Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Religion really is the big taboo. We're not allowed to insult other people's faiths, or show disrespect towards them for their beliefs. Why not? This makes no allowance for those of us who do not believe in a god - I am continually insulted by people trying to make me believe in one.
We were accosted the other day by a lovely Italian man who, I think, was in Canberra for World Youth Day-associated activities. I held my tongue and smiled at him for the sake of my friends, but if I'd been alone I would have told him I was a Satanist and walked away. What right does he have to show disrespect to my own choices by trying to convince me that his option is somehow better?
I would never stop somebody in the street and try to tell them that my belief system will enrich their life. How rude! I simply do not understand why it is acceptable for convential religions to do that, but not for the rest of us. Can you imagine how insulted and shocked a Catholic would be if I stopped him in the street and said, "Satanism is the best way to live"?
It's a double-standard which must be abolished; religion should be subject to the same openness and debate that everything else is. There's no particular reason to protect it from question or doubt; only convention and a fear of upsetting people. Well, I'm already upset, and I question these old conventions!
When something has been done a certain way for hundreds of years, they call it tradition. I call it time to contemporise!

3 comments:

Lletna said...

I agree with you and I was suprised how well behaved Aidan and you were!

My beliefs are my choice and I do not need to recruit people to my beliefs. I in return do not expect to be recruited into anyone elses beliefs.

Thanks for having me for the weekend! :)

Romeo Morningwood said...

Religion is the biggest roadblock to uniting Earthlings. We will never band together and focus on making the most of our brief tenure.

I understand why we still drag this bag of bricks around and it has more to do with crowd control and primate insecurity than love and hope. In evolutionary terms our brain has simply gotten away from us and our cosmic inquisitiveness was temporarily fixed by legend and myth.

Now however we know what, who, when, where and how we got here...the BIG why is unsolvable...the straight linear progression of species is good enough on one level but all of the before the big boom questions seem to demand a supernatural explanation.

I am losing patience with all of this because every day we see some crackpot kill someone else because of their dumbass decision to throw out logic and reason and cling to their My God is BETTER than your God excuse. Seriously flawed.

Religion continues to deliver us to the brink of self extermination and will prolly succeed long before the planet is ready to eliminate us and give another species a shot.

*sigh

Cazzie!!! said...

Yes, at the present moment there is a problem with Mormons on the railway stations preaching at the public who are there to take a train to and from work or uni or wherever they are going to or from.
We are in the midst of finding a law against it, well, it has got to be a written one right? But, un written is exactly what you are talkign about, it is about respecting other people's choices...everyone has rights, but what gives them others the right to force feed something we cannot digest, or will not digest...fforget it, I am with you!!