I have a love/hate relationship with religion. I love it because I think it's fascinating and I love hearing about others beliefs. I enjoy the fact that people have faith in something, whatever that something may be. I hate the fact of organized religion. I believe it is mostly corrupt and the idea of faith has been replaced with the bigger idea of Benjamin Franklin's. The heads of churches are just that, a leader, a person that is supposed to help guide the followers, but some how they have started to think they are part of Lil' Wayne's posse with the exception of some gold teeth. I hate that religion has turned people into fanatics. That when you try to have an intellectual, open minded conversation about religion, it turns into an argument of who's right and who's wrong. You sir, are not God, therefore the gift of being infallible was not bestowed upon you. I hate to be the one to burst your holier than though bubble, but there is a good chance that you could be wrong. Xenu could be looking down at all of us, laughing, right now. I have no idea.
I have my beliefs, but I have no proof that I am right for what I choose to believe in. I'm pretty sure no religion has actual proof that they are the "right" religion. The only thing with hard evidence right now is science, and it's not looking good for the righteous. Scoreboard: Science - 1, Religion - 0. I like to believe that there is a God. Is there a God? I don't know, but I like to think so. See, this is the thing that I don't understand, I like to think there is a God, but wouldn't it be highly ignorant of me to say that, there is, without a doubt a God, and that if you do not believe that, you sir are a jackass. Get your clams and whammy's and get the hell out of here! Especially when I have zero proof that he exists. Saying that without a doubt there is God, is like proving that Santa Clause is real. Again, I would like to think Santa is real, because how awesome does Santa seem?! I think God might be equally awesome. However, I have no evidence that Santa exists, except for the bites that were taken out of my cookies last year at Christmas, that I left for him. People use this exact thinking, to say that God exists, or that their religion is right and I'm going to hell because I don't believe them. Trust me, I would love some one to find hard evidence that their religion is right and this higher being does exist. It would put those science guys right in their place. They're the righteous ones! Walking around with their test tubes and their beakers, giving us nothing but a hard back copy of "The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God" and Carl Sagan to believe in. I'm just kidding science guys, I also love your religion. I think you guys might actually be on to something! Plus I think "The Big Bang Theory" is a really funny show.
I was raised Catholic and I thought all bibles were the same. I mean, it's the bible, why wouldn't they all be the same? I'm pretty confident that everyone that has read "Twilight" will all give you the same story line. I would think that a book that people base their lives on would be a little more consistent than a fictional book about vampires. I'm starting to think that it's ok for me to go and just start re-writing books to how I believe it should be. Then tell everyone that my version of Twilight is the right one, and that all the other Twilight books have it all wrong. I firmly believe that Bella should end up with Jake, that works a lot better for me. I had an ex-boyfriend who was a Jehovah Witness. I know, I know...don't get me started, don't EVEN get me started! You could not have an open conversation with him about what you believed in, without him saying, "you're wrong". We were talking one night about Jesus and his unfortunate demise. I referenced something about Jesus dying on a cross and he said, "Jesus did not die on a cross, he died on a torturing stake". I thought WTF is a torturing stake?! I asked him where he got that information from and he said "the bible". I told him my source, the bible, said he died on a cross. He then told me that "my" bible was wrong. My bible? We use the same bible!!! I wonder if someone else's bible says that Jesus was taken out by one of his own magic tricks, kind of like Houdini. That would be the way to go. Better than a cross or a torturing stake. It got me thinking how our bibles were exactly the same, except for some words here and there. Just two words being different in my bible, sparked a conviction so deep in him, that it really mattered what Jesus died on. Forget the point of why he died, but let's really focus on the how. I think if I were Jesus and I heard this conversation, I would think, "Me! Can you focus on the big picture here? I died for your sins!! Does it really matter how I died? That's sort of a moo point, you know, like a cows opinion". I like to think that Jesus would quote "Friends".
