So many recent events have been driving me to write this post. With the Supreme Court currently working on their decision to allow or disallow gay marriage and the bombings that happened just yesterday in Boston, it seems again that religion is a sad and unnecessary thing in our world.
During the time SCOTUS was hearing arguments on gay marriage, several of my friends posted a scripture from Genesis that "marriage shall be between a man and a woman". They believe that the Bible has already decided that marriage is only proper if it exists in that fashion. That belief, best I can tell, is based on their belief that the Bible is correct since it is the word of God. My question about this really is, "What?!". However, let's just concede the point that the Bible is the word of god. Does that mean that everything in the bible is right? Does that mean the slavery condoned in the very same book of Genesis is correct (or in Leviticus, Exodus, etc)? I would bet that these same people that believe that marriage only truly exists between a man and a woman would say that slavery is wrong, even though the bible says otherwise.
I would bet that many in fact don't even know about the slavery bit, or the priest performing an abortion in the bible, or the men in the bible who allow their virgin children/daughters to be raped by men in order to protect priests, or many other horror filled stories of The Good Book. I would bet that while the story of Noah's ark is pictured on many a nursery wall, they forget that for that story to have happened, their god determined that ALL OTHER MANKIND (including children) and animals (what pray tell did the animals do?!) had to be wiped from the face of the earth. Did an all powerful god need to wipe out everything? Why not just get rid of the baddies?
If one really looks at the bible and studies the killings, virtually all of the killing is done by their god. Their god is a self-described jealous god who dare not be angered or denied. Their god is a very violent god who by conservative estimates killed 2.5 million people through floods, plagues, sword, pestilence, and a host of other misery infested deaths.
I guess it bugs me that the people who are most religious are the most intolerant. They say their beliefs are based on the bible. If the bible condones slavery, intolerance, and hate, which it does, then I certainly don't want to use it as my moral compass. Wouldn't it be more pleasant to just get along?!
I had an interesting chat with someone close to me that is religious. His view is that Jesus came in and changed the whole story, that he basically made the Old Testament invalid. Once Jesus came into the picture, the eye-for-an-eye god became the loving and caring god. Sadly, the New Testament claims several times over that the Old Testament is still valid and must be honored (Matthew 5, Luke 16, 2 Timothy 3, Mark 7, etc).
So I guess I am confused. Do the people who believe in the bible believe in all of the bible or just bits a pieces that support their own thoughts? Are those who are intolerant of homosexuals and their lives actually intolerant because that is how they were raised? (Methinks so.) I dare say there is not a two year old child who would hate having two fathers or two mothers. The only things a young child hates are being told no and naps. So somewhere after that stage, someone has told that young child that two fathers or two mothers is wrong. I see where they could get that from the bible, but it seems to me to be hypocritical to pull that particular verse as gospel (no pun intended) and none of the others (slavery, wearing cloth made from two different sources, an eye for an eye, etc). The thing that frightens me the most about people who base their hatred and intolerance on the bible is that the bible teaches them to hate all who do not believe the same. 2 John 1:9-11 and worse 2 Chronicles 15:12-13 which calls for the nonbeliever to be put to death. (It deserves to be said that the Koran actually calls for the same death for nonMuslims... This is meant not to be a post specifically ripping on Christianity, but rather the inconsistencies and the hypocricies of the believers in most religions.)
I read a quote the other day that really resonated with me: Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice. Claiming that you don't think two gay men should be able to have the same civil rights as a man and a woman is intolerance, irrespective of how it is spun. Any way of thinking that you are entitled to more rights than any other law abiding, tax paying, loving and caring person, is simply intolerance, and probably even narcissistic. And one certainly can't claim to love everyone but not want them to have equal rights and privileges. This to me is as clear as killing someone because they are the wrong religion is the same: intolerance. (Hopefully the bombs that went off yesterday in Boston won't be tied in any way to religion, but I am betting that they will be.)
As a side note, I have had several people tell me that religion is necessary to provide natural order and for people to base their morals on. I find this a pretty self-damning idea from those who support it. I don't kill people or rape people because the bible tells me not to (quite the opposite - the bible supports this to some degree). Many people seem to have their morals based on the bible so that they may receive everlasting life, or perhaps they fear divine retribution if they break the rules of the bible. Either way, someone with true morality is a good person because they are, and because they respect the life of others to live peacefully, and because they have empathy, and not because The Good Book says how to live.
Update: I'm guessing that these early details that emerge from the Boston bombers will soon start up the Islamophobia that runs rampant in our very Christian country. If the two men blew up people in Boston because of their religion, it only solidifies my distaste for organized religion. When organized religion stops spending millions of dollars on a mega church or synagogue or temple, and instead sends that money to help the poor, I may need to rethink this. For now though, I will look around this amazing world we live in, learn as much as I can about it, and be happy that I was able to live this very short time in it without needing to worry about an invisible man in the sky sending me to a very hot eternal place.
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