Aging Capriciously

My religion is better than your religion.  “My God” is better than your God.  My beliefs are more righteous than your beliefs.  My faith is more valuable than your faith. 

How many people have been killed in the name of “My God” and “My Religion?”  How many wars have been fought over religious differences? How many countries have been devastated and destroyed because of religious intolerance? How many true believers have killed the infidels because of religious beliefs?  How many heretics, witches, blasphemers and apostates have been burned at the altar of religious intolerance?  How many missionaries have persecuted and converted the “godless” pagans who did not share their religious ideologies?

The answers to these questions my friends are not blowing in the wind.  The answers to these questions are written in blood, murder, rape, assassination and pillage from the time of Cain and Abel to our present day battles between Christians and Moslems, Jews and Arabs and Hindus and Tamils.  From the battles between the Israelites and the Philistines to the Inquisition, to the Salem Witch Trials, to the Holocaust, to the Genocide in Rwanda and the rapes in Bosnia, religious beliefs and religious differences have been center stage to some of the most horrendous crimes in history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_war

I have a t-shirt that says “God Bless Everyone, No Exceptions.”   Most of the shirts that I wear sport some kind of a motivational quote or political idea.  I refuse to allow my apparel to advertise football teams, sporting companies, motorcycles or most any “for profit” endeavors.  I figure they make enough money so they can do their own marketing.  However, I do like to share my ideas about how the world should be run.  Of the several t-shirts I wear with a “motivational” message, the “God Bless etc.” shirt never fails to get a response.  I have had dozens of people who come up and say “I really like that message.”  I am sure some wonder just what I mean.  Can he really be suggesting that everyone deserves a blessing?

I find it gratifying that so many people are willing to endorse the idea of a God who knows “No Exceptions.”  This fact really surprises me since I have been to countless religious meetings and festivals wherein people shout and sing about “MY GOD.”  Here are some lyrics from a typical song about God.

My God is awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome

My God is awesome and awesome, awesome, awesome

Holy, Awesome, Awesome

He’s Great, He’s Great, He’s Great, He’s Great, Awesome, Awesome

He’s mighty, He’s mighty, He’s mighty,

Charles Jenkins – Awesome Lyrics | Metro Lyrics uo

I wonder as I listen to such outpourings of religious fervor, whether “MY” God is not also the same God as the Jewish God, Hindu God, Buddhist God, Catholic God, Muslim God and all the other Gods that various people believe in.  Is “MY” God the only “awesome” God?  Or am I so uncertain in my faith that I must continually recite how powerful and awesome “MY” God is.  The thought that the “Man doth protest too much” comes repeatedly to my mind.

Why do I have to keep repeating ad nausea how awesome “My God” is?   What is the difference between “MY God” and your God?  I guess your God is really a loser and probably a wimp.  Unless of course, your God and “MY God” are the same.  But then your God would be as awesome as “My God” and that could not be.  See, if your God was as awesome as My God, then your religion would be as awesome as my religion and that would never do.  How could I justify killing you or at the very least trying to convert you if your religion and God were as awesome as “MY God?”

“The earth is flat, and anyone who disputes this claim is an atheist who deserves to be punished.” — Sheik Abdel-Aziz Ibn Baaz, Supreme religious authority, Saudi Arabia

“No, I don’t know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”– George H.W. Bush, USA

Many people in America believe that this is a Christian Nation.”  There is a firm belief that this country was founded by men who were deeply religious and had a profound commitment to the principles of Christianity and the rule of a Christian God.  The Ten Commandments are often noted as principles upon which this country was built.  The dollar and many USA coins say “In God We Trust.”   Unfortunately as with much of the erudition among our citizens, these beliefs do not mirror the conceptual foundation upon which the constitution was established nor the primary intentions of our Founding Fathers.

True, a substantial portion of the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention were Christians but the leading Founders (Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Wilson, Morris, Madison, Hamilton, and Washington) were not Christians but Deists.  One must remember that the foremost reason for our constitutional freedom of religious expression lay in the all too recent memories of many of the Founding Fathers regarding state sponsored religious oppression in Europe.  Thus the First Amendment:

Prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

It is true (as some have noted) that the Constitution does not call for a separation of church and state.  Nevertheless, there is no evidence that the Founders wanted a Christian state as opposed to a secular state.  By secular, I mean that their intentions were clearly to establish a nation wherein “Freedom of Religion” would be tolerated.  This means ALL religions and not just Christian religions.  Our dollars say “In God We Trust” not “In Jesus We Trust.”   The Old World was full of religious persecution.   Our Founding Fathers wanted to avoid the Religious Arrogance that had so dominated the Old World where Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Protestants, and many other sects all tried to eliminate each other.  “My God” is better than your god.  My religion is better than your religion.  My prophet is holier than your prophet.

“The supreme arrogance of religious thinking: That a carbon-based bag of mostly water on a speck of iron-silicate dust around a boring dwarf star in a minor galaxy in an underpopulated local group of galaxies in an unfashionable suburb of super cluster would look up at the sky and declare, it was all made so that I could exist!” – Peter Walker

I suppose I should conclude this blog with some good advice on:  How to overcome “Religious Arrogance” or Ten steps towards becoming less of a militant Jihadist or How I personally overcame my desire to start a new Inquisition and learned to love everyone.  Alas, I doubt it would do any good.  Chances are those of you reading this are already among the “Tolerant.” Those who have not read it, would burn it, not heed any such advice or label it as the ranting of a Commie, Faggot, Intellectual, Atheist jerk doomed to hell.

Nothing is more fun than hating and despising those who don’t believe in the same things we do.  Those who fall in the category of the “Religious Arrogant” are well established in their beliefs and I doubt this blog or any number of blogs would have much impact on their thinking.  My advice (for what it is worth) is for those of you reading this to stand up and start speaking out against such arrogance and intolerance.   It is well said that when good people do nothing, say nothing and take no actions, then evil will surely triumph.  Add your voices to mine and let them be heard.  God Bless Everyone, No Exceptions. 

Time for Questions:

Why do religions persecute one another?  Did God say that one religion is superior to another?  Who decides who God is? What is wrong with believing in many Gods?  Do we anthropomorphize God?  Why should “My God” be any different than your God?

Life is just beginning.