Holy Crap!!!

I'm sitting here watching, or rather listening to Bill Maher's excellent documentary Religulous, and something occurred to me. But occur is such a bland word to describe what had happened. The phrase I should have used was something 'shot me in the face with the gun of ridiculousness'. Either way.... I had realized that fundamentalist Christians are lazy. Yep. You heard me folks: lazy.

How can you deny it? Most people who are serious about their faith spend some time reading and potentially questioning their beliefs. From what I can see those who are fundamentalist Christians might have read the bible once, and then took it for what it said, and put it back in the motel nightstand. I have to wonder how much time they actually spend considering what is written in the 'good book', and how it applies to their lives. I wonder if they look at the argument against what they believe and consider it before allowing their faith to burn down the house of logic. Undeniably there are things which human being cannot understand, however we have learned so much that the possibility of God creating the earth in six days, Noah building an ark of wood and saving all the creatures of the Earth, and Jesus being born of a virgin just does not add up.... Unless it's intended as allegory. A myth designed to teach us an inner mystery, something we have not realized, from which we can grow to be better people. Well if you are a fundamentalist anything, it's likely that you can't see past the scriptures and scrolls, and reveal the mystery for yourself, because that would be too much work. I mean come ON! Faith is not meant to be so easy that you just have call up the Dial-A-Prayer hot line, get some washed out Reverend who couldn't make it on television, and suddenly BLAM! you're saved. You have to consider things....

Pagan faith for me is an absolute delight, because I do not carry the taint of other peoples belief structures. I read the stories that I can find, and various other bits of literature. I listen to what others have tried, and read articles others have written. I learn by myself, working my way through the struggle to attain what I believe I need, not what someone else thinks I should believe. When you are raised in a religious household you have a tendency to believe what is taught to you, and rarely question your beliefs. After all it's uncomfortable to question what's beyond your already established notions of how the world works. If anything you're more likely to become a non-believer and take an Atheist path, since it's far easier to remove your faith than to change it. That being said if you can overcome the odds and commit to changing your system of faith, then likely you will still carry over some shred of your former religion. The point is to take stock and go with what will help you to become happy, and a better person. Christianity has many good points, but the fundamentalists usual kill those thoughts once they open their mouths, spewing their rhetoric about sexuality, whose right and whose wrong, the end times and all the other little bits and pieces that really boil down to personal belief. Is it wrong to use birth control? Is it blasphemous to consider abortion? Did man descend from apes or was he created by God?

To examine your faith you have to sit down and start small. Take it a little bit at a time, and consider what is there and how it applies to you and your life. This isn't something that takes a week, or a month, or even a year. A life can be spent asking questions about personal nature, beliefs, and the meaning of God, and never be answered. Truly though there will be improvements on a personal level if you consider the impact that you as an individual have on the world and people around you. Just because someone wrote it down somewhere doesn't mean it is the literal truth. They wrote it for you to read and consider, and by considering examine what makes you you. If you take it as is where is, then the meaning is likely lost as are you.

So no matter what your faith is, or even if you have no faith whatsoever, at least sit down and consider this.