I heard this on the local college radio station today. I guess it's the liner notes of a band called Propoghandi.
"Religion is an impulse to explain. A natural impulse that everyone has and everyone grapples with. It's an impulse that, sadly and ironically, has been exploited to convinced people to take actions that defy and demean that impulse. The exploiters are (fuck - not these guys again!) the ruling elite of nearly every society, in every era, and ours is no exception. It's not hard to understand the false sense of comfort and security of faith that religion provides. Alot of us have been throught it and can understand how hard it can be to shake the grip of dogma. Religious dogma, which is a set of rules, is a tool used by people in power to keep other people powerless, and to coerce them into serving the interests of the powerful. History is flooded with examples of religion used to defend and promote most of humanity's dumbest moves. Like genocide: the holocaust and the anihilation of the world's indigenous populations. Like war: from the beginning of "civilization" to the Gulf War and beyond. Like prejudice: the continued subjugation of women in all of the major religions. Like poverty: as a tool of capitalism, religion has taught the poor to accept injustice. Probably the worst effect of religion has on us is its' ability to create divisions so remarkably deep that people will kill for them. Fuck, scratch at any major conflict in the world today and just beneath the skin of diplomacy and territorial demends you will find a fundamentalist, bloodthirsty form of one or more organized religion. Many "progressive" people involved in religions believe they can work within their religious institutions to change them for the better. It's an understandable desire - we all work within institutions to some extend, but it's kinda dumb in the same way that the Catholic Church's motivation for wanting to feed the hungry is kinda dumb: their writings and dogma tell them to. Shouldn't they be motivated by simply knowing that feeding the hungry is the right thing to do?? People indoctrinated in religions (including the religions of ideology... not mentioning any names), seems to believe that a moral code cannot exist outside of their institution. It can and it does. We have the ability (and the duty!) to do the right thing without the rhetoric of dogmas, the threat of hierarchies or the fear of some old coot in a beard firing a fucken lightning bolt at our sinful, hairy, zitty little asses. The saddest thing about religion is what is lost. Religion, or more accurately, I suppose, the appropriators and exploiters of religion, have taken our purest impulses of solidarity, compassion, celebration of the wonder and mystery of our lives, and turned them against us. This, most of all, is why I reject: so that I can reclaim these impulses for the causes they deserve... love and justice."
I have to say I don't agree with all they wrote, but I do agree with most of it. Being a forced Christian as a child (and being so utterly confused and scared for years because of their lies) has made me almost anti-christian. Okay... that's not entirely true. I am against the hypocrisy, the judging, the lies and the holier than though attitude. I know there are some out there who do not fall for that crap and those people I can respect and I respect their religious choice. The other make me mad because I hate that I spent many years being (what I feel) lied to and it's made ,e bitter. And very against lying
I dunno.... this whole administration and their fucked up wanna be Christian values just make me mad. They do it so they can push their conservative agenda and that pisses me off.
In Florida now, girls under 18 cannot get abortions without parental notification. To me, that is so fucked up. Also in my lovely state of Florida just last week a pregnant 13 year old was told she could not have an abortion because she wasn't mature enough to make that decision. WTF? But she's old enough to have a baby or possibly be a parent (assuming she decided to keep it). Bleh! Luckily the ACLU intervened, but I'm not sure what, if anything, has happened. Hmmmm.... maybe I need to move out of this state
Happy weekend guys and dolls!
"Religion is an impulse to explain. A natural impulse that everyone has and everyone grapples with. It's an impulse that, sadly and ironically, has been exploited to convinced people to take actions that defy and demean that impulse. The exploiters are (fuck - not these guys again!) the ruling elite of nearly every society, in every era, and ours is no exception. It's not hard to understand the false sense of comfort and security of faith that religion provides. Alot of us have been throught it and can understand how hard it can be to shake the grip of dogma. Religious dogma, which is a set of rules, is a tool used by people in power to keep other people powerless, and to coerce them into serving the interests of the powerful. History is flooded with examples of religion used to defend and promote most of humanity's dumbest moves. Like genocide: the holocaust and the anihilation of the world's indigenous populations. Like war: from the beginning of "civilization" to the Gulf War and beyond. Like prejudice: the continued subjugation of women in all of the major religions. Like poverty: as a tool of capitalism, religion has taught the poor to accept injustice. Probably the worst effect of religion has on us is its' ability to create divisions so remarkably deep that people will kill for them. Fuck, scratch at any major conflict in the world today and just beneath the skin of diplomacy and territorial demends you will find a fundamentalist, bloodthirsty form of one or more organized religion. Many "progressive" people involved in religions believe they can work within their religious institutions to change them for the better. It's an understandable desire - we all work within institutions to some extend, but it's kinda dumb in the same way that the Catholic Church's motivation for wanting to feed the hungry is kinda dumb: their writings and dogma tell them to. Shouldn't they be motivated by simply knowing that feeding the hungry is the right thing to do?? People indoctrinated in religions (including the religions of ideology... not mentioning any names), seems to believe that a moral code cannot exist outside of their institution. It can and it does. We have the ability (and the duty!) to do the right thing without the rhetoric of dogmas, the threat of hierarchies or the fear of some old coot in a beard firing a fucken lightning bolt at our sinful, hairy, zitty little asses. The saddest thing about religion is what is lost. Religion, or more accurately, I suppose, the appropriators and exploiters of religion, have taken our purest impulses of solidarity, compassion, celebration of the wonder and mystery of our lives, and turned them against us. This, most of all, is why I reject: so that I can reclaim these impulses for the causes they deserve... love and justice."
I have to say I don't agree with all they wrote, but I do agree with most of it. Being a forced Christian as a child (and being so utterly confused and scared for years because of their lies) has made me almost anti-christian. Okay... that's not entirely true. I am against the hypocrisy, the judging, the lies and the holier than though attitude. I know there are some out there who do not fall for that crap and those people I can respect and I respect their religious choice. The other make me mad because I hate that I spent many years being (what I feel) lied to and it's made ,e bitter. And very against lying
I dunno.... this whole administration and their fucked up wanna be Christian values just make me mad. They do it so they can push their conservative agenda and that pisses me off.
In Florida now, girls under 18 cannot get abortions without parental notification. To me, that is so fucked up. Also in my lovely state of Florida just last week a pregnant 13 year old was told she could not have an abortion because she wasn't mature enough to make that decision. WTF? But she's old enough to have a baby or possibly be a parent (assuming she decided to keep it). Bleh! Luckily the ACLU intervened, but I'm not sure what, if anything, has happened. Hmmmm.... maybe I need to move out of this state
Happy weekend guys and dolls!
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I found you through SG Geezers..BTW.