This whole conversation got me really thinking. Not that I hadn't thought of this before, but this really got me thinking. If his bible said one thing and my bible said another, how do we know which one is right? Furthermore, how do we even know the bible is right period? This is what bothers me, we have a book that was written way before we were a twinkle in our mother's eye and had to be translated. Now people say that there are different "translations" but I think they are using the word "translation" instead of saying what it really is, view points. Couldn't I just sit down and write a book with all these rules, laws, and "guidelines", say that all other religions are wrong, that this book that I wrote is right. When people scoff and question my qualifications, I will simply look them dead in the eye, and with a face as straight as an arrow, say, "Dude, an angel of God came to me last night, told me that this book, the bible, that everyone believes in, is totally wrong. She said I need to write the truth. So I woke up and just started writing! I hadn't even been drinking or anything!". I mean, that's what Joseph Smith said, in not so many words, right? Who's to say that whoever wrote the bible, was just as sick and twisted as Hitler? Hitler created a genocide by merely saying what he believed was right and obviously people listened. What is the difference between the followers of Jim Jones and Catholics? Or the difference between any cult and religion? That's the thing about charisma, it makes everyone believe. So many people have based their lives around a book that is 99% speculation. There are no facts to back up that anything in it, is the truth. Despite that fact, they will fight for it tooth and nail, they will kill for it. Yet if someone were to walk up to them and hand them tickets to see their favorite band, front row, backstage passes, the works, for only $100, how skeptical would they be about that person telling the truth? Then they go to church and give 10% of their paycheck to church tidings because someone told them if they do, they will have front row seats with God. If I had to bet on those tickets being real or God being real, I'm putting my money on the tickets. I'm not saying that I'm right or that they're wrong, I'm just saying that maybe putting all your eggs in one basket isn't the smartest thing to do.
It makes me very uneasy that people will throw themselves into something that no one can prove, take it as fact, and questioning any of it is out of the question. If you believe in technology, you have to realize that questioning things helps you learn and grow and discover. At one point people thought the world was flat. They honestly believed that when you hit the edge of the ocean, you would just fall right off the face of the earth. They told Christopher Columbus that he was an idiot for believing that there might be a chance that what they believed was wrong.
I wonder if people, who were raised to believe a certain way, actually start to question and doubt what they were taught, but they are so pot committed and afraid of admitting defeat. Maybe they don't want to question it, in case it is wrong, their whole belief system would come crashing down. My cousin and I were having a conversation about this topic and I told her how the thought of there being a God was comforting. I'm a living, breathing thing with thoughts and feelings and to think that one day this will end and I will cease to exist and that's it, is not very comforting. I guess I imagine death without a God would be me, trapped in my body, conscious of this fact, just laying in a box, in the ground, forever. She asked me if I was afraid of death, I said, "Yes, deathly afraid". She said that is why I like the idea of a God. It made sense. It's nicer to think that I'm going to a pretty place now where the flowers grow. I'm not sure how I would react if one day there was concrete proof that God does not exist. It would ruin my whole belief system. Would I be more afraid of death? Would I start pillaging villages once I realize that there no rules, so naturally, no consequences? I think that's funny when people think that if you believe there is no God, you immediately have no morals. Adultery is perfectly fine! You better watch your significant others around atheists, they will have their way with them in a heart beat! Put away all your valuables if you think someone who doesn't believe in God will be entering your house. They won't think twice about pocketing that chain your Granmama gave you. Rape, shmape. Like if someone who doesn't believe in God, automatically doesn't follow the laws of man. If he doesn't believe in God, we all won't believe in God, it will be anarchy!!
I'm going to leave you with a "Friends" episode where Phoebe tells Ross she doesn't believe in evolution, written so well.
ROSS: Pheebs, I have studied evolution my entire adult life. Ok, I can tell you, we have collected fossils from all over the world that actually show the evolution of different species, ok? You can literally see them evolving through time.
PHOEBE: Really? You can actually see it?
ROSS: You bet. In the U.S., China, Africa, all over.
PHOEBE: See, I didn't know that.
ROSS: Well, there you go.
PHOEBE: Huh. So now, the real question is, who put those fossils there, and why?
PHOEBE: Look, can't we just say that you believe in something, and I don't.
ROSS: Ok, Phoebe, this is it. In this briefcase I carry actual scientific facts. A briefcase of facts, if you will. Some of these fossils are over 200 million years old.
PHOEBE: Ok, look, before you even start, I'm not denying evolution, ok, I'm just saying that it's one of the possibilities.
ROSS: It's the only possibility, Phoebe.
PHOEBE: Ok, Ross, could you just open your mind like this much, ok? Wasn't there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess of crap came out. Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can't admit that there's a teeny tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?
ROSS: There might be, a teeny, tiny, possibility.
PHOEBE: I can't believe you caved.
ROSS: What?
PHOEBE: You just abandoned your whole belief system. I mean, before, I didn't agree with you, but at least I respected you. How, how, how are you going to go into work tomorrow? How, how are you going to face the other science guys? How, how are you going to face yourself? Oh! That was fun. So who's hungry?
