Fallacies of Modern Organized Religion

2/10/08

My single greatest problem with organized religion is that it is an over simplification of a complicated idea. It's an easy explanation of the unknown so that people can sleep at night while believing that attending church will lead them to this so called salvation. It teaches people to just accept the status quo, to not think freely, to not form their own thoughts and opinions.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not completely against organized religion; I'm just against people taking it literally and not questioning the world around them. Religious groups have done very beneficial things for society such as providing shelter for the homeless or sheltering orphaned children. However, one could play devil's advocate and say those things are just used to spread their beliefs among a greater base of people.

If you were to take a look back to ancient Greek times and you were to look at who was and wasn't religious, you would notice that the more peaceful person is religious as opposed to the non-religious people being the ones that kill and fight in wars and such. Fast-forward back to the present; George Bush lists Jesus as his favorite philosopher, and claims to be very religious, giving it attribution for all of his current power. Bush was governor of Texas, and is pro-death penalty. How can you truly believe in a God but then give yourself the power to take the life of someone else in the name of God?

What happened to the peace and love and compassion? CNN Headline News host Glen Beck has called for the nuking of Iran in saying “nuke the bastards” and then proceeded to say that anyone that disagrees with him should be killed. Pat Robertson, a supposed devout Christian, has called for the assassination of foreign leaders. Our media and government are full of hate and violence, and yet at the same time supposedly religious. The hypocrisy is sickening.

When nobody thinks for themselves and when society as a whole just sticks to the status quo, this is what happens. Nobody questions authority or thinks for themselves; then as a result our leaders can do pretty much what ever they want with no problem. We are not here to serve our government, they are here to serve us.

Both of my parents were raised very religiously; my mother was Pentecostal and my father was Presbyterian. I've been to church. I've been to Sunday school. I've read The Bible from front to back, talked about it with my family and friends, and do believe some of the things in it. However, I take it with a grain of salt. I do not believe everything I'm told or read just because it simply “is”. At it's core, Christianity is good, but unfortunately it is exploited by those in power. I'm fine with religion, but it needs to be taken out of our schools, out of our government, and out of our media. Religion should be something personal. If it were unorganized and there was no central point of control or belief, it couldn't be exploited nearly as easily.

Among the things I've learned from organized religion: You should love your neighbours, but if they are heathens you should convert or kill them if they resist. Murder is bad, unless sanctioned by the church or if you kill for religious reasons. The rules of the church are flexible, but not by you, because you are a lowly simpleton who can't think about such complex things as morals and ethics. Even with all of this hypocrisy, none of these things are reason for my dislike of organized religion.

What bothers me is that religious groups get involved in things they should have no say in, such as laws and politics. Take same-sex marriage for example: If a church doesn't want to marry a homosexual couple, they shouldn't have to. However, the government should give that couple the same benefits as a straight couple whether they were married by the church or not. When it comes down to it, religion can only be based off of faith. Faith should not be the only underlying factor when making any legal decision.