Holier Than Thou

Religion, we encounter it every day in some form or another. For some of us more than others, it controls and shapes our lives. There are also many other people who say they don't believe or follow any religion and that the concept of religion is stupid. Well, I'm going to look at different aspects of both sides and give my views. Some of my points you will disagree with and some you will just outright hate, but that's good, cuz we all have different opinions for a reason. Well, let's get under way shall we.

The basis for most religions is some sort of God-like entity. Almost every religion that exists believe in a god, several gods, or some other "Higher power". Some people don't believe in anything of the sorts. I however do. My reason for my belief is that no matter how much science can explain, it can't explain everything. The miracle in the hospital, the ironic and amazing things that happen that no one can explain, I don't think they are just coincidences. Science has given us much, but we can't look to them for everything. I however, don't believe that God controls or influences every faucet of our everyday life. That would be pointless, because why would we be put here if we are simply going to be puppets. I also don't believe in creationism. To think that God single handedly made ever creature and put it on Earth, that's just being ignorant. There are so many species and sub-species that exist. I'm not saying that he couldn't create all of them, but why would he need to? All signs point to evolution, you may have heard of it, it's the theory that is still banned in many schools around the country though we supposedly have a separation of church and state. Any ways, evolution has hard data to back it up, while creationism does not, and if you say the Bible, I will punch you in the face.(I'll explain why later). I also don't believe that somehow, all the materials needed in the universe came together in such a way to create life. My belief is that we came to being in a combination of the two, that some external "Greater Being" began a chain of events that lead to the creation of or universe and eventually the creation of every living thing in the universe.(Yes, I believe that there are other life forms in other galaxies and such). If you don't agree with that theory ,fine, but I don't find either of the other two theories to have much validity either.

Now, I said I'd get to why the Bible is a weak source for any type of information, and now I'll explain why. First off, as you all know the original Bible, which has many names and titles, wasn't written in English, but most likely in a language known as Arameic. It could also have been written in Hebrew, but hey, I'm not a scholar so both are guesses. In either case, it wasn't written in English, or even Latin. Therefore, to get in to it's current state it would have had to been translated several times, in several different languages. Therefore many things have been subtracted or added for the purpose of translation, being as things don't translate exactly from one language to another. A good example is the name Jesus Christ. A lot of you, especially those who are far more devote to Christianity than I, know that Christ is not his last name. The closest thing he had to a last name is "of Aramithea(sp)". So where did the name Christ come from? It happened through several translations. It started off as the Hebrew word meaning "Anointed One" or "Chosen One". When that was translated into Greek, it created a word that when finally put into English looks like Christ. Now that's nothing too big, but how many of you knew that Jesus isn't actually his real name either? If you look at the original Hebrew name, it doesn't look like Jesus, it looks like Joshua. So Jesus Christ is actually "Joshua the Anointed One". Ok, that was a very lengthy explanation of how things can be mistranslated, but just think, if a simple name is completely different, how does everything else change? What about phrases and things of the like, sometimes those things don't translate exactly. Then add to that the fact that much of the stories were passed on through word of mouth before they were actually written down. And as is illustrated with the good ol' game of "Telephone" when something gets passed from person to person, it can get quite distorted. For instance, do I believe that the entire Earth was flooded for 40 days and nights? Uh….no. I also don't believe that Noah was able to get two of every animal onto the ark. I'm sure he was able to get all the five thousand species of butterfly that lived in the South American rainforest…..riiight. What this produces is a book that is a copy of a copy of a copy. I find it hard to believe a book where so many things have been changed, and that is based on a lot of guesswork. This applies to both the Old and New Testament of the Bible. What about the other religions? Well when I say Old Testament, it of course refers to the text of the first monotheistic religion that existed. It was originally called "The Torah" in Judaism and is also referred to as "The Hebrew Bible". But this text was used by other religions as well. The Christians took this as their Bible when they formed, being as many of them were previously Jewish. The Muslims also used this text for the structure in their holy text "The Koran". I know people who refer to these holy texts as "Books of Lies". I wouldn't go that far, but I would call them "Books of Miss-Information". So of it was accidental, other sections I believe were very intentional. There are sections in these texts that I believe were purposely changed or at least added on to. The people who translated and printed these texts long ago were quite wealthy. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think they would have some things changed for their benefit. I don't have any proof, and it's not like I could quote out a Bible verse to back this up, but how many doubt this at all? On top of all of that, you have to add that these texts aren't written in simple phrases or statements. They are written in a very Shakespearian way of speaking using metaphors. So much of what is written is still under debate. That's why Judaism has two extra versions of text. One of the books , that debates the meanings of the original, and the second that discusses that debate. Why would a book that an entire religion is supposed to follow be so hard to understand? To that I have no real answer. The only thing I can think of is that these texts are not meant to be understood. Maybe because these texts were created by man. This leads me to my next point.

