Christia-budda-musli-wicca what?
Why do people argue religion when neither side of the argument has actual, bonafide proof?
Being raised by a predominantly christian family, having attended a catholic school, and resorting to the most generic and dirty form of paganism to call as the closest thing to my own beliefs... I have seen a lot. I have heard a lot. I have learned a lot. Most of all, I have learned that each individual person, when separated from the mob, cannot commit to any one thing with absolution. This is a bit abstract, sure, and used vaguely, sure. But which one of your gods has come down lately and held your hand and told you that you are the one that is doing right by him/her/whatever? eh, eh, careful now. If you can positively answer that question... ah never mind, the padded-room joke is played out.
The short of it still boils down to each to their own. Even though it usually means "yeah, i believe what these folks believe, and I'm part of the group, yay!" and then they move to the next group and "oh yeah, I believe what you believe, too, yay! I'm part of your group, yay"... then there's the moment of realization that you can be an individual in both groups and play the game called "yay I agree with both groups even though the groups absolutely disagree... yay" I'm so special! See how special I am!
Fickle. Everyone wants to be special, or to be accepted, or to have something over on the next person. Sometimes its your car, or your house, or even your spouse. But religion does get to be the weapon of choice sometimes. It's nothing new though, right? Crusade anyone? Let's bring back the "convert or die" routine again... oh, wait, that's right, that conflicts too heavily with the "all should die but us" war that is so delightful these days. Either you choose religion to be an individual and stand out, or you let your religion be chosen for you and are denied individuality, or you simply go with the flow because of the fellowship it provides and social networking... or is it because of the cake and cookies? Hmmmm...
What about the ancient religions? Remember? God's, and demi-gods, the polytheist's fun stuff! Where the Gods could be replaced in their positions by other gods, each had their own responsibilities and duties. God of this, goddess of that. Then there were the wars between the gods! Wow, that must have been a show! C'mon, you remember reading about them! The Greeks, the Norse, the Egyptians and the all the folks in the middle east like Sumerians and Babylonians. At least back then you didn't have a hard time believing, because the gods were actually there. Oh wait, those same gods were also fornicating with us on a regular basis, too. Maybe that is what they meant by divine intervention?
Moving on, god hasn't been around in a while... people that actually remember first hand, they have all perished. Now we are down to the masses trying to find those who were told about what the gods were like and what was the plan. Hey! All of a sudden, if you say you remember, you sure are mighty important! If you knew god's plan, it was your responsibility to share it with the rest of the heathens! Yeah, that only lasted so long, because with that importance came power and next thing you know they are calling themselves priests, but why not? God hadn't come down and zapped'em. You aren't in trouble until you get caught, right? Well, even that didn't last long either, because once they have told their side of the "story" about what god wanted and all, and there was some documentation being made of this, all of a sudden you had to keep your stories strait. If what you said this year didn't match up with last year, hey... something fishy is going on... Or you try to step up out of the crowd and say something new or to debunk what has become accepted, Heretic! Burn'em!
What's going to happen when it actually happens, if it happens in our lifetime, and GOD(in whatever form/gender/singular/plural) comes home and the reaction is "what the hell!?!" All religions are basically screwed. None of us know for sure we have it right. We have no untainted texts to provide absolute direction for us that hasn't been damaged by man for their own selfish purposes at some point in history. What has been written by man can not be trusted and you all know that because you all know that given the opportunity, you'd hit it with some magic eraser here and there if you could and swap a few words around. Especially with not being able to look any of these writers in the face, text in hand, and say "you sure they said that?"
Perfect example. The always happy, seemingly-content and cheerful, "doing-god's-will" door knockers that used to visit my house (evidently there's a do-not-knock list, and I've been put on it) and wanted to talk about the Bible. I like the Bible. I've read it several times. I always invited them to share with me in the book of Genesis. "Oh, no, don't want no part of that, we want to talk about the New Testament." Now wait a minute, I read my books from the beginning like all the rest of the western world. Then I hit them with some hard questions. "What's this about the Nefilim and the sons (plural) of god taking a fancy to the daughters of man? What was born to them? I tell you, no spine. No spine at all. Start pointing out the verses they've obviously never paid attention to and the gloves come off! Yahweh? Isn't that plural too? Let US make man in OUR image? What about the verse that talks about the Giants that roamed the earth? Yeah, they don't like "spreading the word" unless they are the ones in charge of what get's spread.
Are we ever going to pull our selves up above this as a society, as a race, as a species? We're doomed. Or is 2012 actually going to be our doomsday because everyone is going to be so freaked out, just like in 2000, that something unverifiable might happen? Hey, let's just kill ourselves and everyone else we can in anticipation of what we don't know is going to happen! And call it in the name of religion, yeah, doesn't that sound grand?
Somewhere, I have the feeling that there will be a indiscript man, holding a sign that says "the end is near" just like in the movies, and in his hand will be a transmitter with a little red button for "just in case" the doomsday prophesy was wrong, so he can make it right, or at least BE right. We really are our own worst enemy, and our only salvation. But salvation takes effort, so pass the cake and cookies, I need to belong somewhere.
Oh, my final question, why does everyone get so uptight and wound up when someone claims to believe in contradicting things that they cannot prove or disprove? If you have your own belief that even you cannot 100% verify if given the burden of proof, why do you care what any other bozo believes? What if bozo's right and you're wrong? Chew on that for a while. Just don't know, do you?
[/soapbox]