God help Us

I bitch a lot about religion and the fanatics who have been brain washed. I know I have a huge chip on my shoulder when it comes to this subject but it just infuriates me. In Nick’s world religion should be a private thing. Believe what you want but don’t get all in my face with it.

With that said recent events have caused my ire to get stirred more and more lately. I guess it started with the passing of the Pope. While, I a disagreed with him on a ton of things, I always respect someone who was trying to do good, no matter how misguided I felt his thinking was sometimes. However I felt about his stances on abortion, gays and women, I still felt that the he was a good man. He had a long life and now if you are to believe his teachings he is resting in eternall bliss up in heaven with God, Jesus and the rest of the gang.

When, he died a couple of weeks ago the outpour of sorrow was sickening. People were literally crying in the streets over his passing like they actually knew him. I have never understood this behavior. I was sad at my Grandfather’s funeral because I knew him. How can you be so heartbroken over the death of someone you never met? What really boggled my mind was that by his teachings heaven is a pretty good place that at the end of a long life one should feel pretty excited about entering.

While, I was reading in disbelief about all the mourners who were waiting up to a day in line just for the chance to walk by his casket, I thought about just how sad that really was. Many others will come to me with the argument that those people have tremendous faith. I say they have stopped thinking for themselves and have become automatons. I understand if you don’t have much in life you tend to cling to outdated beliefs and rituals. Organized religion is good at brainwashing the masses and selling miracles. The truth is to pray to a faceless God, simply because you have faith in an institution that no one has any tangible proof exists is a waste of time. I believe if there is a God, I will be judged on what type of person I am, not over all this other nonsense.

All this boiled over this morning. I came upon an article that at first made me laugh and now makes me furious. In today’s Chicago Sun Times (http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-virgin19.html) an article appeared claiming people saw the Virgin Mary in salt run off under a bridgem in Chicago. This is further proof that the brain washing has worked. People it is salt run off pure and simple. For hundreds of people to waste their time by taking pictures and praying to rain water and salt that dried in the shape of a woman is a complete joke.

You may ask just why does this bother you so much? The reason is that it is thinking like this that has immersed itself into everyday life. It’s like if you are a reasonable self-thinking person you are in the minority. Those who jump to radical conformist opinions based on theological teachings are winning. Don’t believe me, just look around. We can’t watch live TV anymore because of a two second nipple flash. Everywhere you look politicians are talking about moral values and how sinful this and that is. Our Government is holding emergency sessions to try to stop a mercy killing. To me, those are scary things and make me want to throw my hands up and just quit. I won’t simply because I know history will show just how un-enlightened of times we live in. In 80 years when Gays have the same rights as anyone else people will look back and wonder how fanatical religious thinking was prevalent at the beginning of the century.