Blog Shorts — Mini Random Thoughts

So, I have found my title for items I wish to discuss but do not have enough to say to fill an entire post.  Some of these may evolve into full posts of their own, but for the most part I really do not think so.

Churches Becoming Hate Groups

I must say, I am rather disgusted seeing these articles floating around about various priests saying we should kill off all the homosexual people.  Really?  Are the Bingo games getting so boring it has come to this?  Above all else, the Bible preaches about love, not hate.  It is not for the servants of God to put forth punishment on others.  These statements do nothing but affirm my personal belief that organized religion is a cancer on any society.

It sincerely humors me how on one hand these Bible beaters harp on about text in the Old Testament, but will then turn around and proclaims that Jesus stated the Old Testament no longer applies.  Come on folks, you cannot have it both ways.  Pick how you are going to be a bigot and stick with it, try some consistency in your life.  If homosexuality was sex a big issue for Jesus, why did he never speak on it…  not once!  His fake apostle Paul does, however Paul was extremely bias and was witnessing life in Greece which was far outside his own scope of life.

For those interested in a fair review of what the Bible really has to say about homosexuality, I recommend this reading by Reverend Mel White.  It is a very informative piece and covers the issue of language, translating and how ideas and concepts change between societies and throughout history.  I have used this source several times in different pieces I have written and each time I review it I am continually struck by the simplicity of the arguments that people have such a hard time wrapping their heads around.

Christianity is a wonderful concept for those that embrace it.  I have read the Bible several times and if it was actually practiced as Jesus directed the religion would be worth having around; however, allowing these bigots to hide under the umbrella of what they call Christianity is a disgrace, plain and simple.  We chase and shut down hate groups all the time, why are these so called religious people able to get away with it?  We have many people serving time in prison for doing nothing more than these “priest” get away with and yet we allow them to continue…  that is the saddest statement of all.

What is it going to take for people to realize this is not a Christian nation, honestly?  There may be many Christian people in this nation, just as there are many Islams, Buddhists, Atheists and what not, we do not proclaim the nation to be all about them.  Religion needs to stay in the damn church and out of government involvement.  If they want to become a political action group then it is time for the government to start treating them as such:  taxes, donations in public records and everything else that goes with it.  Stop using God and Jesus as your excuse to spread your own hate.

You may claim you are not bigoted in your stance on gay rights/marriage, but if you support these priests by going to their churches or by remaining in the Christian religion that is protected from Rome then yes you are a bigot and full of hate.  And, well, I hate to be the one to tell you this but you will never get into Heaven, according to the words of your own religion you are doomed to burn for eternity in Hell–kinda sucks getting your own words thrown back at you, ain’t it?

Related articles

• God doesn’t hate, so why do we hate in his name? (lgfuller07.wordpress.com)
• Hating For Jesus: NC Pastor Charles Worley (scotteriology.wordpress.com)
• North Carolina pastor: Send LGBT people to concentration camps to die (rawstory.com)
• Jesus wasn’t a homophobe so why are you? (coffeehousediscussions.wordpress.com)
• Miss. Rep Gipson Doesn’t Want To Kill Gays, Just Hates Them Biblically (lezgetreal.com)
• My Take: The Bible condemns a lot, but here’s why we focus on homosexuality (religion.blogs.cnn.com)
• Why do Evangelicals Focus so Much on Homosexuality? (richwendling.wordpress.com)
• Christians – Let’s Not Do This (steakandabible.com)
• How should followers of Christ respond to the issue of homosexuality and same sex marriage? (rodneyhunt.wordpress.com)

Why Do Christians Only Support Parts of the Bible?

