In my last post I mentioned "my attitudes" on Religion. I will expand upon that comment and explain just what those attitudes are. To simplify, I am more Spiritual than I am Religious; there is a difference. As a Spiritual person I believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Heaven and Hell and all the rest that goes with it. I believe there is a hierarchy in both realms with Guardians who watch over us. Most of my Guardians are in Heaven.....there was some Mafioso in my Family background, and they may or may not be in Heaven. I've mentioned before about "Dead Italian Relatives" who I know watch out for me. I feel their prescence in as much as anyone can. I believe that what you send out, you get back in return. Essentially the Eastern aspect of Karma. (My Karma just ran over my Dogma....) I've always tried to treat people the way I've wanted to be treated. I take folks at face value, and do not try and change their lives or opinions. I don't force my moral values on others either. I may not understand certain lifestyles: Homosexual, swingers, open marriages, polyamory....but I don't try and change these people's way of life. If it works for them, and both parties involved (or all parties in the case of some) are okay with it, then who am I to tell them they are wrong? I wouldn't want anyone telling me my relationship with my Wife is wrong now would I? I also believe in keeping my Spirituality out of politics. Church and State do not have any business being bedfellows. Period. My problems with organized Religion stem from this very statement. Our President ran a campaign based on "Faith".......knowing he would get the Midwest and Southern vote. It has backfired now because alot of those folks are feeling duped. I was raised Catholic (hey I'm Sicillian it's a requirement) and my issues with organized Religion began there. No, I wasn't molested by some perverted Priest or anything; actually the Priests at St. Brunos Church were very Spiritual and devoutly Religious men. I've always believed God doesn't want us to bother him with our problems. He made this place for us, gave us the gifts of Reason and Free Will and is leaving us to our own devices. He gave us 10 guidelines to live life by and he will be waiting for us when our time here is done. I honestly don't think he cares if you go to some building on Sunday and sing songs and say prayers.....I also don't think He cares about all those prayers either. It's a matter of His wanting us to live a good life, be good to others, tolerate those who don't see things they way we do, and generally just enjoy the time you have on this round hunk of rock. Too many people sway too many others in His name (and that "name" runs the gambit from Allah to Buddha to Jehovah to God). Look at the Middle East for example. A "Religious" leader told 19 other people to hijack 4 airplanes and fly them into buildings. He told them that Allah (God) had said that this was the righteous thing to do and that if they sacrificed themselves this way they would go to Heaven. These people (Human Beings with Reason and Free Will) let someone else do their thinking for them to the point of killing innocent people. That's what's wrong with Religion. There are Christians who believe that being Gay is fixable. It's not...it's a choice and a frame of mind. They believe that you send people to camps where they get Commando Prayer and they will be "saved". Yeah, after having food and drink withheld and being locked in a closet I will say I'm saved too. Father Junipero Serra did that with the California Indians way back when. He would beat and torture them if they didn't accept God. After a bit of this, they accepted God. There are Baptist Preachers who get up in the pulpit and instead of preaching the Word, they preach their agenda. One example is the Harry Potter books. Now these are wonderful stories of Good vs. Evil with Good triumphing in the end. They are also books about coming of age and being different. The one thing I really like about them; Kids actually sit down and....are you ready for this....READ!!!!!!! Wait....you mean they actually turn off the TV and Video Games to READ A BOOK!!!!!!!!! Yes they do. According to some Baptist Preachers though, these books should be burned and banned because they are about "Evil Witches and Warlocks" who want to make our Children turn to the occult and the Devil!!! No, these idiots haven't read the books. No, they haven't talked to the author to find out what her intentions were. All they did was read the synopsis of the story and go from there. There's a guy who's last name is Chick that draws and publishes little Fundamentalist Christian Comics telling you what is "Evil" and what is not. One of his most famous ones is "Dark Dungeons". Google it and read it, you will laugh. It's a comic that tells the tale of an "Evil" game called "Dungeons and Dragons". Ah yes, that Evil game I used to play for long hours on end with my good friends every Friday night in High School. A game that was supposed to be a guide to the occult and a "Gateway Drug" to a life as a pawn of Satan. Yeah right!!! This Chick dude never played the game, nor did he ever read any of the source material or interview any players. It was like "Hey there are Wizards and Warrior Priests and Demons and Spells to be cast...therefore it must be the Work of SATAN!!!!" This Chick guy had to eat his words recently because years ago he had said that the "Chronicles of Narnia" was an Evil book too. Having seen the movie, and researched the books I can tell you that it is blatantly a Christian inspired movie. It even has a "Christ like" character who is killed and resurrected. Even my own Religion the Catholics have had their bad times. Latinos are traditionally Catholic. Very devout Catholic...to the point of abiding by all of the rules and regulations of the Church. The Catholic Church says that premarital sex is a sin. To further scare you away from having intimate relations before you are married they also throw in the rule that birth control is also a sin. They figured that unwanted pregnancies will scare you into celibacy. Wrong. Have you seen a small Latino Family???? It's not just Latinos, there are some Caucasian Catholics that believe the same thing. These people become burdens on society because they have too many kids than they can afford to raise so the taxpayers have to take up the slack for their lack of self control.
So now you know what I mean by my attitude on Religion. I have nothing against someone having Faith, but I do have something against people who let their minds be closed because of it. Here are some perfect song lyrics that describe what I have said perfectly.
Band: Tool
Album: 10,000 Days
Song: Right in Two
Angels on the sidelines. Baffled and confused.
Father blessed them all with reason.
This is what they choose.
Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground.
Silly Monkies given thumbs they make a club and beat their brother down.
No comments:
Post a Comment