Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Tell mommy I don't go to the Church, tell Ak' I don't go to Mosque!

I guess it's been a while since I went in on a rant about religion, but nothing really made me want to, then it happened! The other day, like every Saturday, a group of Jehovah Witnesses came knocking at my door. Back when I was younger, the knocking of a group of Witnesses was a chance at hilarity. The best time is when my uncle opened the door nude, hilarious! When my father would answer the door, he would invite them inside for a discussion on religion. To what my father ask them questions that they could not easily answer was funny to me. It may be weird to some, but during my prepubescent years, my brother and I would read encyclopedias during downtime between commercial breaks on "The Incredible Hulk". I enjoyed reading about mythology and religion (which are basically the same thing), and that leads me to the following post.







If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to,
then He is not omnipotent.
If He is able, but not willing,
then He is malevolent.
If He is both able and willing,
then whence cometh evil?
If He is neither able nor willing,
then why call Him God?


"The Epicurean Paradox"

For the uninformed, the above quote is one of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicurus is known as the founder of the school of Epicureanism, a belief in Atomic Materialism. Atomic Materialism is a mixture of social atomism and materialism. Atomism is the belief that society should be viewed in terms of the individuals' importance and that society is artificially constructed. The philosophy of materialism holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is matter, and is considered a form of physicalism. I consider myself an Epicurean, because I believe that the universe revolves around the interaction of matter, just as society revolves around the interactions of individuals. As an Epicurean, I prescribe to the idea of self-fulfillment. Now, I know that somebody out there reading this is going to say that the idea of self-fulfillment is blasphemous. Or that the belief in personal responsibility is totally contradictory to the belief that a supreme being is in total control of the entire universe. (Dare I say that the idea of one being hearing the mumblings of billions of people is as asinine as the idea of one man delivering presents to billions of people worldwide in one night.) I am also a Deist, and Deism is the belief that there is a "God" that created the physical universe but does not interfere with it. Contrary to popular belief, if you don't prescribe to one of the major religions, you are not automatically an atheist, maybe irreligious, but not automatically atheist. In the words of Styles P, "I pray to Allah, but I'm too foul to go to the Mosque!"







Rational [rash-uh-nl] : being in or characterized by full possession of one's reason; sane; lucid.

Illogical [i-loj-i-kuhl] : contrary to or disregardful of the rules of logic; unreasoning.

Supernatural [soo-per-nach-er-uhl] : of, pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.

Magic [maj-ik] : any extraordinary or mystical influence, charm, power, etc.

Fantasy [fan-tuh-see] : a supposition based on no solid foundation.

Schizophrenia [skit-suh-free-nee-uh] : a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the following features: intellectual deterioration, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations.

Crazy [krey-zee] : mentally deranged; demented; senseless; impractical; totally unsound.

The words and there definitions were attached to this composition in order to aid you in understanding the underlying theme. Since the words above will be used considerably throughout the text, I put them up to make it easier for you to comprehend my ideas. The basic theme of this post, is the harm that radical and irrational belief can have on society as a whole. Most people would agree that mentally deranged persons, or crazy people, can be a threat to not only themselves, but to others.

Most religious people that I have had discussions with have labeled my opinions as irrational. By me saying that they can't prove that a "mystery God" (as the Five Percenters call it) exist, I was in someway being irrational. To believe in what is determined as real using the five senses, sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, is somehow irrational. Obviously, these people have never cracked a dictionary, or they would know that being in possession of ones reason is the definition of rational. Reasoning is coming to a conclusion based on facts, which is what is determined as real using the five senses. It's beyond reasoning that there is some invisible hand controlling what is going on in the world (unless you're talking about the shadow government that they call the Illuminati), it's illogical. Back in May of last year, I asked "Do you believe in magic?" to all of the religious folks out there. Usually that question would receive a stern "No!", but that's only because they don't know the definition of magic. When you ask a Christian "How did Jesus perform the miracles?", they will tell you that as the son of God, he was able to do supernatural feats. So basically, Jesus had some mystical power over the world, and that he could do things beyond the known natural constraints of the world. In other words, he did magic tricks! Now, religion is based on faith, or belief that is not based on proof (check your dictionary). You know what other word has that same exact definition? Fantasy! You follow this ideal based on fantasy, and I'm the irrational person? You throw out facts for fantasy, some talk in tongues, some talk to an invisible God. In psychology, they call a person that does these same things a schizophrenic. The following of religion is totally impractical, it's a belief system based on unfounded evidence, which by definition makes it's followers crazy.

You can see the harm that religion does everyday. From the crazy Muslims that kill themselves and others in the name of Allah. The crazy Jews that will willingly kill to take control of some "sacred land". Or the crazy Christians that will kill to keep women from being in control of their own lives, other religions being able to stay in their own homes (Palestine), and basically do anything to push their Christian beliefs on the world. I'm not going to go as far as Mel Gibson, and say "Jews are responsible for every war" (but they sure had a hand in most of them), but I'm going to say that religion had a position in almost every war ever fought. For something that's supposed to bring people together, it sure as hell has a way of tearing people apart. Maybe I'm wrong for believing religion is dangerous, but I personally fear religious people more than I fear the "immoral" irreligious folks. Religious folks will die for what they believe in, and in a lot of cases, kill for what they believe in. Most irreligious people are living for the reason just to live, while religious zealots are living to get into Heaven or Jannah, and they'll do anything to get on that guest list.







Remember the world is Diggie. Even the "Doodlebug" told you this was a Diggie-ble Planet. I'm cool like that!

1 comment:

SeanFields said...

I don't necessarily believe religion is wrong or evil. I think its great to have a belief in something larger than you or faith in something outside your control.
My issue comes from lies and distortion based on dogmatic practices and an "us vs. them" mentality cultivated by many religious leaders.
All religions at their base are about the Golden Rule. If you subscribe to this, then that is great. Unfortunately this is why u have islamic fanatics blowing things up instead of REALLY practicing Islam, which means the 'way of peace.' You have christian fundamentalists turning a war about democracy(ha!) and oil into some modern day Crusade and if you don't follow their lead/are Christian then u r evil n unpatriotic. (I may be mistaken in thinking their is a separation between church n state here n all have the freedom to believe what they want but whatever...) Then you have a faction in the generally peaceful religion of Judiasm advocating the eviction of people from their ancestral lands.
It's not religion that is the problem but the people who twists it for their own gains.
We should all be Buddhists. Those dudes don't start Crusades or blow shit up.