Over the years I have often wondered about just this topic.  If, as Christians claim, the Bible is supposed to be the word of God, why only follow some parts of it?  Wouldn’t it stand to reason that they person that follows only what they choose would in fact be the bigger sinner than one who does not follow the word at all?  I don’t know the answer to that, perhaps it is just my own critical thinking peeking through on this.  Just as we cannot choose what parts of the Constitution we follow as a nation, at least here in the US, so it stands to reason that a religion should not be able to choose what parts of their sacred text they follow…  or perhaps that is the dichotomy of religion–after all it is based on a mysterious figure in the sky doling out the rules of how one should act.

Christians are so worried about protecting marriage when it comes to marriage equality for the homosexual community, however they take no heed to what the Bible says about divorce.  Seems if you want to protect marriage you would want to do it all the way around and not just be half-assed about it.  I could go on and on about biblical contradictions or just other oddities in the Bible, however I won’t as it has been all done before and that information is easily found.

What I want to think about here, and hope you will join me, is how religion is used by some, not all, to back stop what they find personal offense with.  It is almost impossible to sway people to follow you when you are lecturing about something that is offensive to you personally, however if you back it up with a religious belief, or a mutation thereof, then you can easily sway people to follow you.  History shows us that religion has been the cause of more conflict, hate and wars than any other consideration out there.

If you are going to have a belief system you should follow it in total, not pick and choose the parts that appeal to you.  This modern day concept of Christianity is nothing more than an excuse to discriminate against people while hiding behind God, if Jesus were an actual entity I do not think he would be proud of what his message has been turned into.  Religion, no matter which one, should never be used as a tool of hate.  It should not be used to condemn and ostracize our fellow men.  History is full of examples of religious extremism, such as The Crusades and The Inquisition, and yet the lessons from history are never seemed to be learned.  So many of the “villains” throughout history have claimed to be working for the will of God and yet look at the evil they did?

As much as I have stated before that the best thing we can do for humanity is to get rid of religion in its entirety, I know that will never happen.  However, I will send this message to Christians everywhere, really read your Bible, heed all of the lessons it has to offer and use your own mind to see if it is for you.  If you find that it is, then I challenge you to live by your Bible, in its entirety and not just cherry picking the parts that appeal to you the most.  Can you do that?  I doubt you can.

Related articles

• Inventing religion (onefuriousllama.com)
• The Year Of The Bible (truelogic.wordpress.com)
• Welcome to common-f’ing-sense. (commonfingsense.wordpress.com)
• A Christian Girl and Her Opinion About Same Sex Marriage (marlenebertrand.wordpress.com)
• Anti-Gay Christians: Hopeless or Reachable? (biblethumpingliberal.com)
• The Sad State of Marriage (bcmom.livejournal.com)
• Atheists Question Catholics (dauntlessblogger.wordpress.com)
• Study: Christian Republicans Agree With Taliban – Against American Freedom (truelogic.wordpress.com)
• Gay Marriage: Listen to your head and heart, not the Bishops’ bluff and bluster (queeringthechurch.com)

I Really Hate Labels; I Am A Unique Being, Not A Soup Can

In constructing this post I was going through the categories I have used before and, humorously enough considering the post title, had a hard time trying to decide where to put it, so I just punted for the most part.  When I say I hate labels, I mean that in terms of trying to describe people, whether it is their religious or political beliefs or even their sexuality;  I, of course, heartily approve of labels on my food, really don’t want to be craving Chicken Noodle soup and open a can of Spam instead.

I have met a wide variety of people in my life, both in real life and through the internet.  Now, I know some will argue that you can never really meet someone through the internet, honestly, they really need to zip it because I do have some good friends that I only know through the internet and we get along just fine.  I know people from all over the spectrum when it comes to religious and political thoughts as well as people of different sexualities.  While the most of them are comfortable enough to be able to label their own beliefs, and hence themselves, I have always found that I have issues when it comes down to applying specific labels to my own thought processes.

