Challenge Your Religion
by Marsha Abelman
Religion needs its followers to be trusting to the
point of naiveté. When things don't make sense, religion soothes
the furrowed brow of the believer with such clichés as, "don't worry
about that, it's not pertinent to your salvation." When others are
stubbornly refusing to be evangelized, religion offers pat explanations
such as "someone in the church must have hurt you in the past for
you to hate God so." When a busload of innocent children is killed
by a drunk driver, religion offers as solace "God needed them more
than we did."
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The truth would be dangerous to religion's continuing
grip on humanity. Could religion continue if people thought "perhaps
religion doesn't make sense because it is illogical, antiquated
and made up by humans?" How could churches prosper if they admitted
that people don't attend church because they studied the Bible and
found only ancient history, inconsistencies and errors? And what
good is religion to those who lose children if people accept that
children die because life is random?
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Scriptures, ancient writings by ancient men, have
become clichés in our modern world. Rather than educate themselves
in the classic skill of logic, rather than wrestling to understand
physical reasons for things that happen, many people prefer to rest
in the religious land of "God said it." And in that land, religious
people believe things that don't make sense. The Christian writer
Paul forbade women to speak in church. Fundamentalist groups have
enforced that rule on women for hundreds of years since. Does it
matter that Paul probably was writing to a specific group of people
about a specific problem in their group? No, the cliché has been
carried forward, generation to generation, whether or not it makes
logical sense.
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Religions generally teach that homosexuality is bad.
Do they do so after engaging in logical debate and research? No,
they accept the ancient clichés handed down to them by previous
generations. In our country, religions are granted the protection
of government, and if they want to believe that "God" is against
something, that's their right. But religion is not content to believe
"God said it." Powerful religious leaders strive to legitimize their
platitude with created arguments such as "homosexuals target children,"
"the radical homosexual agenda is to destroy marriage," "what's
at stake is the forced normalization of homosexuality," and "words
like diversity and unity are covers to push homosexual rights."
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If religion truly allowed itself to examine the history
and reality of homosexuality, in an unprejudiced and logical manner,
the only argument left would be that "God doesn't like it." Homosexuality
has always existed in humans. Homosexuality exists in the animal
world, though fundamentalists have been known to say it does not.
Heterosexual parents may have homosexual children; homosexual parents
may have heterosexual children. People who abuse children are called
pedophiles, and there are heterosexual and homosexual pedophiles.
We allow consenting adults to engage in whatever sexual behavior
suits their fancy, in the privacy of their own homes. If sodomy
is okay for heterosexual couples, where's the logic in saying it's
wrong for homosexual couples? Married couples divorce at the rate
of almost 50% today. Logically, it would be only fair to allow homosexual
couples to experience the same "sanctity" of marriage!
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Challenge your religion! Don't be at the mercy of
illogical preachers and ancient, unproven clichés.
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Freethinkers of Colorado Springs
P.O. Box 62946
Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2946
Phone: 719-594-4506
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