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February 15, 2005

Religion and Other Mighty Crap

In response to Jarrod’s post

Ah, where to begin.

Firstly, I thought I should just be out with it and admit that like sweetanniehi has already done, I have been thinking about converting to Judaism for some time. I think my religious thoughts and feelings line up with their system better than with the Christian systems, and I know several people (Eric, Harry, my late grandfather) who are Jewish and seem to derive great cultural benefit from it. However, a few things have stopped me: 1) I don’t really think this world is safe for Jewish people, even now, 2) some aspects of Jewish life I would find very difficult to handle (namely, bacon, and kashrut in general) and 3) I don’t know any converts to hang out with nor do I know anywhere I could go and get converted that I trust. Santa Fe is just too fruity for me to believe that anything one finds there is “real.” Needless to say, I find the idea of Christ ridiculous and laughable, and designed to prey on childish feelings of fear and self-loathing.

Secondly, I have real trouble finding a religion I could like because I am so liberal or libertarian. I am very strongly pro-abortion (not just pro-choice, pro-abortion)—this is a fucked up world and nobody should be having kids unless they really, really mean it. But I’m also very much in favor of initiation, as everyone in the Clan knows, because I think it’s the key to personal transformation. I don’t like Unitarianism, because it seems more like a vapid political/cultural experiment in meaninglessness than a religion, but I consistently get “Unitarian Universalist” at the top of my Beliefnet quizes. I really really like Sikhism, but it turns out the local Sikhs are basically a cult that has very little in common with the awesome Sikh religion. So there are really only two religions I’ve ever thought about converting to, which are Judaism and Sikhism. I’m not opposed to eventually converting to one or the other or both at some later date when I can be around the authentic item.

I find it flabbergasting that, ideas like freedom, equality, and taking personal responsibility for your actions are incompatible with the idea that the universe was created by an external entity. Why can’t God be clever enough to invent evolution? Why can’t God want us to be happy on our own? Why can’t God believe in us and our ability to improve things without his coming to our aid? Why can’t God create processes that create us, rather than us directly? Why does God care what we believe?

I also have a few nonsensical notions which are shared by (or at least alluded to) by both the Sikh and the Jewish religions but not a major point of either one in particular. These notions, I believe, are more important than the rest of their doctrine together. So I remain non-atheistic, but not exactly religious.

As for Christianity, I don’t know what to think. Some of my favorite people are strongly Christian: Manuel, Allan, now Will, apparently. Some of my other favorite people are strongly atheistic: Alex, Jarrod, Eric, most random Clan members. I know precious few people like myself that are strongly non-atheist and strongly non-Christian: Faust and Mat are the only ones that come to mind. Most people I know find contemplating it to be too dry or too weird, and choose not to. I think the world would be better if more people would get off the fence and develop strong feelings and intelligence about these matters on their own.

My boss is a pretty severe Catholic, and I have to admit I think I have a broader perspective now as a result of talking with him about these things. He’s often complaining about various things around here. His wife, for example, is a strong advocate of teaching abstinence. I find this rather hilarious, since I think people are going to fuck whether it’s the right thing or the smart thing, or even the completely offensive thing. (I find monastic religions particularly amusing because of their high incidence of child molestation—this includes groups like the Hare Krishnas, so not just Catholic priests. If you hold your desires in, they find a way of getting out, I think that’s just a human principle and making it “wrong” just exacerbates the situation.) But I don’t particularly care if they want abstinence taught in schools, because I just don’t think it’ll matter. They can teach that eating is dangerous and could lead to problems later in life, and I think it would have about the same effect.

These guys also want opt-in classes about Christianity and the Bible. I think that’s fine as long as it’s opt-in and evolution is still taught as the fact it is in Biology. You can make Biology opt-in if you like, it’s not like I learned anything from it, but you can’t make me change the core facts of a discipline to suit you. But I haven’t heard any argument in that direction from my boss or his wife. They just want “equal time” so to speak. Around here, they have an even better point, because the Sikhs are apparently teaching opt-in yoga classes.

And I think equality is very important. People have a right to be incredibly stupid piles of shit if they like. No amount of moaning on the part of the smarter aspects of society will be sufficient to open a closed mind. Better to stop resisting. They use our resistance as evidence that we’re closed-minded anyway. So fuck it. And reforming the education system should start at a higher level than Christianity in schools anyway.

Is Christianity offensive? Yes, especially if you look at it from the Jewish point of view—this twat shows up and tells everyone that because he’s God, they can all start eating bacon, as long as they consider in their heart that he dealt with their “sins.” (I strongly dislike the ridiculous notion of sin, especially original sin.) Christian actions are more offensive if you look at them throughout the ages. Columbus and his imitators, for example, enslaved most of the Carribean and killed many millions of people with a clear conscience, because they offered the savages salvation through Jesus in a language they didn’t understand when they first stepped off the boat. Fuck that. I would say this isn’t something we should hold against them, if it seemed in any way to be ancient history, but many politicians these days use their Christianity as an excuse for immoral and illogical behavior. They’re really just trying to control people and obtain money and power, but doing it against a Christian background and not getting lambasted for it makes Christianity look bad, period. These days, I think most people are Christians out of laziness or a desire to control others. There are a few good ones though. In general, I agree with Cathy, that as soon as it’s myth and literature the world will be a better place. But I don’t want to waste any time hating it to no greater effect; time which I could be spending pushing secular humanism instead.

Hmm.

Posted by FusionGyro at February 15, 2005 09:46 PM

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Posted by: Will Pardue at February 16, 2005 09:40 PM

Posted by: vorfeed at February 17, 2005 01:32 AM

Posted by: eparchos at February 26, 2005 10:41 PM

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