Monday 1 April 2013

What's in a name?

It's at this time of year, Easter, that I ask myself, "What's in a name?"
You might find this question a bit strange as there are surely more important things to think about like Easter bunnies, chocolate, oh and say Jesus being crucified.
But it is because of this last one that had me questioning the whole religious fervour around GOD.
So what's in a name? A lot it would seem. What some people call God, others call Allah or Ehyeh or Brahman or Parabrahman or even Gitche Manitou.
But If you are a scientist you would call it energy.
As far as I can see it's a matter of semantics. God is a word. As is energy. Or any other name you choose to give to whatever deity you choose to devote your time and energy to.
The sad part is that as far as I can see all religions believe the same thing. There is a God, check. That is everywhere, check. Is all powerful, check. We are made from God, check.
Science says the same about energy. So what science calls energy another might call God.
Round and round we go but it all leads to the same place, it's a name. That we humans choose to give it.
So why the hell are we so obsessed with fighting over the details on how we believe? The rules, if you like, of religion?
My God's better than your God. Excuse me but that is a complete and utter pile of horse shit. You all believe the same fucken thing, by a different name. Are you people thick?
Organised religion disgusts me.
From everything I've seen, read and experienced religious organisations are morally bankrupt. Child sex abuse scandals, starvation in third world countries and generally teaching their followers that anyone who doesn't believe what they do is the enemy.
This is all based on a book written thousands of years ago, in a foreign language that lost a lot in translation, written by people a long time after the events and changed along the way to suit who was ruling the church at the time.
Have you ever played Chinese whispers? What starts out as a relatively simple message gets passed along, when it gets to the other end people's interpretation messes with that message until you have something that is unrecognisable from the original message. That's the holy books that these people quote, word for word.
You can justify any action by reading the Bible. Where Jesus said if someone wrongs you, turn the other cheek. Be the better man. But in another chapter it says an eye for an eye.
What people neglect to recognise is that the Bible was written by MEN. Ordinary people, not God.
I've heard it said that it was God writing through these people. Uh huh. Yeah righto. If today I said I heard the voice of God in my head or saw a burning bush that talked to me I'd be institutionalised pretty quick and rightly so but because it was written in a book from a couple of thousand years ago it makes it correct?
I understand people's need for religion and God but that shouldn't overtake our basic reasoning skills to recognise that whatever other people think and believe they are just as human as each other.
I think that is probably what upsets me most is that religion separates and segregates us more. Men, women. Black, white. Catholic, Muslim. We are all people at the end of the day and having yet another separation of us because of religious factions is completely ridiculous.
Call me a religious zealot, I could care less, water off a ducks back but just because I don't attend a church or follow an organised religion doesn't make me less of a person in fact it probably makes me more in touch with other people from different racial and religious backgrounds because I haven't had my world view tainted by some outdated book that while supposing to be for the benefit of society actually has a detrimental effect.
The sooner all of us wake up and realise that essentially we all believe the same thing the sooner we can get on a whole lot better and forget about all the petty bullshit that separates us on religious boundaries.

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