Religion in my french eyes

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Here is one of my article. It was in french at first, I tried to translate but that might be... Funny sometimes.



Religion.
From Latin religare, to connect.

I was born in an atheistic family. If I were born in a Muslim one, I would probably be Moslem, and I would believe I were right. If I were born in a Catholic one, etc.
The simple constation of this multitude of cults, all persuaded to be in the truth, denigrate them for me. How can we have faith in a given cult, when we know that it would be otherwise if we were born some kilometers farther ? The fanatics have no answer to this question. Or rather, they have an indisputable of it. " It is me and my close relations who are right, I believe it - I know it, and you would not be able to prove the opposite." But others have a less radical point of view. Islam, christiannisme and Judaism have a common root : Abrahamisme. Abraham, it's the monotheist prophet. Well, before, there was Akhénaton and the Unique Sun, but the Egyptians were attached in their previous 57 divinities and failed the cute psychosis of their Pharaoh.
If the numerous figures of the ancient Egypt were especially, in a simplifying way, idols - symbols to which they sacrificed their possessions to obtain even more, Abrahamique has other claims. Holy Scriptures, Pound of the Law, Pound of the Alliance and other biblical capital letters show it. More than founding myths, the religious texts contain rules of conduct towards the believers. You will not kill, well, all right. Avoid eating meat on Friday, uh. Burn lively all those who do not make as I want, that becomes hard. So difficult to admit that it can be, these texts were written only by men. Quite as Ten Commandments, unless an immaterial being actually had fun with a hammer and a manure. But, as it is said to me, it is God's Word which passes by these men. How can we show a blind confidence for the similar comments, written by strangers of more thousand years who proclaimed themselves a spokesmen of an upper being? Moreover wouldn't it be there that the problem is, by chance?
Churches were established by men. Rules were written by men. And the believers submit themselves to it... Proclaiming they submit themselves to their dear Perfect Being.
Now the men, great news, are far from being perfect. Always, Fear and Neurosis made them suffer, them and their peers... Desire and Pleasure, first accomplices, the sinned, first guilty ones, were banished. We feel so much better without them. So much better with rules to be followed. With the incontested given truth. No more death. No more insolvent guilt. No more need to think, to extriquer of complex problems. Sex, the extreme pleasure, so dangerous, exists and must be practised eclusively to reproduce the species. Let us burn the homosexuals who dispute this truth, and with them the free women, who call us to the temptation, poor devils ! The food is in the same way an animal enjoyment, let us fast for our Lord, let us eat little, let us eat badly, austerity is better than health. Let us listen to our Father to all, the one who orders, who punishes, who rewards after the end !
Yes, I forgot, the current religion is eminently male chauvinist pig. But let's not make a mistake here, that has not always been this way. No, no. The very long culture of the Big Mother was attacked in several waves, from the end of Bronze Ages, by the new order of the dominant father which, after the credit note démonized, manages to erase the memory, and claim itself as the Beginning. (To know more about these repressed myths, read Gange.)
Here it is. Each one knows how these neurotic male chauvinist pigs spread their Divine Word easily. For cause, that looks like well, from a certain point of view, far in the dark. A hippy which loves us all, for example, it's cool.
I respect the monks as I respect whoever. But I spit at convent schools. It is so easy to have some influence on castrated and lobotomied people. They are not different, those who pull children to explode in the crowd, inventing them a (hi)story, a glorious fate, a paradise.
Nevertheless, count of believers are not so faithful as that. Even the Catholics play the protest. You understand, I am a catho, but I do not agree. Where is the logic in there? We say to me, the Church is not fundamentally bad : some nuns work in leper colonies. But attention, revelation ! Charities exist which do not take themselves for the chosen people and which, at the same time, do not try to spread their Unique Good Word...
I spit at convent schools because I am for religare, for the link between the men, for freedom, for knowledge, against dogmae, against obscurantism and against suffering. I like desire and pleasure, I like death also, which spreads our body in the depths of our earth. It would have been simpler for me to follow rules, to believe. The fear is particularly present in me. But I prefer to live my life far from this collective psychosis. And if I express myself about the religion, I do not try, me, to punish the choices of the others.

The battle of religious ideas on how to define God:

God is a Male, Chauvinist Pig vs Goddess is the Big Mother

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http://www.sacred-texts.com/
http://www.beliefnet.com/
Religious science ficition movie (taking place under the literary device of a dream)
http://www.pilgrimsprogressthemovie.com/
The pro-evangelist Jack T. Chick tracts vs the anti-evangelist Jack T. Chick tracts give a good overview of the non-profit, tax-exempt (Your religion is better than my religion; my religion is better than your religion) religious wars (over collection plate money) which is eternal and ongoing (my view).