I do not comfortable fit into any of the predetermined labels that society has already created and insists upon identifying me as:  liberal, atheist, bisexual, male, smart…  Yes?  I can see that “deer in the headlights” look you are giving me now.  I figured I would stump most everyone when I listed my gender in there, however let’s stop and think about this for just a minute.  What is it that determines our “gender label” in this society?  Well, for the most part it is our outward appearance, our sexual organs, and as we are given that label when we are born that brings it down to a very small difference.  Do I deny that I have a penis?  No, absolutely not, however, the label I refuse to accept is that I am a “man”, simply for the fact that the connotations associated with that term are not appealing to me.  Everyone has it in their mind that a man is strong, the bread winner, the dominant one, can change a car tire, keep the engine running and kill a spider for his woman all before sitting down to a cold beer and steak dinner.  I am merely the being that I am most comfortable being, simultaneously masculine and feminine with a hint of childishness thrown in just to keep things lively.

What brought this post about today was that I was looking up the words “atheist” and “agnostic”, how better to understand and relate to a concept than to first to know what the words themselves mean.  However, the basic dictionary was not all that much help as the definitions seemed to be implying something that I could not quite grasp, the same applies to the term “deism”.  So, what to do know?  How am I supposed to *gasp* label, my religious, or non-religious, beliefs?  That is the thought that has haunted me for a very long time, let me assure you.  So as I have done with my sexuality and political leanings in other posts, let me lay out my thought process here for you when it comes to “religion”, “higher beings”, “deity”, et al.

• I adamantly do not believe in the Christian religion at all – this includes any parallel religious belief systems such as Judaism and Muslim.
• I do not think we are the only intelligent life in the galaxy/universe/(whatever is above the universe level), nor are we the height of intelligent life.
• There is not a supreme being, a “God” if you will, that passes judgement over us, awaits our prayers or makes bets with some supreme evil for our souls.
• The Bible, and all “religious” texts are fine pieces of fiction that anyone who wants to debate against organized religion should have an understanding of before attempting to disprove it.
• While I deny the existence of a “God” figure, I consistently have an inner debate with myself about the concept of an architect/office manager/school principal type of figure that runs things.  I do not think this is some metaphysical being, just a more advanced species than we are and we can imagine at current.  As an analogy think of humans as ants and the President of the United States as this “architect”, hope you can understand what I am trying to say there.  Perhaps the best way to explain it is how Robert Heinlein did in his novel Job: A Comedy of Justice.

So, there we have it.  My little rant on labels.  I haven’t resolved my issue from this morning yet, nor did I really expect to, but I wanted to get these words out before I lost them.  I think the important thing to consider here is that we are all individuals, as unique in our thoughts as we are in our physical appearances.  That is what makes labels and labeling so hard, once someone starts analyzing that label they fairly soon realize that they do not fit into 100% and that can cause inner conflict to them as they begin to doubt just what it is they believe in.  The sad part is labels are an essential part of our normal interactions as they make it easier for us to determine the types of people we are interacting with and make the choices of who we want to interact with.

Where do we go from here?  Honestly I do not know.  I am not a great philosopher nor a messiah, I am just a simple person coming to terms with my own identity and trying to determine, and carve out, my own place in the world.  I carry no illusions of making an impact on the world or society nor of making an overall lasting impression once I am gone.  All I really hope for is to inspire critical thinking, free thought and hopefully and end to this collective thought system we have gotten so used to.  It’s time to destroy the lemmings once and for all and evolve to the higher beings we have the potential to become.

Related articles

• I Am That I Am (freespiritsunited.com)
• Labels are for… (queerlandia.com)
• Labels (dwlonline.wordpress.com)
• Agnostics and Identity: What’s in a name? (recoveringagnostic.wordpress.com)
• Last Thought: Anti-Labelism (yeyoungeconomist.wordpress.com)
• Labels (steffystuff.wordpress.com)
• “Militant Atheism” – I don’t think that means what you think it means. (monicks.net)
• Why I am an atheist – mandrellian (freethoughtblogs.com)
• I am a secular (secularplanet.org)
• My thought behind the thought that Athiesm might be kind of a religion (thoughtbehindthethought.wordpress.com)