When the comment trading is starting to drag on into the unscrolled dusty depths of a diary I like to drag my carpal tunnel syndrome inflicting rants back up into the sunny spotlight of the recent diary ride to oblivion and inflict them on you.
Yeah, the damn cat is yowling for attention again.
What follows is something of a reply to a comment (I will post a link to this diary as a reply to that comment) in a conversation I've been having with a person who I think may have suffered from a Jesus Camp style indoctrination. I start with a blockquote from the comment I'm responding to:
That is what I see around me. People with religion, and no sense of social obligation. For their indifference to humanity and the earth I blame religion.
That one part of what you wrote has stuck with me as being the key to everything. You've written that your personal experience is with Christianity. Isn't basically the entire Sermon on the Mount about social obligation and renouncing material wealth? I don't see the problem in the message or the messenger. I see a problem in people learning about the message and the messenger from people like this slightly photoshopped opportunist: But really the problem is people believing the opportunists. Just sitting back and letting authority do your thinking for you.
I grew up on Frank Zappa for much of my religious indoctrination:
The problem as I see it is people who believe anything they are fed by authority. This sort of thinking makes for masses of Americans who claim to be conservatives but identify so closely with the label 'Republican' that they vote for authoritarian, big government, spend, spend spend, corporate 'suck ups' just because they share a meaningless label. Vote for the label! -- ignore the corrupt bastard behind the curtain. A similar sort of meaningless label is 'Christian' which is clung to by millions of people who seem to use the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in The Bible as toilet paper. But there are also Christians who take Christ's message seriously and understand it well enough to know that hoarding wealth and hating are not part of the message.
Opportunistic authoritarians love the meek. The meek sheeple are ruining the place. There will always be power hungry predators and there will always be meek drones who willfully throw away the daunting task of actually having to make decisions. The unending cry of "Tell me what to do!" will always find responses of "Follow ME!"
The problem has never been religion. And here I quote one of my own personal favorite atheists Douglas Adams "People are a problem"
And like Frank says:
Remember, there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.
I also highly recommend large doses of George Carlin. If you start bending over ol' buddy George is there to give you a helpful kick in the ass.
So my congratulations for finally breaking out of the zombie world of lockstep group-think. People are generally lazy twits that follow anyone willing to lead. It's good to see an individual poke their head up above the herd and check on which direction everyone is headed. I like it even better when someone like you manages to get out of a misled herd. You've shown great strength. I hope to read more from you as you discover your own path and continue your journey.