Bombing Churches
60 are dead from explosions at Mosques in Iraq. I know that many will lament the evil of bombing a holy place where people worship. I don't agree. The United States is running a war in which our President continually evokes God as a reason to fight, and a reason that we will win.
My god isn't in the business of war. He doesn't hold shares in Halliburton. He doesn't tell me who to vote for, and surely does not use public tax dollars to fund faith based initiatives in a country that separates church and state. Then again, I don't believe in religion.
Apparently, the gods of Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims are in the war business. I propose that they only bomb places of worship. Leave all the innocent people who see religion as the ultimate fairy tale out of your wars.
Fairy tales like religion rely on the listener to suspend rational thought. They help children get to sleep at night in the same way that religion helps children and adults get to sleep at night. It is an intellectual crutch in one's search for meaning. Religion makes the bad things in life appear to be good medicine, and allows one to rationalize success as the reward for a life in the service of God. Most importantly, religions cause wars.
The last statement was made famous by a man that I and many others worship--John Lennon. Even the worship of John Lennon caused violence towards the object of the worship so it would seem that humans are not cut out for this whole worship thing and we should try to get off the sauce before it destroys us all.
Don't try to acquit yourself because your religion is better. All the religions have done it and they all believe they are right: Israel v. Palestine, Christians v. Catholics, Hindu v. Muslims, The Crusades (Christians v. Muslims), The Inquisition (Catholics v. Jews), Buddhist Monks v. Gasoline and a lighter.
So do yourself a favor and skip church, temple, the synagogue, or mosque this week. Then write your congressional representatives and let them know that if they really want to end war, they need to light up every church, mosque, synagogue, and temple within range next weekend. It is the religions that allow people the fervor and the suspension of reality necessary to believe in a war. End the religions and you will cripple the war machine.
Better yet turn the bombs and guns over to those of us that don't believe in Paradise, Nirvana, Heaven or Hell. We will kill or die only as a last resort. You can trust us to not turn the guns over to you when you get really upset over the fact that your neighbor believes that Jesus' mother is important and you don't, or that Muhammed should have spelled his name Mohammed, or that they think that Britney Spears is a slightly less terrible singer than Ashley Simpson. Let reason prevail.
My god isn't in the business of war. He doesn't hold shares in Halliburton. He doesn't tell me who to vote for, and surely does not use public tax dollars to fund faith based initiatives in a country that separates church and state. Then again, I don't believe in religion.
Apparently, the gods of Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims are in the war business. I propose that they only bomb places of worship. Leave all the innocent people who see religion as the ultimate fairy tale out of your wars.
Fairy tales like religion rely on the listener to suspend rational thought. They help children get to sleep at night in the same way that religion helps children and adults get to sleep at night. It is an intellectual crutch in one's search for meaning. Religion makes the bad things in life appear to be good medicine, and allows one to rationalize success as the reward for a life in the service of God. Most importantly, religions cause wars.
The last statement was made famous by a man that I and many others worship--John Lennon. Even the worship of John Lennon caused violence towards the object of the worship so it would seem that humans are not cut out for this whole worship thing and we should try to get off the sauce before it destroys us all.
Don't try to acquit yourself because your religion is better. All the religions have done it and they all believe they are right: Israel v. Palestine, Christians v. Catholics, Hindu v. Muslims, The Crusades (Christians v. Muslims), The Inquisition (Catholics v. Jews), Buddhist Monks v. Gasoline and a lighter.
So do yourself a favor and skip church, temple, the synagogue, or mosque this week. Then write your congressional representatives and let them know that if they really want to end war, they need to light up every church, mosque, synagogue, and temple within range next weekend. It is the religions that allow people the fervor and the suspension of reality necessary to believe in a war. End the religions and you will cripple the war machine.
Better yet turn the bombs and guns over to those of us that don't believe in Paradise, Nirvana, Heaven or Hell. We will kill or die only as a last resort. You can trust us to not turn the guns over to you when you get really upset over the fact that your neighbor believes that Jesus' mother is important and you don't, or that Muhammed should have spelled his name Mohammed, or that they think that Britney Spears is a slightly less terrible singer than Ashley Simpson. Let reason prevail.
posted by Accidental Guru at 9:20 AM
2 Comments:
Well, well, you've really hit on a fruitful line of discussion here, Dan.
In fact, I have so many things to say about this stuff, that I don't even want to start. This would be one of the big areas of my planned website for serious political discussions.
As an atheist, a lot of what you say hits home, and I agree with, though of course a few of your phrases are going to make people think you don't care about people getting killed by a bomb in church. I think you do care, and so do I, but the point is you and I would be angrier if a school were bombed than a church, and I think that's NOT true for so many Americans (maybe it depends on the church for some people - or the school?).
This is a such way to provoke people, which I love you for, Dan - I tend to link organized religion with war-making as well, which as a generalized statement could get us in huge trouble. I still think we're right about it.
The devil's advocate question is, would we be better off without religions? What if it were against the law to practice any religion (some countries have this, right?) Do they do more good - on local and global levels? I'm not so sure.
It's easy to say that if people put the energy they have in stupid religions, hating each other and believing stupid things that hurt themselves and their neighbors (too many examples to cite), instead they put that energy into secular volunteer work (again, too many examples to cite), the world would be a better place.
But would many people do that if you 'took their religion away'? I think you could argue that religion is fulfilling some more useless part of their personal emotional needs, like 'justify my racism, hatred, self-hatred, and fear of the unknown and anything requiring math to explain', rather than the 'do something good for your world' need.
So there's a problem with just doing away with religion. I'm sorry, was that too obvious?
I do like taking the guns away from anybody who holds a religious belief strong enough to make them do anything more than write a blog entry about it. Especially anything involving guns.
OK, I could go on for hours, I'll just stop there and say that I have a lot more to say.
Keep blogging Dan,
-Aaron
The USSR officially oppressed religion, as does China. They deify the state instead so that soldiers will fight and die for the wellbeing of the State. It isn't much better, but I will fight for country, just don't ask me to fight for God.
Thank you for reading.
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