I sometimes question the origins of all religion. How do any of us know that the religion we believe in so much wasn't created by man? The fact that man created religion would be very hard to disprove. Writing and all record keeping wasn't widely practiced back in those days, and even if the creators of a religion could write, I doubt they'd record the fact that it was them not a higher power that commands all mankind to do this and do that. For instance, there are some experts on religion, who believe that Jesus was just a guy on opium who didn't want people to take him and what he was saying seriously. Of course that wouldn't be written about either if it were true. So it is quite possible we are the fools following a fool. This holds true for any religion, all were begun by man, and man is flawed. It is far easier for a government to work if you have motivation for the followers. A good motivator is if you convince your followers that by being good citizens you will please a high and mighty power. Why do you think that early religions held their rulers as gods. David Koresh did the same thing when he started his cult, and people believed him. That was less than a decade ago, imagine a couple thousand years ago when people were far more open for suggestion, and not nearly as smart. So that means that if you believe in a religion, your belief is based on simple faith. Sometimes that is enough, but I find faith in a religion to be difficult when the religion is full of contradictions and is run by hypocrites. The Catholic church for example, condemns homosexuality, yet there are Catholic priests molesting twelve year old boys. That's what upsets me the most about religion these days. The contradictions in what the religious texts say and what the leaders of the religion say. That's why with every day, I like organized religion even less.

Church and state are suppose to be separate, yet in the U.S. we seem to have conveniently forgotten that part of the Constitution. In court we a person swears upon the Bible, our Pledge of Allegiance has the words "Under God" in it, and there are schools who have banned the scientific theory of evolution. To me, all this sh*t is B.S.! How do people sleep at night? We are a country created to combat any type of prejudice yet by keeping these things intact, we are discriminating against other religions, and against those who don't believe in religion. These things are all customs and traditions dating back hundreds of years. Well, sometimes traditions don't make sense in modern context, so we change them, and that needs to be the case here.

I'll tell you what I really dislike about a lot of religions, and that's the zealots. Those people who think they are better than everyone, because they have devoted their life to a religion. To me, that's a waste of the one life we are given. If God would have wanted us to waste our lives just praying to him, then why would he have even created us? Another thing I don't like about these people is that in their commitment to their religion, they discriminate to all other religions. That's always a good way to show your kind and gentle side to God. What is the worst thing though, is the lengths these people are willing to go to in order to prove their beliefs. Such examples can be seen in the fighting between the Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem, and the attack on the U.S. by the terrorists in September. Don't think I'm trying to single the Islamic religion out here, because I'm not. All religions are equal in my eyes. Each has its own positives and negatives. The Christians started the Crusades, which killed, who knows how many people. Speaking of that, talk about man manipulating religious beliefs for their own purpose. The Crusades were basically started simply to distract the people of the Christian European nations. Instead of having wars between each other in their homeland, the rulers basically said, "If you really love God, you should go to the Mediterranean area and take out the "Barbarian" Muslims." I'm sure they quoted some Bible verse to point out how this is what God wanted.

Finally, I would like to end with a question. Why can't all the religions get along? Many of them believe in one God, which I believe to be the same in all of them. Others believe in a higher power in the form of energy all around us. Maybe that's what God is. Even the polytheistic religions have a central/main God. This could also be the same God as in the monotheistic religions. A lot of religions have angels, so who is to say these lesser gods aren't like the angels of western religions? I guess what I'm saying is that if we all believe in basically the same thing, why do we have to treat each other with such hatred? If you are as holy and righteous as you think you are, then there should be no hate in your heart for anyone or anything, and anyone who disagrees needs to read some religious text, cuz their aint one that says hate other people.

Well, that's about enough for now. I'm sorry if this article doesn't mesh together very well, I found it very hard to concentrate on one area. Every time I started writing something, I would think of another good argument so I'd rush ahead and start on that. In any case, I was just trying to get the ball rolling. I want to hear what you think. So hit up the message boards and let's hear what you have to say. Whether you agree, or whether you think I'm full of sh*t and that you hope my blasphemous ass burns in hell, it doesn't matter to me. I'm sure I'll think of plenty more points to argue, but until then…..

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