Faith and Love or Hate and Brainwashing?
by Terry Zimmerman
I personally am not a religious person, nor am I anti-religious. It is my belief
that all people must be able to decide for themselves as to what sort of faith
that they feel.
Obviously there is a certain cosmic connection to everything in the
universe, but I do not profess to know what that connection is. The only
proven commonality of the universe is energy itself. And the actual source, or
origin of it is unknown. So this leaves me to contemplate where I, or we, as
humans fit into the actual scheme of things.
Is there anything after death? I guess we will just have to wait to find the
answer to that question. I do not have any dead friends that are still keeping in
touch with me, so I assume that they are either a ball of energy and part of the
bigger picture, or they have moved onto another level of existence, whatever
that may mean.
People of various faiths, Christianity, Judaism, Muslimism, etc. certainly
have a right to believe what they believe to be the ultimate truths. And they
have a right to try and convince others that their point of view is the correct
one. But this is where it must end. Governments all over the world have so-
called religions of state, and people are forced to submit to these ideologies.
What is it about writings that are thousands of years old that make people
put logic and reason aside to the point that they become so fervent about
what they believe that they are willing to kill other human beings for no other
reason than that they have different beliefs?
How can one person, in the name of righteousness, claim to have the
answer? Is their position, which is only a belief based on faith rather than
reason, logic or fact, the whole truth? Where does even an inkling of proof
exist? How does anyone know if any of the established religions are correct,
or that, in some way, they are not all correct, for that matter? What makes one
better than the other? Could it be that just having faith and being a good
person is enough?
The United States of America is supposed to be a secular government,
promoting no single religion over another. Yet everyday on the agendas of
government bodies across the nation, from the local to federal levels, religious
dogmas make their way into legislation in one form or another. The right wing
Christians are now encased in every level of government, from our local
library and school boards all the way to the White House.
As I stated above, I am not anti-religious and I am not anti-Christian, but I
am most definitely in opposition to the organized hate peddling, bigoted
hypocrites who are trying to force their skewed religious psyco-babble
bullshit unto everyone else. Where is the seperation of church and state, and
why are our various government
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