Religion: The Scourged of Society
I loathe religion. I loathe it with a passion. Since its conception, it has inspired
foolishness, destruction, and needless death. The bible, Talmud, and Koran all speak of great battles. Many of these battles were fought by people disagreeing over the existence of God. Or their God. The Greek and Roman civilizations destroyed native cultures by the handful to assert their culture and religion over the natives. The Romans slaughtered Jews and Christians. The Crusades were all fought to claim a ‘holy land’ which killed 500,000 people. In a population
of just a few hundred million, that’s a huge amount. The inquisitions held in Western Europe decimated anyone who wasn’t a Christian. The Holocaust was genocide of a religious group. Ireland, Israel, the entire Middle East… all up in arms over whose God is better. And how many cultures are still hurting from the influence of religion? How many countries in Africa fighting after western missionaries set up societies for the native cultures and fled? The Sudan, Rwanda… just a few still embroiled in conflict. Religion is the cause of death in every part of the world.
But that’s not enough. Religious fanatics want to ensure the future is full of needless death too. Stem cell research is a non-issue. Why is it an issue!? There is a decision to be made. Either stem cells are destroyed in the hopes of finding cures for serious diseases. Or just destroyed. It angers me how useless this issue is. What would Jesus do? Kill babies to save people or just kill babies?! Neither choices are nice ones, but a choice has to be made. And for religious fanatics to wave off a chance for a cure for potentially millions of people’s pain and suffering. We all know the story of Galileo, no? How he ventured a scientific theory that later proved to be true, but disagreed with the church? Where would we be if Galileo never spoke? If he was like the rest of the sheep,happy to be told how things were without second guessing? The church apologized for that incident 300 years later! 300 years?! That’s how long it took for the church to accept that the universe wasn’t geocentric? This is the same church that told people not to bathe for several hundred years. That smell? That’s the
smell of benevolence.
What religion accepts as fact is relative to the times. Before man achieved sustained flight, we thought heaven was in the skies and the angels sat on clouds. We couldn’t dig too far into the ground, so of course hell was underground. Now? No, no no. Heaven and Hell are places that don’t exist on the physical plane, they’re another place entirely.
Granted,religion has provided a basis for society as we know it today. In the time when people were few and far from each other, it drew them together and formed communities. Religion has motivated people to help each other, provide homes and medicine, time and money for each other. And for a pre-modern society, that is a great asset. But hasn’t religion served its cause? Hasn’t religion outworn its welcome? There are homeless outreach programs, drug rehab programs, organizations that provide rovisions for starving people in Africa. But do we need a book to tell us that we should be nice? Sure, these are great things these people are doing, but why do it in the name of some higher power when we can claim it for the sake of humanity? “Humans can be infinitely kind”, the message should be, not “humans can be infinitely kind when receiving God’s love.” It’s about motivation. And there are much better motivators than religion when religion has a track record like that.
Again, war is so destructive. Not only does it cripple countries involved, it can drive civilization backwards. Lives are lost, schools destroyed, disease runs rampant. Why do we need more reasons for this? Karl Marx once said that religion and poverty go hand in hand. Another of his theories suggested that all wars have roots in class struggle. In societies with poverty, there is sure to be class struggle. Therefore, religion and war go hand in hand. We should be working for a better tomorrow, not a war-filled tomorrow.
Anyway, who needs religion when we have modern science to explain and prove its explanations for life? The scientific method allows for theories to be changed and added on to. The bible is infallible. It can’t be contested. Why? It doesn’t prove itself except to those who believe. Only the faithful believe. And that’s the thing about faith. It’s not proof. It is what it is. If one believes in something, it means that they aren’t completely sure. It’s not knowledge, it’s faith. These ancient texts, without aid from any sort of science, were created by the few people of the time who knew how to read and write. Literacy was a rare treasure 2000 years ago. Only the highest members of society had access to books and scrolls. Only a very, very lucky few knew how to write. Just a thought here, but if one has an advantage, will they exploit it? Could they write texts and tell stories to simple farmers and herders about a great benevolent creator who saves people? And threaten everlasting pain and anguish to those who disagree?
On that subject, picture this scenario: You are a farmer at the dawn of civilization. You don’t know much about anything besides what you do. There are no telescopes,microscopes, medicine. You pick up a rock, and place it somewhere else. What goes through your mind? Perhaps “I put this rock here. If I didn’t, it wouldn’t be there. Where did I come from? Obviously, from this example, something must have put me here.” Through that rationale, pre-modern man may have come to the conclusion that they must have been created through the works of a greater being.
Either way,God is as great and kind as many would esteem him, why is he allowing all that goes on to go on? Why would I have cause to write this? Why are there millions of starving, sick, dying, unhappy, disadvantaged, disenfranchised, abused, neglected children? Why? Settle for it this way. Either God is a cruel, evil creator, or doesn’t exist. And if he’s a cruel evil sort of creator, I wouldn’t worship him either.
In conclusion, whether or not there is a God in the end, life is what you make of it. No book needs to tell us how to be a decent human being. We don’t need a higher power to direct us into being good people. To resign ourselves to living our lives being kind so we can go into heaven is selfish and wasteful. Live a good life for the sake of living a good life. Be kind for the sake of having kindness returned. Don’t believe everything that it is you heard, no matter how
many times it is told. Always have proof. Worship yourself, treat yourself with ultimate respect. Be your own God.
