A yellow rose, enhanced a bit. Might be a nice shot for flower Friday, if I ignore the fact that it is only Thursday!
I know I rant often, and always negatively, about religion. Someone made a comment recently which leads me to explain my views just a bit.
I do not single out any religion for my negative views. I lump them all into the same anti-intellectual basket. Does that mean nobody gets any comfort from their religious “faith?” Not necessarily, but I think it would be impossible to quantify anyone’s emotional boost from a set of religious tenets. A perhaps more important question is: do some individuals behave better towards their fellow man due to their religious beliefs? If not, then, in my book, their religious beliefs are little more than a way of dividing an already ridiculously divided human race into yet another exclusionary sub-tribe. Do I think anyone inclined to be mean to me decides not to be based on some religious tenet? No, not really. I’m pretty much an “imp of satan” (well, really, I mean “secular humanist,” that whipping boy of the godly) when it comes to that. People act how they choose to act because of some internal motivations, flaws, genetic code, bad childhoods, whatever. You are who you are, you do what you do.
Do I hold people’s religious views against them? No. I hope they don’t hold it against me (probably a forlorn hope) that I don’t believe what they say they believe. Do I have my quirks? Sure. Are mine any “better” than anyone else’s? Not that I know of.
Over the many thousands of years of human history, there has been not one shred of credible evidence for anything “metaphysial.” (See my post about that if you want to, a few days old now). (It occurs to me that in that post I forgot to mention Sasquatch, Yeti, the Skunk Ape, the Loch Ness monster, and chupacabra). There has been a lot of evidence that “religion” causes war, torture, murder, etc., etc., or at least provides a handy excuse for it. If given a choice, and I have been, I’ll opt for fact and reason over superstition and hatred.
So, I certainly don’t expect this particular disquisition will smooth anything over with anyone. I don’t set out to offend anyone, and, if I do, well, I hope they see my right to express myself as superior to their choice/inclination to condemn me for having views different from theirs.
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