RELIGION

This brainwashing nonsense has got to go. No, by that I don’t mean do away with believing in God or Allah or whatever. I mean organized religion. See you later, Mr. Pope! All religion does is condition people to be against each other, even though just about all of them claim to teach love and tolerance. You can see religion setting people against each other on all levels. An epic example of this is all the craziness going on in the Middle East. On a person-to-person scale, there’s this story: once upon a time, many moons ago, I met a young lady who seemed to be perfect for me. We got along famously for months, and a romance slowly started to build. One day our conversation crossed the topic of religion. I admitted I wasn’t sure if I believed in God or not. Suddenly it was like she’d dropped off the face of the earth. This difference in beliefs brought our relationship to a grinding halt. In terms of compatibility we scored a 9 out of 10, but that one point was enough to rip it all apart.

Let me restate that I don’t feel religion is bad. The institutions around them are what’s a mess. Just look at the Catholic Church as one example. Why is that even necessary? Why does there have to be an institution between you and God? If you believe in God, that should be enough. You shouldn’t be made to still feel guilty because you missed mass once or twice. I know the people in this organization are supposed to be moral beacons for us, but they don’t really live up to that status. You don’t even need my assistance here in pointing out how many times child-molesting priests have been in the headlines.

George Carlin once said religion is like a lift in your shoe. You can wear it for a while, but you don’t need it forever. I couldn’t agree more.