If you are someone who’s easily offended when religion is criticized, please keep scrolling. I don’t need to hear religious apologists at this point. I’m so riled about these attacks against innocent people that I’ve decided to remove my usually firmly placed filter. If you plan to comment with non-productive insults, save your breath because I will delete it. I don’t have the time or the patience for people who cannot bear to see their god criticized. It’s probably best to just delete me if you cannot have a civil conversation about it. I won’t miss you. This is my way of getting things “off my chest” and there’s nothing I love more than open and honest dialogue. Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.
Religious extremism + easy access to weapons = death. It’s that simple. Terror can come from anywhere – radicalists born in North America are just as dangerous as people from anywhere else when they’re convinced religious ideals need to be enforced with violence.
The concept inspired by Hitchens is one I think should be followed. Religion should be treated like childrens’ toys – play with them at home with people who also want to play with the toys. Dont tell anyone else they have to play with the toys, don’t force the toys into government or schools, and most of all don’t use your toys to cause misery, death, and destruction. I’m not saying people don’t have the right to believe whatever they choose, I’m saying that once it starts to negatively impact other people’s lives, then you’ve taken it too far.
To say religion is the compass for morality is a joke. It takes ten seconds to come up with quotes from any holy book that promote violence, hate, fear, oppression, and death. We need to rid ourselves of these archaic and destructive “morals” before more innocent people die.
While on the surface there are some good things that religion preaches, this doesn’t excuse the many terrible things it tells people they need to think and do. Instilling obedience in followers by threatening torture and death in a “hell” for “sinning”, oppressing women to the point they’re considered no better than livestock, and commanding people to fear the same character they’re told to love are just a few things straight out of holy books. The definition of sado-masochism. These are things set out in holy books very clearly. I think we need to be stricter about what can be taught from religion. Holy books should never be taken literally, and unfortunately there are too many who do just that. To me, they need to be taken as the works of literature and fiction they are.
None of the “big religions” can say it doesn’t teach this and I’m disgusted to read the quotes from various religious leaders already saying that the people in Pulse had it coming for being gay. It’s amazing the audacity people have when they think they have god on their side.
I’m steadily losing any sort of faith in humanity’s ability to sort through the nonsense of their religions and live like they claim their religions teach them – to love and to give and to be tolerant. Clearly, not enough of that is coming through.
I know people are going to get pretty upset at my sentiments because, to many, religion is their favourite toy, their favourite crutch, or their favourite source for morality. And it must be hard to hear that it isn’t perfect. Unfortunately, morality within religion is really hard to find and if we can’t learn to see past the disgusting things that many religions teach and encourage, heartbreaking events like this shooting in Orlando are going to keep happening.
If you remove the motivation and promised glory many killers receive from religion, perhaps so many people would not have to die. If you ask me, there is no such thing as a religion of peace. Just religions of fear and bigotry and misogyny and prejudice and violence. Until the killing and misery stemming from extreme or radical religious belief stops, that opinion will not change. I don’t care how many charitable acts any religion boasts about, this does not undo nor does it forgive any misery or suffering caused by its teachings.
-Jenn
Standard Of Reason 