People who follow Religion have it all Wrong

I would venture to say that there isn't a more controversial issue in America today and historically as the issue of religion in America. Separation of church and state. Politicians who openly acknowledge their religion and beliefs. Public and school prayer. Displaying of the Ten Commandments in government buildings. The list goes on.

Before I start I want to state that I'm predominantly focusing on Christianity since I don't have a ton of experience in religions outside of Christianity.

Christian religion in America is a business. These religions have everyone hypnotized/brainwashed into believing this is the path to righteousness, to eternal life, etc. Lost in all this is the actual teachings these religions center on and they get misinterpreted, slandered, and contoured into whatever that business (religion) so desires to further its "means to an end" (translation=money and power).

There are plenty of people I know who I cannot be friends with, call an acquaintance, or even associate with because they are so radical or conservative that their views blind them from reality and all I see is irrationality, radicalism, and illogical thinking. They may see me as the same but today I'm going to attempt to make an attempt at decoding our differences and hopefully wake some of them up. I realize it may not be that simple or easy but I at least want to give it a try.

History lesson time: around the 300-400 year mark, Christianity became the official religion of Rome. This was largely to control the public, as the same could be said of the polythestic beliefs that were dominant before the official declaration of Christianity as the official belief system of the most powerful state at the time. Pleasing God (or Gods) and keeping them happy was extremely important as all good deeds and misfortunes occurred because of them (or Him).

Lets fast foward to present time and the same could be said for a lot of people. "Following" and "spreading" His word (what I refer to as brainwashing) is the single, most important part of someone's life throughout a lot of America. At least believing there is a God is extremely important and a quick way to gain the approval of most people you meet or know.

This is where things start to all go wrong. This literal interpretation of the Bible is a breeding ground for irrationalism. Literally believing that Noah gathered up every species and put them on a huge boat, that Moses parted the sea, that Jesus turned water into wine and fed an entire group of people from a few fish and loaves of bread. None of these events could happen today, let alone a few thousand years ago. The idea that there is a being who can hear, see, and watch every single person's every thought and move on the planet is completely absurd. Don't blow me off yet, I'm getting to my point (I didn't say these things to slander your beliefs but literally point out how irrational the idea that such events could ever occur).

The Bible is a book of morality, a guide on how someone can lead a moral, virtuous life filled with stories about fictional people who did or did not lead these lives and the results of their actions. These events didn't literally happen, that's why it is pointless to try and find every answer to every single problem or controversial issue. It is a guide, no more, no less.

Citing examples of how someone in the Bible had a similar issue that you face now and what they did or did not decide to do in their situation and then translating it as advice on what you should do in regards to your issues or problems is the whole point behind the book. Most people didn't have all the answers thousands of years ago and the same could be said today.

But trying to mimic the results of a fantasy world is perposterous. How this idea became dominant over the advice contained within this book is beyond me. Answering the various questions people face about their lives has become a business...a business of morals. Also lost is that this book provided advice on the problems that were predominant thousands of years ago. I would hardly think all of that advice is relevant to today (if you have read most if it then you should know how poorly treated women were then, they were little more than slaves). Like parts of our Constitution that became outdated and crossed out, shouldn't such rhetoric apply to certain parts of the Bible?

The business that is religion focuses more on money now than the Word of God (translation=advice for today's issues). Anyone knows that you need money to run any type of business, rather it be not-for-profit (what some churches claim although the ones on TV seem to cater to lavish lifestyles for their pastors and congregation leaders) or the opposite. After all, you have to pay your pastors some kind of salary and pay the bills for electricity, water, and church gatherings (meals, recreational softball leagues, etc.). But where does it end? I have seen far too many churches that look like stadiums more than the designated area to congregate and seek the advice they so desire.

These buildings costs millions of dollars to erect and make sure to spread the message of the second coming of Christ. Save as many as you can but if you do we will need a new building or to add on to the current fixture to accomodate all the new followers.

It's not that repenting for your "sins" is a bad idea. But the idea that you need another person to do more than simply facilitate this process starts to reek as a scam, another addiction to replace the one you are trying rid yourself from so that you always remember how you overcame your "weakness" as humans.

This is where everything goes wrong in religions. If a pastor wants to retell stories and attempt to modernize them as a guide for today's issues to help guide everyone that seeks that guidance, then he/she serves its purpose. If a pastor is there to facilitate your own personal struggles and help advise you on how to overcome these addictions or problems that are destructive in your life, then he/she serves its purpose.

