Who needs this?

Submitted by Sensible Human (United States), Sep 15, 2006 at 21:01

Someone said Religion is the opium of the masses - I say it is Arsenic. The ONLY reason 99% of people practice one religion or the other is because they just happen to be born to someone of that religion - it's just an... accident, folks! Get over it. The "prophets" dreamt it up to direct the masses towards good behavior, then the "clerics" took control of it to gain power/influence and soon after, the "rulers" grabbed at this wonderful tool to control the masses - it has been thus ever since the beginning.

And let's not pretend any of the religions are peaceful - in this century itself, we've seen Christians kill millions of Jews across Europe, Protestants and Catholics butcher each other in Ireland, mass genocide in Africa, bride burning in India, apartheid in S Africa, the rape of Nanking by the Japs, the list goes on... we humans don't seem to need Islam or any religion to murder and rape others, it is an inherent trait.

I'd like to believe that the tenets of western civilization (education, secularism, democracy) solve these problems, but our actions don't seem to prove this - the fact that someone presses buttons remotely (in a plane or in a high office) doesn't make his hands any cleaner than that of someone who kills with a sword/machete - it only looks cleaner, but in reality the person in the plane/high office probably kills way more people.

Ordinary people like us have enough problems - jobs, kids - who needs this? Let the cardinals and imams duke it out, pay them no heed... get on with life and make the world a better place. Stay out of trouble and when it comes your way, deal with it, don't look for scapegoats. There are lots of bad people out there, among all nationalities, religions and races - deal with it.

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