God. יהוה. الله. Elohim. Jesus. Mohammed.
Religion is a human coping mechanism and survival strategy as old as the human race is.
But somewhere in the mix of time religion became something else. It became a shield. It also became a sword.
I’m going to cover a certain set of religion: Abrahamic religions. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
Growing up, my head was filled with jewish teachings:
“Oi bubeleh! Don’t eat that! its not kosher!”
“Gevalt! God forbid you talk to a shiksa!”
My family was rather secular but that doesn’t mean casual jokes weren’t as much of an influence as seriously telling me things.
“Dad I like a girl at school”
“Well son, is she jewish? HAHAHA JUST KIDDING!”
or
“bye dad I’m off to college!”
“make sure to bring home a nice, rich, jewish girl when you come home for Hanukkah! HAHAHA JUST KIDDING SON!”
When I was a junior and senior in high school i decided to do something that in Judaism we call “lehakhzor betshuvah” I guess the christian equivalent is “born again”, basically to adopt a religious lifestyle and mentality after living secularly.
I did this for a year and a half.
Here is a pic from my Junior Prom. I’m the chub with the yarmulke in the back.
It was an experience definitely. But a meaningless and utterly pointless one (for me)
Many people use religion as an excuse: the orthodox Jews who up till now didn’t have to go into the military in Israel because they were religious, the average joe who takes a day off work to go to church, those politicians who go to church JUST to look good to the public, the list goes on.
Many people use religion as a form of peace and a sense of morality: Tibetan Buddhist monks who teach world peace and acceptance, peaceful Muslims in the tiny villages of Pakistan who invite a lost stranger into their homes and provide them with food, drink and hospitality, the Baha’i who teach acceptance of all religions, et cetera.
However, most of the people who follow monotheistic Abrahamic religions use it as a weapon: the Jews who STILL use the holocaust 2 generations down as an excuse to get their way, the nation of Israel who’s only claim to the land is “God said this land is ours”, the extremist Muslims who bomb innocent civilians because they sympathize with the west, the hardcore Christians who shove their religion down everyone’s throat because they think they are helping us get into an implausible and nonexistent heaven.
Popular religious culture is to me sickening. Cultures ruined thanks to missionization, wars on the basis of religion, hate crimes, and superiority complexes, are just some examples.
the worst part about it is that a lot of the customs of these religions were started by oppressive regimes in order to oppress the people.
Lets take this very likely theory on Christianity:
The new testament was written under Flavius Caesar, emperor of Rome, in order to quell rebellion of the Jews. He and his senators released the scroll in order to form a new sect in Judaism, the messianic sect. It worked! so now instead of Jews rebelling against the roman republic they were beheading their own people over the argument of if Jesus was or was not the messiah.
How about the Kings and queens in Europe’s history. Declaring that only their sect of Christianity was correct and if anybody went against it they would be executed.
That was history. That was the past. This sort of stuff doesn’t happen anymore. Right?
WRONG MOTHERFUCKERS!
“Being gay is sinful and wrong!”
“Don’t date a shiksa!”
“the infidels are inferior they do not worship Allah!”
“Sex is the sharing of the souls under god’s supervision”
what do these quotes tell us?
well lets put it plainly:
“Don’t be gay”
“Don’t date outside your race/religion”
“worship only the god I worship”
“Don’t have sex. pleasure is for conformists only”
Are you really OK with people saying these things? Can you condone this?
I certainly can’t. If god does exist it wouldn’t be anything like these story books tell us.
Actually sorry, I was wrong, God does exist.
God is energy. energy started the big bang, energy binds atoms into molecules, energy creates and dissipates matter. Look guys I scientifically explained God!
Energy won’t tell you what to do. In fact if you’re truly happy and are able to do what you want to do you have more physical energy since you’re less fatigued and depressed.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not telling you not to believe in whatever. I advocate to do whatever you want as long as it makes you truly happy. I just want you to take a long hard look at your belief system, scrutinize where its wrong and what you don’t like and if you want to keep on believing that’s fine but realize that it is wrong to shove Jesus’s dick in everyone’s mouths. I mean I don’t mind sucking dick but consent is important you know?
Have a video about who really owns the land of Israel:
Courtesy of Nina Paley: http://blog.ninapaley.com/2012/10/01/this-land-is-mine/
So if you are a strong, ignorant, arrogant supporter of these religions: put down your sword, drop your shield, and come give me a hug because
All we need is love.
**** Note: When I use the word “Christians” I am referring to all the popular sects of christianity including catholics, baptists, protestants, etc.****
Philosophy's Bitch 