If a pastor or church pushes the idea that you cannot overcome these struggles alone, that you need them for reasons outside of guidance, that only through the church can one achieve a life of morals and values, a life of dignity and honor then the purpose of the Bible is dead and anything that comes out of their mouth will hurt someone more than it will ever help them. The idea that personal salvation cannot be achieved without a facilitator is not this business's decision to make.

Personal reflection and self-improvement can be achieved without a facilitator but for some it cannot and this is where the guidance and advice from the Bible and the translator that is the church plays its most vital role. This is the idea that is lost and swept under the rug. We don't need churches, they need us. Specifically, they need us to not be able to figure out our issues and problems on our own. Too many now push the idea that we have to need them or there is no personal salvation, that nirvana cannot be achieved.

The idea that all humans inherently make mistakes is correct. The idea that all humans inherently will sin is incorrect. Sin is our fictional fantasy book's term, not the real world term for doing "wrong" or "evil." Humans can only achieve salvation or nirvana through trial and error, through their own personal experience. People can be forewarned all their lives but it is up to them what experiences are worth trying out to add to their own personal experience that defines their lives.

This is why sin has no merit. It is merely a fictional fantasy world's definition of what is acceptable behavior. Something that is lost in these definitions is how many of these sinful ideas might merely be someone's opinion at the time this was written? As I stated earlier, this moral guide came from a time where the prevalent problems and issues differ from those of today. If thought along the lines of Truth and Consequences the answers you need from the advice presented in this guide would appear much more clearly.

Example: Premarital relations are frowned upon in the Bible plenty of times. The Truth is the majority of people engage in premarital relations anyway. They did then, they still do today. Think about the reasoning behind that now? If you said don't do that cause you might get pregnant, some people may not but every woman knows this beforehand anyway. Those are the Consequences. If the Consequences are relabled God may not allow you into Heaven if you make this choice suddenly the Consequences become a lot more dire. Burn in Hell or Dance in Heaven? That choice is obviously clear. But the "God frowns upon it" part may simply be current feelings of the day. As I stated earlier, most people know how poorly women were treated thousands of years ago. Add an unmarried pregnancy to those feelings the situation becomes the worst Consequences imaginable. Today if a woman is unmarried and gets pregnant, she could receive support from a number of resources (parents, agencies, friends, etc.) but then they couldn't even hold a job. Parents felt disgraced and in many instances the woman and child both could be killed without remorse. A pit of fire may not be out of the question. Resist your urges then and you'll be dancing in heaven with sexual pleasure that is sanctioned.

You could apply this reasoning to any number of issues in the book the morals. This is why reasoning from thousands of years ago doesn't always have a context for today's issues. Like the 3/5 Compromise in the U.S. Constitution, a lot of these ideas become dated (or frowned upon).

The business of religion knows no boundaries. They send out groups against abortion and display pictures of dead fetuses (some even tape these pictures to their own children and have them assist in the handouts). They display and pickett messages of hate against homosexuals (this was strictly someone's opinion from thousands of years ago. Lots of men had partners of both sexes then, it doesn't apply to today's context only). They even created a picture of what Jesus looks like (he's white...even though he came from the Middle East...).

Religion is a front for those who lead lives which may be frowned upon. You could Google search any number of politicians who had affairs with other women, politicians who hammer on gay marriage but have a homosexual partner of their own, companies who take from the poor (Wal-Mart, Bass Pro, Gander Mountain, the list goes on) to make them richer...any number of less than desireable character flaws (those are their own words, not mine) that make the rest of us "bad people/sinners" yet they lead the exact lives they criticize for the rest of us.

Judgment in the Bible was reserved for God and God only. Today, it's only reserved for...judges! Yet, so many churches, pastors, televangilists, and rich amongst us freely exercise judgment like it was inherently theirs to begin with.

This is why religion makes no sense. The advice and guidance present in the book of morals has been contoured, misconstrued, reinterpreted, and reinvented that is something completely different than what was intended all together. What we know as the Bible may not be the same book at all for all we know.

