to go! Bet you're real proud of yourself now. Oh wait, you can't do that because you hate everyone who's not exactly like you and alienate anyone who might stand up to you! Way to be a good, decent, upstanding man. Not to mention being a strong mother for your children! Way to just let that abuse happen instead of getting away from it and protecting you and your children from it.)