Do you believe in God? I don’t, you may, but in any case we go through kind of a religious renaissance. People seem to lose their faith in science, politics and in general in progress, and instead they flock back to the elder Gods.
Well, you know, for all I know, they could be right. Really!
God might really exist and he might really be a man with a beard. Probably even a rabbi. Or he may be more spiritual and wear a turban. Or have a blue face. He may really hate homosexuals and communists. He may really care about how often we have sex and with whom. He may really be willing to fix every problem that we create on this planet.
But then, maybe not. I mean, if I told you that it’s safe to give me all your money, I would take care of it, double the amount within only five years, you probably wouldn’t trust me. You’d want a proof. You wouldn’t base such a decision on faith, would you?
If I told you I have a backpack that can make you fly, and if I asked you to try it by jumping down an abyss, you wouldn’t believe me, but even if, you wouldn’t do it without a proof.
In both cases you would ask for some kind of scientific proof, but probably you wouldn’t even rely on that, you would want to see with your own eyes, talk to someone who did it, had success, survived.
Not so with religion. Nobody has ever come back from death to tell us how it was. Those who believe simply believe that there is something after death, that they were created by a God and that they’ll meet that God (or a different God) after death, and that things will be somehow better after death.
That’s all fine and they may be right, although they can’t be right all of them, but let’s say some could be right, with all the others probably going to some kind of hell (or not). They could be right and I could be wrong and I would go to hell. I guess I take that risk.
The point is, it’s really OK what they believe. What’s not OK, is that they think their weird belief in an intolerant, cruel, hateful God entitles them to force their believes down other people’s throats. What’s not OK, is that they think they can force their so-called God-given laws on me and you and everyone, yes even if their victims are believers themselves, albeit in another God.
C’mon, believe whatever you want, but please be kind and leave me alone. Thank you 🙂
Still, you know, as much as I am agnostic and sometimes even atheistic, I do recognize how strong religion can be and how much art has its origins in religious feelings. That’s wonderful and I am thankful for all the beauty that religious people have created. Thank you for that as well. Really 🙂
The Song of the Day is “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” from Johnny Cash’s 2009 album “American V - A Hundred Highways”. What an incredibly powerful song! Hear it on YouTube.