But too many people use religion to justify their shitty, antiquated behaviour. Too many people use religion to hurt others. Too many people do not understand that the rules and tenets of their religions were created by men in positions of power to control (and often protect, to give them their due) the men and women beneath them in the social hierarchy. Too many people forget that religion was created as a way of explaining things we now understand through science.
I honestly believe that religion is the source of all evil in this world. (Which is kind of interesting, because would we even have the concept of evil without religion?)
Don't worry, it's cool. I'm allowed to marry a 13-year-old against her will and force her to fuck me - it says so in my holy book.
You can't have sex without being married or you're going to hell - it says so in my holy book.
You can't eat bacon - it says so in my holy book.
You can't control your own reproductive system - it says so in my holy book.
I'm going to tell you you're evil and make you hide who you are because you love someone who has the same genitalia as you - it says so in my holy book.
You must wear something on your head even though you might just want to go bare-headed and feel the wind in your hair some days and I'll punish you if you don't - it says so in my holy book.
You have to starve today - it says so in my holy book.
You can't play with the face cards - it says so in my holy book.
You need to go to this building a certain number of times a week, and you should leave some cash even though you're broke - it says so in my holy book.
You can't drink liquor or ingest certain substances - it says so in my holy book.
We're going to chop off bits of your sexual parts. Boys, because someone once decided foreskin was weird or something. Girls, because you shouldn't think sex is fun - it says so in my holy book.
If you have sex with another man, I can kill you, but I can have as many wives as I want - it says so in my holy book.
I have to ring your doorbell early on the weekend to convince you that you are wrong and I am right - it says so in my holy book.
Killing you will help me get to heaven - it says so in my holy book.
There are obviously some good parts to most religions, and the varying interpretations of those holy books might be vastly different from their original intent. But as a human being in the wildly futuristic year of 2017, do you really need to have someone else tell you to try to be good? Do you need the fear of eternal punishment to not act like a jerk?
Can we not all just agree that life (all life, including the life of this planet and all its inhabitants) is valuable and should be respected? Can we not just all adopt the Golden Rule and throw out all that oppression and subjugation and violence that is responsible for so much suffering and death?
Let's at least give it a shot, see what happens. Riot on if you're with me.
