Thursday, May 30, 2013

Religion

I have a distinct memory of ridding in the backseat of my parents car, I must have been about Carina's age, looking up in the sky and wondering which cloud it was that God was sitting on at that very moment watching his world.  I remember silent prayers I would make asking for things like my best friend Rachel to be able to come out and play and making deals that I would give up gum forever if I just got the new cabbage patch doll for my birthday.  I had a very limited knowledge about God and all his workings at that point.  I do not every recall going to church, other then for funerals and weddings with my parents.  I did however go to Awana with a friend when I was little as well as LDS services as a teen.  I liked playing games and singing songs at Awana and I liked the dances that the LDS church put on for the teens.  I think most of my early God education came from my best friend Rachel who was Catholic.  We would giggle about how her dad was a Priest until a cute young southern belle came waltzing into his church one day.  The Southern bell was of course her mother and was 12 years younger then he.  He sold insurance, smoked a pipe, and beat his kids asses for the most mundane things.  We were friends for six years but that is all I really remember about him.  It was my first exposure to religion and child abuse going hand in hand.  Her mom was sweet, caring and very girly.  She let us play with her make up and dress up in her clothes.

One of my very close friends in Junior high was Mormon and his dad was a monster he beat the kids and his wife and they had a trampoline and a camper that the kids would sneak off into to have sex.

I had a couple of Jewish friends as a kid as well.

I knew at the time that there was a God and that there were different religions but had no idea what the difference was between Catholics, Christians, Mormons or Jews.  Well I knew Jews celebrated Hanukkah, Mormons and Catholics weren't suppose to use birth control though my Mormon friend's parents sure had a big box of condoms.  But other then these few exceptions most of the people in my life were not overly religious and I never bothered to educate myself about the bible.

In high school I learned about the Holocaust and my vague belief in God was gone.  There was no way no how there was a higher being who had the capacity to intercede in our lives who sat idly by while people were rounded up and  put to death because they didn't fit one man's image of perfection. There really are so many examples such as what the Christian's did to the Indians when they came to America and then continued doing when they stole Indian children from their people and tried to indoctrinate them into their ways of being and believing.  Where is this almighty God while children are raped and beaten?  Why does God allow babies to develop inside their mothers womb only to die in her arms immediately following their birth? Why does God allow babies to be born with horrible birth defects that make their lives a daily misery? If there is a god he idly sits by while all these atrocities happen with the knowledge they are going to happen and having the ability intercede and does nothing, or he is not all powerful and all knowing and therefore everything we know of God from the bible is complete bullshit.

For the most part my understanding of this world has rarely clashed with the religious people.  Most people I knew in Oregon talked about their religion more as a part of what made up their culture.  I think this is what religion does best, it gives people a sense of community and customs that unite them with others.  However there have been a few incidences where other's belief in a mystical sky daddy has caused conflict and ended relationships. I wont take full responsibility but I also wont deny that I played a role in these dissolution's.  Whatever feelings I had about the relationship ending were quickly vanquished by the overwhelming relief that I could be genuine in my life.  I no longer had to bite my tongue when someone would say how God is good or he works in mysterious ways.

The way that people are thanking god for saving them from the Oklahoma tornadoes right now is sick.  How can anyone be so self rightness to believe that god spared them and stood idly by while children were killed.  What makes you feel so entitled to god's salvation while innocent children are killed, maimed and left parent-less.

I was really looking forward to coming to Ross University and being surrounded by educated people who undoubtedly had cast off their belief in God as many children do of their belief in Santa.  Certainly those going into medicine would have to recognize the absurdity of the God of the bible.  Finally we could live amongst people who were realist and who's children wouldn't chastise my child for her lack of belief.  I could not have been more wrong.  The Ross Christian Fellowship, the Ross Catholic student association, Hindu Student Council, Jewish student association, Muslim student association, Sikh student association and Ross Adventist Fellowship.  I don't know why there isn't a LDS group, they think they are Christians but the Christians don't think they are.   My one question for all of these people is how do you go to class learn about the horrid afflictions of newborns and the evolutionary evidence that is our bodies and still believe in your religion that does nothing to explain the complex world in which we live it.  The very nature of your studies is in direct contradiction to your belief in an all powerful all loving God.  If there was a God who you could pray to to heal the sick and it worked you'd be out of a job.

I guess it bugs me so much because these are obviously educated people who use logic and reasoning to get to where they are today with the exception of the existence of  a god.  Worse over is those who thank god for getting them to medical school as if their hard work and dedication had nothing to do with it.  I have no doubt all of the students here worked their asses off to get to where they are today.  I suppose this makes it easier when they fail, they can attribute it to being part of god's plan rather then the anything they did or didn't do to contribute to their failure.  Nearly 30  percent of Matt's class failed this last semester and I know many were religious.  I know for some their religion has gotten in the way, there are a majority of Mormons (I honestly don't know about person's of other faiths) who take Sunday off from studying.  I can tell you one thing, Matt has never taken an entire day off from studying while school is in session.  Weekends are for reviewing, reviewing the material is key to retaining the mass of knowledge they are cramming into their brains.  Of course there are just as many reasons one fails as there are those who fail and it really never is just one thing.

I want to be clear, I think the vast majority of people in general find a balance between their irrational belief in God and functioning in their day to day life.  However, I think of these people who believe in God as like Mystique from Xmen when Mystique is trying to suppress her natural state and thus doing so was not being as great as she could be.  As you can see in this preview for the movie  http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4060585241/.  The mental gymnastics must be exhausting. So I know this will be offensive to some who might read this, and for that I am truly sorry.  But at least I don't believe in slavery, torture for one's beliefs, eternal suffering, murder, mutilation of my child's body, abuse nor discrimination.  With the exception of mutilating your child, most religious people don't either. Which proves the point that your morality surpasses that of your God and the "good book".



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