Tag: belief

Listen to yourselves sometimes…

Dear Close-Minded Woman that pissed me off this week,

Perception is reality. 22% of the worlds population believes in Islam. It’s the worship of a single deity, with that deity’s word outlined in the Qur’an, and the teachings of a prophet named Mohammed. I could just as easily compare it to the Bible, God, and Moses just like my buddy did, and be quite satisfied in being correct…at least until we get into a more detailed description of the religion.

SO…maybe…just maybe…the next time someone greets you with a blessing you should be gracious enough not to act like someone just put a hex on you.

There is this knee-jerk reaction people have when engaging religions not their own that is usually uninformed, uneducated, and almost purely instinctual…almost fight or flight. That is explainable. The possibility that one may be right and the other wrong triggers a fight or flight reaction, most of the time verbally where a person spouts off whatever they can come up with in a few seconds and hide behind their faith in the argument…or worse. When in reality (personally I think religion is a horrible burden on spirituality, being now a tool for business and politic), they are both mutually destructive to one another and will continue to teach at least a small portion of their congregation that the other is the evil one.

The only end to this was to remove religious rule, and we did it.

What scares me most is that some people actually think that adapting the US government into any degree of Christian theocracy would actually protect us.

Separation of Church and State protects us. It has allowed our country to flourish where many other nations have fallen or been turned over in civil war nightmares. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….” and Article VI specifies that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

I completely understand feeling threatened by belief systems other than your own. I actually understand the feeling more than most. I just don’t understand the need to attack others beliefs to justify your own. Disproving someone else’s religion doesn’t make you right, it makes you a judge where none is necessary.

-Tony

NO…I am NOT a Muslim. I just cant stand religious bullies.




Listening to Sam Harris…

…on his justification for ditching religion.

To be clear, I am NOT an atheist. Sam Harris is a rather outspoken one. I am quite the opposite. However I very firmly believe that most of the religions have evolved from a failed moral compass and device of social regulation, to an overgrown venue of business, extremism, and most importantly they represent a HUGE stubborn craze that refuses to allow the human social mechanism to evolve. Simply put, the wrong people are steering a moral compass that has been over-interpreted for hundreds of years, at the cost of millions of lives. This is not a factor of all religions, but those teaching intolerance on any scale are a part of the problem, and likely in thought and deed seek to continue this in order to maintain their own social-political structure within a population.

Please listen to him. He is not attacking your belief or spirituality. He is attacking its role in government and perceived social convention, whereby those beliefs are not able to tread on me and mine.

Morality is what we make of it. In relying on another to provide those decisions, a demonstration of example and trust would be a prerequisite. As Sam as put it, it is possible for us all to use morality in a logical model and prove clearly that some things are easily right or wrong. While these answers would easily be different for everyone, the sense of general right and wrong…without the religious compass, becomes very easily defined.

You see, spiritual grabs for power are just that. Grabs for power. In allowing someone else to direct your moral compass, you forfeit the value of your own (assumed learned) opinion. Why anyone would do this I have no idea. I think some people are actually afraid to think and act on this level. But once there, it is truly a learning experience.

Sam Harris has written a couple very thought-provoking books: The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. I am in the process of reading them both, but I can already recommend them.