Words of Wisdom: Tolerating the Intolerant
- Written by Wisdom000 on Friday, January 09 2009 and posted in Features
Every civilization from the earliest days when men were living in caves and picking each others lice for story time snacks has, in some form or another, believed in a higher power. A being(s) or force to explain the unexplainable, and with this comes a feeling of connection to everyone. Of course as soon as belief was recognized, people immediately began to use it as a divider, separating themselves as superior to anyone whose practices or mannerisms they found distasteful. So the force that should have been uniting us all these centuries, has instead been corrupted by men’s paranoia, fear, and ego, to keep us divided. Faces and names were given to God(s), and men in power would write down rules that they claimed God(s) wanted the people to follow. Many of these rules were ridiculous and inane, serving only to curb behavior the writers in power deemed unseemly. However at the very heart of every single major religion resides one core set of beliefs, the ones most often overlooked by every religious leader and follower, exists. Simple, common sense rules, which can be summed up thusly:
Try Not To Hurt Anyone
Try to Help Others Whenever Possible
Try To Be A Good Person
Try To Find Happiness
Everything else is just bullshit meant to keep people afraid and easily controlled.
So it is my belief, that all religions are
right, there is a God, he is Benevolent, and he does want us to get
along with each other. It is also my belief that all religions are
wrong, men cannot know every facet of God, and any man who claims to
speak for God is lying and serving only himself.
The Bible, Quran, Talmud, Torah, Book Of Mormon,
Dianetics, Hindu, Shinto, and Buddhist texts... they are all nothing
more than storybooks and manifestos for people who have no desire to
think for themselves and open up their eyes and minds to the greater
idea.
But I don't expect everyone to believe the same way I do, hell I don't expect ANYONE to believe the same way I do. Unfortunately, this expectation is not reciprocated.
In the most of Europe and the Americas,
Christianity has dominated and controlled every aspect of life for 2000
years. To the point that only until very recently in it's history, it
was a crime punishable by death to hold any other belief, or question
the popular conceptions of that belief. Christianity, more than any
other religion in history, has forced itself on other cultures, through
both subversion and strong arm tactics. Forcibly converting entire
populations, to the point of eradicating any who opposed them, to their
more modern tactic of moving into impoverished and starving societies,
and offering charity for conversion.
Christianity has dominated the western world to such a degree, that only in the last 30 years could an average citizen openly admit to having other beliefs without being criticized or ostracized. Even worse, there are so many factions of Christianity who cite inconsequential practices and beliefs as a matter of separation, that it boggles the mind. Even amongst themselves Christians can't get along. Catholics don't like Protestants, Baptists don't like Methodists, Lutherans don't agree with Presbyterians, and none of them like Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons.
Whets funny is, they all want their religion to
be taught in public schools, yet none of them can even decide which one
of their religions is the right one.
Christian domination of every aspect of life in this country is so prevalent that not only do politicians pander exclusively to it, but also countless television shows and even entire networks are dedicated to inundating as many people as they can. Across America many counties exist with laws and customs in place with no other basis than Christianity. Dry County Laws, Blue Laws, laws against homosexuality, these laws have no basis in equality or protection of the common people and instead are merely in place to discriminate and subjugate the people in accordance with religious beliefs. It is very telling that after fleeing Europe due to religious prosecution (from other Christians) the immediate response upon arriving in the new world was to subjugate the native population and force them to adopt Christianity.
Only very recently, within my lifetime in fact, has questioning the Christian domination of this country become allowable. Our societies are the world leader in social and technological comfort, yet it took us this long just to get to the point where we are beginning to uphold the basic principle that unless everyone is equal, none of us are. We can finally put into practice the constitutional amendment of freedom not just of religion, but from it as well.
Of course, now, after all this time of being
in complete and total power, that the pendulum is beginning to swing,
the Christians are suddenly coming out in droves to claim they are
being persecuted against.
And now, after all this time of having complete and total control, when finally the hypocritical "Christian morality" is being stripped from government, and people are openly speaking against Christian moral majority control in this country, that Christians, who still hold more power collectively than any other group in the country, are whining that they are being persecuted against, always without regard to any point of view but their own. They want prayer back in school, but would openly riot if that prayer were anything but Christian. They want God in the Pledge of Allegiance, but would call anyone who said Allah or Jehovah instead treasonous.
A Christian in America complaining about
persecution is like a millionaire complaining that his Rolls Royce gets
dirty when he travels on public roads. Or the bully who finally gets
beaten up by one of his victims then cries about how unfair it was.
Christians get no sympathy from me. Especially since anyone who feels
the need to openly proclaim their religion to anyone and everyone
within earshot is by nature, not a Christian.
And make no mistake, other religions are every
bit as bad, every bit as corrupt, and every bit as worthy of criticism.
The reason I don't spend as much time talking about them, is because
they are based in countries that have not yet reached a point in their
societal advancement where questioning the belief, or openly believing
something else, is possible. Here in the west, we have advanced to that
point. And we have no excuse to let the status quo of domination by the
majority religion continue.
So Christians, until you are forced to change
your names, until you are forced onto reservations, until you are
required to stop speaking your native language, please stop your
whining. No one in America is asking you to stop believing in whatever
you want to believe in, or practicing in accordance with those beliefs.
All anyone is asking of you is that you stop forcing everyone else to
do so.
Go here to discuss.