I have my beliefs, but I have no proof that I am right for what I choose to believe in. I'm pretty sure no religion has actual proof that they are the "right" religion. The only thing with hard evidence right now is science, and it's not looking good for the righteous. Scoreboard: Science - 1, Religion - 0. I like to believe that there is a God. Is there a God? I don't know, but I like to think so. See, this is the thing that I don't understand, I like to think there is a God, but wouldn't it be highly ignorant of me to say that, there is, without a doubt a God, and that if you do not believe that, you sir are a jackass. Get your clams and whammy's and get the hell out of here! Especially when I have zero proof that he exists. Saying that without a doubt there is God, is like proving that Santa Clause is real. Again, I would like to think Santa is real, because how awesome does Santa seem?! I think God might be equally awesome. However, I have no evidence that Santa exists, except for the bites that were taken out of my cookies last year at Christmas, that I left for him. People use this exact thinking, to say that God exists, or that their religion is right and I'm going to hell because I don't believe them. Trust me, I would love some one to find hard evidence that their religion is right and this higher being does exist. It would put those science guys right in their place. They're the righteous ones! Walking around with their test tubes and their beakers, giving us nothing but a hard back copy of "The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God" and Carl Sagan to believe in. I'm just kidding science guys, I also love your religion. I think you guys might actually be on to something! Plus I think "The Big Bang Theory" is a really funny show.
I was raised Catholic and I thought all bibles were the same. I mean, it's the bible, why wouldn't they all be the same? I'm pretty confident that everyone that has read "Twilight" will all give you the same story line. I would think that a book that people base their lives on would be a little more consistent than a fictional book about vampires. I'm starting to think that it's ok for me to go and just start re-writing books to how I believe it should be. Then tell everyone that my version of Twilight is the right one, and that all the other Twilight books have it all wrong. I firmly believe that Bella should end up with Jake, that works a lot better for me. I had an ex-boyfriend who was a Jehovah Witness. I know, I know...don't get me started, don't EVEN get me started! You could not have an open conversation with him about what you believed in, without him saying, "you're wrong". We were talking one night about Jesus and his unfortunate demise. I referenced something about Jesus dying on a cross and he said, "Jesus did not die on a cross, he died on a torturing stake". I thought WTF is a torturing stake?! I asked him where he got that information from and he said "the bible". I told him my source, the bible, said he died on a cross. He then told me that "my" bible was wrong. My bible? We use the same bible!!! I wonder if someone else's bible says that Jesus was taken out by one of his own magic tricks, kind of like Houdini. That would be the way to go. Better than a cross or a torturing stake. It got me thinking how our bibles were exactly the same, except for some words here and there. Just two words being different in my bible, sparked a conviction so deep in him, that it really mattered what Jesus died on. Forget the point of why he died, but let's really focus on the how. I think if I were Jesus and I heard this conversation, I would think, "Me! Can you focus on the big picture here? I died for your sins!! Does it really matter how I died? That's sort of a moo point, you know, like a cows opinion". I like to think that Jesus would quote "Friends".
This whole conversation got me really thinking. Not that I hadn't thought of this before, but this really got me thinking. If his bible said one thing and my bible said another, how do we know which one is right? Furthermore, how do we even know the bible is right period? This is what bothers me, we have a book that was written way before we were a twinkle in our mother's eye and had to be translated. Now people say that there are different "translations" but I think they are using the word "translation" instead of saying what it really is, view points. Couldn't I just sit down and write a book with all these rules, laws, and "guidelines", say that all other religions are wrong, that this book that I wrote is right. When people scoff and question my qualifications, I will simply look them dead in the eye, and with a face as straight as an arrow, say, "Dude, an angel of God came to me last night, told me that this book, the bible, that everyone believes in, is totally wrong. She said I need to write the truth. So I woke up and just started writing! I hadn't even been drinking or anything!". I mean, that's what Joseph Smith said, in not so many words, right? Who's to say that whoever wrote the bible, was just as sick and twisted as Hitler? Hitler created a genocide by merely saying what he believed was right and obviously people listened. What is the difference between the followers of Jim Jones and Catholics? Or the difference between any cult and religion? That's the thing about charisma, it makes everyone believe. So many people have based their lives around a book that is 99% speculation. There are no facts to back up that anything in it, is the truth. Despite that fact, they will fight for it tooth and nail, they will kill for it. Yet if someone were to walk up to them and hand them tickets to see their favorite band, front row, backstage passes, the works, for only $100, how skeptical would they be about that person telling the truth? Then they go to church and give 10% of their paycheck to church tidings because someone told them if they do, they will have front row seats with God. If I had to bet on those tickets being real or God being real, I'm putting my money on the tickets. I'm not saying that I'm right or that they're wrong, I'm just saying that maybe putting all your eggs in one basket isn't the smartest thing to do.
