The thought processes of the last few months...

When I was 16 I remember driving around with my friend, Kathy, and I can't recall what drove me to ask her the question I did, but I do recall how frustrated I was with her answer. My question, "Do you believe in evolution or in Adam and Eve (by this I meant Creationism)?" was I suppose more or less rooted in curiosity, as I don't remember having any serious qualms about religion in general at that age, but ten years later I find myself perpetually unsatisfied with her answer, and it may very well be because her answer is the answer that most religiously-minded people give when asked a similar question. Her response? "Creationism." And when I prodded at her for an explanation for WHY, and for HOW she could ignore several centuries worth of amassed evidence AGAINST the theory that "God", did in fact, create the earth in 6 days, she simply replied: "I just do."

"I just do." Is it just me or does that sound more or less like a cop out?

About 2 years later there was 9/11, the biggest catastrophe suffered by the United States at the hands of religious fundamentalists, ecstatic at the idea of being martyrs in the eyes of their god. 10 years later, the Mayor of NYC is in talks to erect a mosque at the site where the twin towers once stood. Again, is it just me, or does that seem like a slap in the face to the loved ones of the 2,900+ people who died that day? Sure, I mean why not promote the religion at the very same place where 2,900+ people lost their lives at the hands of it?

I am consistently amazed at the inconsistencies of religion and the power that it still wields over the majority of the world, despite the bloody history of nearly all "modern," Abrahamic religions. Just look at the Catholic Church, the world's largest landowner, and the fact that they use the majority of that land to erect expensive, elaborate and extravagant churches when such a large portion of the world remains poor and uneducated. I hate to even mention the fact that teachers in religious schools are more poorly paid than teachers in public or non-denominational schools, are given limited benefits (if they are given benefits at all), work without any promise of severance or tenure, and are told that it is because the Archdiosis cannot afford it. Here is an idea: quit erecting churches and put the money into schools and their teachers. Just a thought! Next we should examine the damage that the Muslim world has the capacity to inflict on the Western world (consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents for a full list of known attacks with religion at the root). Judaism is no exception, despite the small number of Jews left in the world. Israeli Jews are just as self righteous as Palestinians are in claiming that "God" promised the particular plot of land currently known as Jerusalem to both of them, and neither country hesitates to risk bloodshed to keep a stake in their claim. I'm sorry people, but for all the supposed "good" that religion may accomplish, doesn't it come at a pretty high price?

I am extremely bothered by the idea of blind faith, faith rooted in the absence of anything that could be considered concrete knowledge. Now, let me first say that I do not presume to KNOW anything with complete certainty, but I do believe that we can know certain thing with MORE certainty than others, and it is on this belief that I base my life. There is no way to prove, and therefore believe in with any certainty, a virgin birth, a dead man coming back to life, the ability to walk on water, the ability to part an entire sea with only a staff, etc, etc... And what I mean by that is that none of us who would be considered "sane" could claim to have witnessed these things with any or all of our 5 senses. It is however, quite possible to make claims that would be considered very "sane" indeed when they are things that many other people have witnessed, or that many other very intelligent people have agreed on, or when something just follows a particular path of logic that we have generally accepted as being true because we cannot find a way to refute it and we do not recognize any holes in the argument. I have never been quite sure why such fairy tales are crucial to religion, and it is PRECISELY those fairy tales (among many other things) that cause me to distrust it. I have neither the will nor the ability to believe in a fairy tale, and what I find interesting is that none of us is asked to believe that the Princess in the children's fairy tale story, "The Princess and the Pea" could ACTUALLY feel the pea beneath 100+ mattresses, or that wolves and bears can talk, a la "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Goldilocks", or that carpets can fly of their own accord, or that little blue genies live in bottles, and when you rub the bottle they come out and grant you three wishes, a la "Aladdin," yet we are asked to accept without question the nonsensical stories in the Bible, most of which are equally if not MORE absurd that any of the aforementioned stories in children's books. I am not trying to say that there are things that happen that are outside of any aspect of knowledge that we, as humans, are capable of understanding, but I do not accept that the FACT that these things happen is the perfect argument for the existence of "God". Of course, any logical mind could conclude that if "God", were indeed responsible for everything that happens, and given the complexity, delicacy and elegance of that which DOES exist, then something or someone even MORE complex, delicate and elegant must have "created" "God", or, if you choose to argue that "God" simply has always existed and will always exist, then again you are going on blind faith, because YOU have NOT, actually, always existed, nor will you always exist, and any relative of yours who may have been alive in the time when "God" "came to be", has been dead and gone and therefore unable to communicate to you any information regarding the truth of that belief. Either way, there is no sound argument or concrete proof for what you claim to believe.

Before you claim to believe something for the sake of belief alone, ask yourself "At what cost?" If even half the people who considered themselves religious sat down and really EXAMINED what is at the heart of their religion I could only hope that they may change their minds. People rely far too much on OTHER people, namely Rabbis, Priests and Pastors to INTERPRET the Bible FOR them. I wonder how anyone can be content being spoon fed information? What has happened to the spirit of the individual? What has happened to the valuing of INTELLIGENCE? Are we destined to succumb to a group-think mentality, the horrors of which are touched upon in books like George Orwell's, 1984, and the film, V for Vendetta? Are we destined to let go of so many centuries of progress and invention and cures for various diseases at the hands of religion consistently telling us that cleverness is of no worth to the human species, and is, in fact, detrimental to us?

I cannot, in good conscience, accept any of this. Can you? Can you, really?