I am told by my Christian friends that they have a famous saying: Love the sinner, hate the sin. I agree.
So, when I say I can't stand the major organized religions (people have asked in the past why I leave out Hinduism - ask and ye shall receive - including Hinduism!), you have to understand I am not referring to its adherents. I am referring to the core of the religion.
Are there good Christians? Of course!!!!! What kind of ridiculous person would even ask this question? Does anyone reasonably believe I am against all Christians?
Some think that I bashed Muslims too much in my last post. People said that I can't lump all Muslims in with just the ones who are extremists. Since I was born Muslim and my whole family is Muslim, I would say that I have a pretty good understanding of that.
On the other hand, you can't soft pedal what you think of the religions because you are afraid that it might get misconstrued as an attack against people's identities. If that was the case, we couldn't disagree with any set of ideas because they are part of the core identity of many people. Can I not lobby against further tax cuts because I would be insulting the very identity of Grover Norquist?
Are there also bad Christians? Jews? Muslims? And yes, even Hindus? Of course!!!! Being any of these things does not exclude you from the normal conditions of humanity. Of course there are good guys and bad guys who believe in any religion. I'm sure there were lovely, pious Zoroastrians and hideous, corrupt Zoroastrians.
There was probably even a Pat Robertson of Zoroastrianism, who pretended to worship the Sun while operating diamond mines in Eastern Persia.
Obviously, the people you have to watch out for most are the ones who insist on jamming their religion down your throat. And there is a difference between forcibly arguing your position (as a preacher might do in favor of Christianity or I might do against Christianity) and insisting on making your opinion the law of the land (what the Christian Right and the Muslim mullahs do).
I would never legislate against religion. I believe in the first amendment, 100%. Ironically, I have almost a religious zeal for it. The founding fathers were my prophets.
I have to be able to say that I disagree with your religion, regardless of whether you get offended by it. The thing that you have staked your life on and built your hopes and dreams around is a fraud. It's not true. God will not cast you into eternal damnation if you were garments of two different cloths. You are not committing an abomination against the Creator of the Universe if you eat shrimp. I love you, but what you believe is not only wrong, but nearly insane.
Now, we will run into the universal argument of ... but a lot of people don't believe it literally. Good for them, they realize you shouldn't murder your son because he cursed at you. Bravo. But then why would you believe the book at all? If it is riddled with nonsense, complete irrationality and fairytales, perhaps you should pick another book to put your faith in. I bet the Lord of the Rings has a better moral story to tell without as much irrational nonsense.
The Bible says you can take slaves as long as they are not Israelites. There is no other way to describe that - it is wrong. If that part is wrong (along with hundreds of other parts), then shouldn't it occur to you that the whole thing is wrong? That it was made up by a bunch of guys who had never seen Jesus and wrote it decades after he died. And that it was sloppily put together by a bunch of political editors several hundred years later.
I can't have an intelligent conversation with people and pretend to respect this obvious hoax. Yes, the Bible, the Talmud, the Koran and the Upanishads also have lovely moral stories. So does my grandma's diary, but that doesn't make her a prophet.
So, I love you Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus. But I have no respect for your silly books that you have used for thousands of years as justification to kill each other.
Yes, I understand that other people have killed for non-religious reasons, but you don't have to make it easy for people to murder one another by putting hatred of other sects into your sacred religious texts.
But even if religion hadn't caused all of the grotesqueries that it has throughout history, I would still be against it. Even if it only brought rainbows and sunshine, I would still be against it. Because it isn't true. God doesn't hate you if you're gay. God doesn't give damn about the Israelites. God wasn't whispering into Mohammed's ear and coincidentally telling him everything that would be to his advantage to build an empire. Moses didn't split the Red Sea. And God never saved Jesus of Nazareth. If he existed at all, he died saying. "God, why have you forsaken me?"
I don't want to take people's faith away from them. I am not arguing against faith or spirituality. I am not even an atheist. Believe it or not, I don't even argue against miracles. And I am agnostic as to what gave this universe the order that it clearly has.
But if you're going to have faith, please choose more wisely. These books are ridiculous. They are counterproductive, riddled with blood and gore and most importantly, not true.
My religious friends, I love you, but you're wrong.
Podcast The Young Turks
UPDATE -- To answer two early challenges 1) Yes, religion has a ton to do with politics, here at home and definitely in the world. I got started on this whole train of thought two days ago when I read a Financial Times article about Hindus and Muslims butchering each other in the name of religion in India. 2) And this diary is to complete the thought from yesterday's diary and to answer some of its criticisms. After this we move back to Bush and continue to pound him into the ground.