Religion

OK, this opinion is not about a whale movie. I just have a slightly “offset” sense of humour.

Free will. Do we have it? In my opinion, there are far too many factions trying to remove our free will. Religion being one of the largest. This is rather comical since, when looking at Christianity, one of their tenants is that God does not interfere in our lives because “He” gave us free will.

Now, this can go one of two ways (or both?). It is pretty obvious that we do not have free will in religion (and I’ll get to that in a bit). Is this because “God” did not actually give us free will? or, is it because the church has a good little power thing going here. Since I don’t believe in god, I lean towards the latter, but if I am proven wrong and there actually is a god, then I suppose that it could be his fault too right?

I went to catholic school for most of elementary school and all of high school. Now I don’t claim that I got a bad education there, but I also can’t say that I got a better education than I would have gotten through the public school system (based on what I observe with my own children). What I did get, though, is thorough exposure to religion. Largely christianity with Catholicism as the primary focus, but also other religious points of view. Really, I have to give my school credit for teaching me anything other than Catholicism. That was very open minded of them.

I digress. What I was trying to say was that I was quite exposed to religion, and over the years, I began to see problems. Inconsistencies if you will. I gradually grew into my atheism. Please see What Do I Think (or do I) to apply a label to me.

I digress again. It’s becoming a habit. Anyways, I had made up my mind before I ever finished high-school, but every now and then I would still get dragged to some function or other. The most notable was the one year where I was dragged to midnight mass (Christmas Eve). It was a family tradition, that would always be followed by a yummy 1 am breakfast and then bed. Anyways, that year we arrived at the church late. The church was packed. I am surprised the fire marshall was not in attendance to clear the place out, but anyways, we were forced to sit on the side lines. When sitting on the side you get a completely different perspective on things. Sitting there, I noticed something I had never noticed before. It was in such stark contrast to what you would expect. Christmas is supposed to be a happy occasion. Everyone is supposed to be engaged. Switched on, if you will. What I saw was everyone in the church responding robotic-ally to the mass. All the responses programmed since early childhood. I saw a group of people allowing their minds to be switched off.

I guess what I am saying is that, I don’t care what you believe in, as long as it is YOUR belief, not one that is forced upon you. (sorry for all the rambling while I was trying to get to the point).