Now I will go on record to say that I am not Christian and do not believe in God. I used to label myself as Athiest then I realized that is an inaccurate description because that implies a religion in itself. Therefore my religion is simply None. It doesn't mean I can't or won't take advice from a book that I have no association with but what it does mean is that my advice comes from my own experiences, those of my friends and family, and not from a book that does not have all the answers.

What I see as a guide for many others has been mutated into something else completely. It doesn't mean I cannot associate or be friends of those who are religious. I just hope that others can see the difference between being holy and being a hypocrite.

I'll end this blog with a quote from one of my favorite films:

"I put no stock in religion. By the way of religion I have seen the fanatics of every denomination declare themselves the Word of God. Holiness is in right action and what you decide to do everyday in [your head] and [your heart]. And to be a good man...or not."
- Kingdom of Heaven

McCain voters who won't let it go; losing humbly revealed!

*Originally created and posted on Facebook on November, 7, 2008*

Reading a lot of posts that are still surfacing on Facebook and the web I see lots of grumbling going on from some of those who voted McCain (or against Obama, however you see it), especially the right-wing part of the media, I only thought it necessary to settle you all down a little bit.

There are general concerns about the direction the country is going on among some who don't support Obama but you might as well can it and let your sore losing slide. That's exactly what it is, being a sore loser. We won't have any idea if the election turned out for the better or for worse until several years from now (and if it's for worse, just remember, McCain might have done worse!).

But hate messages really need to end. Questions like did he buy the election, did McCain's VP pick cost him...do the answers really matter? The fact is, Democrats just ran a better election and the bad economy is being blamed on the Bush administration. The last time I checked Bush was Republican and it has a major trickle down effect on the rest of the party.

Before I'm condemned and written off for what might be seen as tooting the Democrats horn, the exact opposite happened eight years ago. The Republicans ran the better election. They got in the White House and gained a lot of seats throughout Congress. Democrats slowly regained seats back and now they have the situation the Republicans and Bush had eight years ago. It also happened the eight years prior to Bush II. Clinton and the Democrats gained control and Republicans slowly gained some seats back.

The point is...relax. Unless in the next two years the entire country gets turned around for the drastically better, Republicans will regain seats in Congress and make a run at the White House in 2012. Even if you didn't like Bush, no one could predict how his presidency would turn out. No one knew 9/11 would happen and he would spend the majority of his time fighting two wars and arguing over the security of our nation. It's easy to look back now and say his policies made the country worse (or better for some).

When Obama's policies take effect we'll make judgments then (since that's what everyone seems to be so good at). To address a friend's claim that the windfall tax has been tried before, he's right it has. But that was 30 years ago, with different policies and different leaders. With our current energy policies, it might work today. Then again it might not (see Iraq-Vietnam comparisons).

Lastly, this goes to those "Christian" voters. I've seen plenty of people online (you know who you are) claim the current economic issues don't affect them. They have good jobs cause they went to college and the current situation doesn't have anything to do with them. Maybe you missed the memo but everyone is affected by the economy. If you're salary doesn't increase when prices do, eventually you won't have as much income. If you invest, the dollar will be weaker if you wish to trade foreign stock. It surprises me that voters who are so "religious" and stand for "traditional moral values" would cater to such a stance on this issue. I don't understand where "Christianity" and the adjectives greedy and snobby associate with each other. After all, just because someone lost their job doesn't mean they aren't college educated or that some unfortunate circumstances didn't befall them. I guess that means that all of you are lawyers, doctors, politicians, pastors, or garbage men (since all these jobs are the only ones that are secure no matter what). I guess following Christ's teachings and helping those who are poor or needy is getting outdated (or maybe that didn't make the cut when everyone got together and decided what "traditional morals and values" really are).

Morals and values aren't the exclusive property or playground to the religious amongst us. Traditional morals and values might be but it doesn't mean liberals or those who aren't religious don't have morals or values. I'm not religious and I know I have plenty of values. Judging others isn't one of them. I was Christian for the first 20 years of my life by the way, so I don't need lectures like I don't know what I'm talking about as far as religion goes. All I know is I didn't like the way it restricted logic and my ability to rationalize but that doesn't mean it holds true for everyone else and that I feel that way about anyone who is religious (or isn't religious).

There are those out there who have it worse than me and you. We need to keep that in mind. Because everyone is in this together as a country, as Americans. At least, that's what I thought...is there a different definition to all those "United We Stand" bumper stickers and signs I see everywhere?