andrewdewaard.com

i think the religion vs non-religion debate is pretty useless. if it didn’t predate capitalism i would say it must be a dirty capitalist trick, but why is this still bringing us down? metaphor: we share 99.4% of our DNA with fruit flies. that statistic is in no way accurate, but regardless (irregardless?) it’s something crazy high like that right?* our basic building block, DNA, says we’re pretty much fruit flies except this tiny tiny tiny little code here. as humans, we share most pretty much everything. everything. we all like being really comfortable while we sleep, we all like a passionately satisfying meal, we all like having unexpected good times with friends, we all fuckin love candy, grandmothers, puppies, sunshine, music, trees, cute babies, the new arcade fire album, sex, and ice cream. even if one or two of those didn’t include you, you would still be totally psyched about the rest. and we all share a hatred for a lot of the same things too. arrogance, long lineups, itchiness, abuse, wet socks, unfairness, war, you get the point. but we always bicker about the little things. i guess cause it’s easier?

* ok its only 60%, but still!

it’s unfortunate as a species that we are so attracted to conflict. if we would concentrate on the worst issues, then maybe we would fix poverty and wealth distribution first and then maybe worry about something minor like race and gay marriage and gender. not that those issues are “minor” in any way, because they certainly are not, but that they perhaps pale in comparison to the bigger problems we face. maybe if we just stopped concentrating on the points that we don’t agree on, we could get down to some serious work on the points that we do agree on. no one wants poverty or inequality. so we haven’t figured out to get along as different races yet, i dont know why, seems pretty easy, but we’re gonna put that aside for the moment and get to work on poverty first, because that has a bigger impact on society (and facilitates racism). in fact, if we were to focus on poverty and economic inequality, we would do a lot to solve these other issues.

i don’t really believe in anything, but i believe in bob dylan

Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
Some of the people can be all right part of the time.
But all the people can’t be all right all the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours,”
I said that.

so when i read something like this, it alarms me, because i can see an entire rift break out as to how much you believe in your fellow man. the gist: christian mother writes a post on the freejesus.net forum about how her son came out to her, and she told him that she loved him but he was going to hell because he was gay, basically. the son reacts negatively, obviously, so the mother laments

What did I do wrong? I dont want to lose my son, but I fear I already have. I talked it over with his therapist, who had the ludicrous idea that homosexuality was unchangable and that trying to repress could lead to lots of psychological damage (I’ve dropped him and will try to be finding another therapist with more moral beliefs). I wouldnt be surprised if he’s the one who’s feeding my son all the homosexual propaganda about how its ‘ok’ to be gay. That, or how homosexuality has engulfed the media, making it seem ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ and how they were just another oppressed minority. You didnt have to worry about seeing two men making out on tv at my age! I dont want to sound like a fanatic, but Im worried what other effects will come out of this increasingly secular, immoral society obsessed with filth.

Am I too late? Or is it possible to save my son”

the son then killed himself. to which the mother replied, “I’m so distraught; I can’t stop crying! What did I do wrong? Is my son in Hell now for killing himself??” which is tremendously sad. because not only did this poor boy kill himself (most likely) because he felt unwanted and “sinful”, but the mother doesn’t even realize what she did to her son.

so the writer of the blog response is upset, he is angry with the mother, hates her, which leads him to conclude that “She deserved to die more than her son did. But even more than that, I hate fundamentalist Christianity.” bold statement, perhaps the seemingly clear-cutted nature of this event warrants such a harsh criticism of religion.

but then the comments on this blog post are worth a read, because it’s genuine rational (mostly) dialogue at its best. something that doesn’t happen enough these days it seems. for instance, and this is perhaps representative of the middle ground i feel as being caught between pro-religion and anti-religion:

Christianity is not a bad thing. The church of today and most of history seems to have missed the point. Jesus said we are all brothers. That’s why we should care for each other. We’re in this together. Christian, Muslim, Jew, Atheist, Gay, Straight, Conservative, Liberal, any other title you chose to give. It doesn’t matter. That’s what a Christian is. One who follows Christ. What did Christ do? Christ loved. I just wish more “Christians” understood that. That’s why you all hate Christianity. Not because it, in and of itself is bad, but because it’ message is so for distorted from the original that it is more recognizable amongst non-Christians than it is in the church. This is why the church of today has failed. This is why fundamentalism allows such wretched events to take place. This is why the church needs a change. This is why I’m sorry.

certainly, the christian right is extremely dangerous:

We now live in a nation where the top one percent control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, where we have legalized torture and can lock up citizens without trial. Arthur Schlesinger, in The Cycles of American History, wrote that “the great religious ages were notable for their indifference to human rights in the contemporary sense—not only for their acquiescence in poverty, inequality and oppression, but for their enthusiastic justification of slavery, persecution, torture and genocide.”

The radical Christian right, calling for a “Christian state”—where whole segments of American society, from gays and lesbians to liberals to immigrants to artists to intellectuals, will have no legitimacy and be reduced, at best, to second-class citizens—awaits a crisis, an economic meltdown, another catastrophic terrorist strike or a series of environmental disasters. A period of instability will permit them to push through their radical agenda, one that will be sold to a frightened American public as a return to security and law and order, as well as moral purity and prosperity.

This movement—the most dangerous mass movement in American history—will not be blunted until the growing social and economic inequities that blight this nation are addressed, until tens of millions of Americans, now locked in hermetic systems of indoctrination through Christian television and radio, as well as Christian schools, are reincorporated into American society and given a future, one with hope, adequate wages, job security and generous federal and state assistance.

The unchecked rape of America, which continues with the blessing of both political parties, heralds not only the empowerment of this American oligarchy but the eventual death of the democratic state and birth of American fascism.

but again, we need to take the fruit fly theory and just concentrate on that massive proportion of things that christians and athiests both believe in. let’s forget gay marriage please, let’s focus on what jesus actually talked about, loving and looking out for each other. the golden rule and tithing are excellent rules; the world would be a far better place if everyone could live up to the example set by christians in those respects. and i know that it’s mostly religious groups who fund homeless shelters in the major cities of canada. to me that illustrates that despite there being many things i disagree with in the church, they get things done. and i like pragmatic, positive results action (sometimes i question why the hell i’m in academia…), so i cant stay mad at the churchies.

but i cant stay not not mad.

bill maher: “I don’t believe God is a single parent who writes books”