It makes me very uneasy that people will throw themselves into something that no one can prove, take it as fact, and questioning any of it is out of the question. If you believe in technology, you have to realize that questioning things helps you learn and grow and discover. At one point people thought the world was flat. They honestly believed that when you hit the edge of the ocean, you would just fall right off the face of the earth. They told Christopher Columbus that he was an idiot for believing that there might be a chance that what they believed was wrong.
I wonder if people, who were raised to believe a certain way, actually start to question and doubt what they were taught, but they are so pot committed and afraid of admitting defeat. Maybe they don't want to question it, in case it is wrong, their whole belief system would come crashing down. My cousin and I were having a conversation about this topic and I told her how the thought of there being a God was comforting. I'm a living, breathing thing with thoughts and feelings and to think that one day this will end and I will cease to exist and that's it, is not very comforting. I guess I imagine death without a God would be me, trapped in my body, conscious of this fact, just laying in a box, in the ground, forever. She asked me if I was afraid of death, I said, "Yes, deathly afraid". She said that is why I like the idea of a God. It made sense. It's nicer to think that I'm going to a pretty place now where the flowers grow. I'm not sure how I would react if one day there was concrete proof that God does not exist. It would ruin my whole belief system. Would I be more afraid of death? Would I start pillaging villages once I realize that there no rules, so naturally, no consequences? I think that's funny when people think that if you believe there is no God, you immediately have no morals. Adultery is perfectly fine! You better watch your significant others around atheists, they will have their way with them in a heart beat! Put away all your valuables if you think someone who doesn't believe in God will be entering your house. They won't think twice about pocketing that chain your Granmama gave you. Rape, shmape. Like if someone who doesn't believe in God, automatically doesn't follow the laws of man. If he doesn't believe in God, we all won't believe in God, it will be anarchy!!
I'm going to leave you with a "Friends" episode where Phoebe tells Ross she doesn't believe in evolution, written so well.
PHOEBE: You know, they're a lot of things that I don't believe in, but that doesn't mean they're not true.
JOEY: Such as?
PHOEBE: Like crop circles, or the Bermuda triangle, or evolution?
ROSS: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, you don't, uh, you don't believe in evolution?
PHOEBE: Nah. Not really.
ROSS: You don't believe in evolution?
PHOEBE: I don't know, it's just, you know...monkeys, Darwin, you know, it's a, it's a nice story, I just think it's a little too easy.
ROSS: Too easy? Too...The process of every living thing on this planet evolving over millions of years from single-celled organisms, too easy?
PHOEBE: Yeah, I just don't buy it.
ROSS: Uh, excuse me. Evolution is not for you to buy, Phoebe. Evolution is scientific fact, like, like, like the air we breathe, like gravity.
PHOEBE: Really? You can actually see it?
ROSS: You bet. In the U.S., China, Africa, all over.
PHOEBE: See, I didn't know that.
ROSS: Well, there you go.
PHOEBE: Huh. So now, the real question is, who put those fossils there, and why?
PHOEBE: Look, can't we just say that you believe in something, and I don't.
ROSS: Ok, Phoebe, this is it. In this briefcase I carry actual scientific facts. A briefcase of facts, if you will. Some of these fossils are over 200 million years old.
PHOEBE: Ok, look, before you even start, I'm not denying evolution, ok, I'm just saying that it's one of the possibilities.
ROSS: It's the only possibility, Phoebe.
PHOEBE: Ok, Ross, could you just open your mind like this much, ok? Wasn't there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess of crap came out. Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can't admit that there's a teeny tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?
ROSS: There might be, a teeny, tiny, possibility.
PHOEBE: I can't believe you caved.
ROSS: What?
PHOEBE: You just abandoned your whole belief system. I mean, before, I didn't agree with you, but at least I respected you. How, how, how are you going to go into work tomorrow? How, how are you going to face the other science guys? How, how are you going to face yourself? Oh! That was fun. So who's hungry?
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