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http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_off ... tnerships/ (Obama White House)

I believe nor in a God neither in a Goddess. I think my text goes further than religious sterile and stupide fights between different psychosis figures.

sylbao: I would love to comment more in depth on your article, but I have very limited time. My apologies in advance. I will only comment on your first paragraph.

It is not true in our present age that we NECESSARILY will follow the faith of our parents. There is simply too much widespread knowledge of other religions for one to feel they MUST be content with their childhood faith. I was raised a Christian and never strayed far from religious services when I left home. However, one thing that DID happen was that religious services became much more difficult to attend with any degree of consistency. I found that, though I never intentionally strayed from my religion, that I encountered the greatest challenges to my beliefs. During this time, I discovered that there were many things that I was taught which were untrue. Not EVERYTHING, but enough to question what was really true about Christ or whether Christianity was right at all. I got to know Buddhists, Wiccans, atheists, Moslems, neo-pagans, and others and even got into their teachings somewhat. It didn't take long to conclude that atheism is in error, but living in a pluralistic society makes it difficult to say that any ONE religion is correct.

What is interesting to me is that it's actually the less about one's own religion that one knows, the more likely that person will cling to that religion--with exceptions, of course. I have heard of cases in which Moslems held to Islam UNTIL they actually read (and understood) the Koran. For example: The Koran states that jihad (holy war) must be waged against infidels and hypocrites until they are wiped out and Islam is the dominant world religion. Who are the infidels? An "infidel" is usually taken to mean a Christian or a Jew. Who are the hypocrites? Those who may participate in jihad but do not do so--in other words, those who insist that Islam should be about the business of peaceful co-existence with "infidels." It is not unusual to hear of Moslems who turn away from their religion after actually reading the Koran because of this, among other reasons such as wife beating and so-called "honor killing."

Christianity is no different in THAT regard. I think Christians are caught in the balance between secularism and holding to a Biblical view of morality. The story in Matthew of the "rich, young ruler" relates the experience of one man who believed he could work his way into heaven. When he asked Jesus what he had to do, Jesus quoted some of the 10 Commandments. However, the man knew that SOMETHING was still missing because he'd been a good guy and done all that. Jesus told him to sell everything he had and follow Him. The point was not as simple as just becoming poor and using his wealth to care for those in need. It meant to abandon all that he had previously been and submit to obedience to Jesus' teachings--only faith in Christ can rescue a person from sin. Doing good works, no matter how good or how much, is simply not enough to earn one's way into heaven.

We, as people in general, do NOT want to sacrifice all that we are and become different people than what we were before Christ. We still want to work and independently accumulate wealth. We want to keep believing all that we believe so that we stay comfortable with the lives that we have. A simple faith that saves a person from sin is an easy teaching, but the change that a person experiences in following Jesus does not always place a person in a favorable position as it relates to purely secular terms. Christians who actually DO follow the Bible closely will generally not have an easy life, nor should they expect to. Christians who are Christian in name only, work hard at accumulating wealth, live a life consistent with enjoying the pleasures of earthly life, and do not work at all to bring others into the faith obviously don't really know a whole lot about what Christianity really is. They CALL themselves Christian, but (in general) they aren't really believers. These people, if they thought seriously about what Christianity REALLY means would probably never set foot in a church again.

The other side of this is that there are plenty of believers who have never allowed any challenge to their faith at all. It's EASY for them to talk a big talk, but they don't actually KNOW these things from experience. There aren't any less Christian, but I think they miss out on all that Christianity is and how wonderful it can be. Someone who has never been homeless, for example, has no right to talk about how a homeless person should relate to Christ. But I can say that the homeless do have hope because I've BEEN homeless, along with my family.

I've had plenty of time and experience to lead me away from my faith. I've seen how people who don't really follow Christianity or follow other religions have prospered compared with those like myself who seek to follow Christ and yet see no financial success in pluralist, materialistic terms. As a matter of fact, the prophets of the Old Testament repeatedly ask God why He allows those who do evil to prosper while those who keep His commands are the ones who are oppressed! I don't cling to my faith because my parents told me to. I cling to my faith because I see in it something that is nobler than adopting any other way of life. My poverty doesn't reflect the emptiness of following a blind faith. It simply means that my wealth is not a product of a purely physical world.

Thank you for your comment.
I know every catholic son doesn't become catholic. But we must say it's the more current way it happens.
I can't stand those who say "let me teach you, I'll save you". No matter how pretty are their stories. I can't stand those who want to punish you when you feel desire and pleasure, those who says that life on earth should be lived in austerity, waiting for an invented paradise. I know all christians don't live that way, happily for them. But that's where it's illogical, because that's what their religion is waiting for them. That's what is written. They just take what they want, in a hypocrite way, and I would rather for them not to take anything, to find their own way without an institue above their head. So, yes, religion might help people : because it's reassuring to believe in a God, in a destiny, in a paradise, in a good behavior already known, where as we live in a complex and not always beautiful world... But that's really not the way I wish to live my life.