My rant for the day

[partis]

Mistertinkle that makes absolute no sense.

Religion didnt create gods, people did & always have done.

Theres no relation to any of those things you said to the difference of god and religion

Just because steven spielberg made a film about a man-eating shark (using wires and plastic models) it doesnt mean there havent been actual man eating shark... which there has ! ! !

[Pix]

One can believe in one or more gods/goddesses without religion. Some even believe the gods are real but evil, more of a rancher who exploits us than someone loving.

A religion is when more than one people get together to act on their beliefs, that is it's a club (and supposed to be a process). But one person having a belief in gods isn't religious, and not even necessarily spiritual.

Btw, one can be religious without believing in any gods, too. My BFF is Taoist that way (and she even adopts many of the mystical portions, not just the philosophical, and she's a big believer in synchronicity).

[Pix]

The thing that annoys me (even though it shouldn't) is like when people say "if you don't have god then you'll do anything you want, which of course will be vile, depraved, and violent." I have no idea how anyone can believe this!

I used to live 2 blocks from a Catholic church who had members (NOT saying all were this way, but enough were) ran over cats for fun, who blocked driveways very rudely to be sure they could pray for Prop 8 against gays, the church came out against a measure against sex trafficking (and I read their reasons for their opposition and it didn't make sense, others pointed out why their reasons didn't make sense but they had no answer for it but still were opposed which makes me wonder how many of them were involved in the trafficking) and I'm pretty sure the men I fled from who I believe intended to gang rape me for also Catholic. Where was their sense of right and wrong? Plenty of people without god have it, why don't they?



And a small thing in addition, many of the Catholics trashed the neighborhood or at least left the trash around while I cleaned up the place. One part that annoyed me was I saw people cleaning the parking lot of the Catholic church and yet they left dog doo on the sidewalk apparently because it was a few inches/cm off their property and therefore "not their responsibility." Yet I, without God, picked it up and put it a dumpster about a yard/meter away.

But they want to say they're so much more moral and kinder than me? It shouldn't annoy me but it does.

And it was funny, I was made an "honorary Christian" by some homeless people because I got them Bibles and also made fliers advertising for a Bible study for them when even a Baptist preacher brushed them off (I also treated them as decent human beings down on their luck whereas he treated them as sinners punished by God). One said something that going by our "fruits" I was Christian when so many who accepted Jesus as their savior was not.

And Christian fundies tried to make me and my family homeless, they'd rather see the kids on the street than with 2 moms. And thing was had the churches helped right away when her little girl called them asking for help our lesbian relationship probably never would've happened. The girl called me in desperation and I came right over. Later when some fundies (including kids her own age) told her how I was so evil because of Romans 1 (and God doesn't lie) she told them "Then YOU'RE gay because you're the liars, slanderers, and telling me to disrespect my mother!"


In addition most people who say we're evil nihilists without God only say that because their ancestors had been treated so violently and depraved by religious institutions. If it had not been for centuries of slaughter, torture, and terror, then their "loving" religions would not exist today. Heck, even the loving side of their religion was often treated that way, there were many good Christian sects and individuals when it was still new and they were treated even worse than the pagans (because they were blasphemers on top of everything else).

And finally...

[Pix]

"What do I think of 'the world population crisis'?" Ellie was saying. "You mean am I for it or against it? You think this is a key question I'm going to be asked on Vega, and you want to make sure I give the right answer? Okay. Overpopulation is why I'm in favor of homosexuality and a celibate clergy. A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."

Ellie waited, deadpan, indeed frozen, for the next question.

--Carl Sagan, Contact (the book)

That answer didn't go over well with the judges.