Politics & Religion
Elections. The Right and the Left. Religion, hatred, intolerance.
I love to read the news and I like being informed about what's going on in the world.
However this year the religious connotations and the vitriolic garbage coming out the candidates is overwhelming.
I just read an article about a poor girl in Morocco who was forced to marry her rapist. After being beaten for months and told by her mother to be patient the 16 year old girl killed herself. It's enough to make you cry. (the law that allows a rapist to marry the victim to avoid punishment hearkens back to the Old Testament, adjusted by Islamic Law). But it is in the book of Deuteronomy.
When I hear about people on the right who want to force a rape victim to carry the child. Or when I hear about religious zealots in this country who want to outlaw divorce. When one of the presidential nominees says quite proudly that the "Separation of Church and State, makes him sick" ....I simply don't know how to respond. I'm horrified and disgusted to the point where I'm sick.
The History of Religion is almost all violence and bloodshed. All of the Old Testament is filled with violence. War, invasion, killing the non-believers all with Gods approval.
Supposedly the New Testament got rid of all that. It's often said by born again's that "Jesus sacrifice and teachings supersede or overwrite the Old Testament. Funny when some ass hat wants to bash gays they usually quote the Old Testament. Or when some dumb fuck hillbilly preacher blames natural disasters on a City/Country/People for "not praying hard enough" they are also quoting the Old Testament.
Yet even after the death of Jesus and the birth of Christianity. Nothing but violence, hatred, war, prosecution. The separation of the East and West Churches, the centuries of war against Islam, the Inquisition, the war on women of wisdom, Witch Trials, today we have a new war on rights of women, rights of minorities, war against science and rational thought.
Slavery in this country was accepted and defended because the Bible says it's okay.
Let me say that again. The Bible okay's slavery.
Most people who are religious today don't believe in "Ra", "Zeus", or "Thor". They would even scoff at the belief. Most people who are religious today don't believe that the sun rotates around the Earth in a crystal bowl. Yet Galileo was tired by the Church for Heresy and spent his remaining years under house arrest. Most Americans don't believe slavery is acceptable. Yet it was practiced openly up until 150 years ago. I won't even go into the other crazy stuff that makes up most of the books of Deuteronomy and Judges.
Religion has no place in Government. We don't base our laws on Egyptian mythology, and we've already discarded huge parts of Christianity. We don't need any Christian mythology anymore. The middle east doesn't need any Islamic mythology anymore, but they need to realize that themselves. Forcing it on them (just like Democracy) is doomed to fail.
I understand that large parts of the country have church as the central theme to their towns. So people vote what they know and feel comfortable with, but they are voting for mythology. They are voting for closed minded bigotry, they are voting for hatred. They are voting to move backwards in one of the most amazing times on our planet. Education removes the need for a mythical universe. Education makes people aware of how awesome this world could be with just people power. The power to feed everyone, the power to make help everyone. The power for those who have drive and ambition to succeed and be wealthy, rich, happy AND even to allow those who don't have a lot of ambition to be happy and content.
We have the ability to do this NOW and it doesn't require any mythology. It doesn't require a burning afterlife or a heavenly one. It requires people working together and pushing science forward not ancient myths.
It requires treating all people equally, not forcing myths on people.
It requires people to stop being greedy pigs and gaming the system for their own good and pushing everyone to stand on their own as much as possible. For those people who are lazy asshats to get off their fucking sofa's and contribute. It requires people to think a little bit about tomorrow and next year and next century.
It really shouldn't be that tough.
But please just leave your god out of it.
I love to read the news and I like being informed about what's going on in the world.
However this year the religious connotations and the vitriolic garbage coming out the candidates is overwhelming.
I just read an article about a poor girl in Morocco who was forced to marry her rapist. After being beaten for months and told by her mother to be patient the 16 year old girl killed herself. It's enough to make you cry. (the law that allows a rapist to marry the victim to avoid punishment hearkens back to the Old Testament, adjusted by Islamic Law). But it is in the book of Deuteronomy.
When I hear about people on the right who want to force a rape victim to carry the child. Or when I hear about religious zealots in this country who want to outlaw divorce. When one of the presidential nominees says quite proudly that the "Separation of Church and State, makes him sick" ....I simply don't know how to respond. I'm horrified and disgusted to the point where I'm sick.
The History of Religion is almost all violence and bloodshed. All of the Old Testament is filled with violence. War, invasion, killing the non-believers all with Gods approval.
Supposedly the New Testament got rid of all that. It's often said by born again's that "Jesus sacrifice and teachings supersede or overwrite the Old Testament. Funny when some ass hat wants to bash gays they usually quote the Old Testament. Or when some dumb fuck hillbilly preacher blames natural disasters on a City/Country/People for "not praying hard enough" they are also quoting the Old Testament.
Yet even after the death of Jesus and the birth of Christianity. Nothing but violence, hatred, war, prosecution. The separation of the East and West Churches, the centuries of war against Islam, the Inquisition, the war on women of wisdom, Witch Trials, today we have a new war on rights of women, rights of minorities, war against science and rational thought.
Slavery in this country was accepted and defended because the Bible says it's okay.
Let me say that again. The Bible okay's slavery.
Most people who are religious today don't believe in "Ra", "Zeus", or "Thor". They would even scoff at the belief. Most people who are religious today don't believe that the sun rotates around the Earth in a crystal bowl. Yet Galileo was tired by the Church for Heresy and spent his remaining years under house arrest. Most Americans don't believe slavery is acceptable. Yet it was practiced openly up until 150 years ago. I won't even go into the other crazy stuff that makes up most of the books of Deuteronomy and Judges.
Religion has no place in Government. We don't base our laws on Egyptian mythology, and we've already discarded huge parts of Christianity. We don't need any Christian mythology anymore. The middle east doesn't need any Islamic mythology anymore, but they need to realize that themselves. Forcing it on them (just like Democracy) is doomed to fail.
I understand that large parts of the country have church as the central theme to their towns. So people vote what they know and feel comfortable with, but they are voting for mythology. They are voting for closed minded bigotry, they are voting for hatred. They are voting to move backwards in one of the most amazing times on our planet. Education removes the need for a mythical universe. Education makes people aware of how awesome this world could be with just people power. The power to feed everyone, the power to make help everyone. The power for those who have drive and ambition to succeed and be wealthy, rich, happy AND even to allow those who don't have a lot of ambition to be happy and content.
We have the ability to do this NOW and it doesn't require any mythology. It doesn't require a burning afterlife or a heavenly one. It requires people working together and pushing science forward not ancient myths.
It requires treating all people equally, not forcing myths on people.
It requires people to stop being greedy pigs and gaming the system for their own good and pushing everyone to stand on their own as much as possible. For those people who are lazy asshats to get off their fucking sofa's and contribute. It requires people to think a little bit about tomorrow and next year and next century.
It really shouldn't be that tough.
But please just leave your god out of it.