So, the professor had everyone get into groups to critique our final essay thesis. One of my group mates had a thesis against religion. Saying that non-religious people were smarter and more rational than religious people. That if all religions were proven false somehow, there would be less war. I have to say this kind of irked me. He had some statistic about how non-religious people are more likely to be–these are his words–“more scientific”. I argued that science can be biased. He came back with “well, it’s not supposed to be”. Yeah but it is. People lie to make their ideas seem true, even if, in actuality, they aren’t.
Anyway, I just kind of let it go. I didn’t want to come off as some angry religious person saying that science is biased just because I disagree. I do disagree, but I actually have valid reasons. For example, that dude who shot that congresswoman not to long ago? (sorry, can’t remember their names at the moment) He was a self-proclaimed intellectual, and you see what he did.He committed a violent act because he didn’t like what the congresswoman said. It’s not just religious people who go overboard for their beliefs.
What’s more, anyone can say, “Oh I’m Baptist”, “I’m Buddhist”, “I’m Catholic”, “I’m blah blah blah”. Just because people SAY they’re something, doesn’t mean they are. What about priests, and pastors, and other religious leaders who say or do things that are against the rules of their religion? Like being pedophiles, or stealing money , or having stripper poles in the church. <—yeah, that last one is true too. Look it up. These things aren’t just small lapses in judgement. They KNOW they’re wrong and do it anyway! I always hear complaints about Christians especially. People also use religion to put themselves above others and to push their ideas on someone else. This is against what a lot, if not all, religions teach. If they are truly trying to adhere to the word of God, they wouldn’t demean non-Christians and force what they believe on them.
And as far as his, ‘there would be less war’ notion: WRONG! People will fight over anything out of sheer greed! It’s not about religion, it’s about MONEY!
Personally, I’m not hyper religious. I do believe in God, but I don’t believe or agree with everything Christians say or do. I even agree with some scientists on the creation of the universe. The Big Bang theory sounds reasonable to me. I mean, Christians love to say God can do anything. Anything! So why is it so hard for some to believe he can’t have done that? I think not everything in the Bible is meant literally. You also have to take into account that Bibles were translated into English, and sometimes we don’t have words equivalent to what was originally written.
And if you think about it, even non-religion is a form of religion. They believe in not believing. They form groups dedicated to not believing. So really, you’re still religious in a way.
….Ok, I think I’m done. I didn’t want to rant but that guy kind of ticked me off. Not just him, but a lot of people. Especially the type of people who completely reject religion without making an attempt to understand it as fully as possible. It just seems to me that people my age (many of the people I’ve met, I should say) are atheists because they come into contact with or witnessed the actions of small-minded religious people who use religion to exploit others or shove their ideas down people’s throats. They let those few people define the whole religion for them and just disregard religious people as overbearing as a whole. That’s pretty sad.
Also, to anyone reading, I’m not trying to make generalizations about anyone. Religious or non-religious. I’m just stating what I believe and have known to be true.