No matter how much I hate religion, I really love to write about it. The dogmatic principles, the sycophants and the self-proclaimed righteous just make it such an easy target. But is it deserving of such criticism?
After the previous week, you better believe it.
Growing up, I remember religion used to be a private thing. People made a conscious decision to follow a certain dogma and that was that. Differences in beliefs were tolerated and those who didn’t believe, like myself, were treated with the same level of respect as those who considered themselves holier than others.
Where did those days go?
In our current age, religion is neither a private thing nor a rational one. There are seldom any “middle of the road” people. If there are, I’m sure not meeting or reading about them. These days, people are either full-blown fundamentalists who believe everything they’re told, or they constantly attempt to convert others to their ways. There is no middle ground.
On campus last week, I thought I had accidentally walked into a private religious college. With all the religious nuts holding signs and passing out literature telling us lay-folk to repent and with other groups like the Korea Campus Crusade for Christ handing out flyers to anyone unlucky enough to cross paths with them, it was hard to tell.
I was even pestered by a few crazed believers on my way home on Friday.
As I walked to my car, I was dogmatically assaulted by two holy students from one of the two dozen or so religious groups on campus.
Do you believe in god?” the proselytizer asked me.
“No, I don’t,” I replied, continuing on my way. Of course, they couldn’t leave me alone.
The student then asked me, “So you have faith, right?”
“If I don’t believe in god,” I said, “how can I have faith?”
“You have faith that there is no God, right? I mean, you believe in something.”
“I suppose you can twist it any way you’d like,” I said, as they invited me to Bible study or some other scripture reading.
My point in relating this story is simple — why does it matter what I choose to believe or not to believe? And, if I don’t believe in what you believe, where does it say that it is then your job to attempt to convert me? I have no interest in reading, studying or even looking at the bible. In fact, I’d just as soon wipe my ass with it.
Books like the Bible and Qur’an have no meaning to me whatsoever, and just because they are referred to as holy doesn’t really make them such.
The Christians who recently ripped pages from a Qur’an in front of the White House and the man who burned a Qur’an at Ground Zero in New York city are just as crazy as the people they are trying to defame.
After all, would they stand for the burning of a Bible?
So-called “holy” books were never truly holy. They are just books that have gained a following among weak-minded people. When you burn them, nothing happens. No lightning bolts strike you from the sky and nobody suddenly bursts into flames.
Sadly, people will continue to believe everything they read in these books and hold themselves to a higher standard over those who don’t share their views.
And what’s sad is that sometimes I truly feel like I am the only one bothered by this.
Gerry Wachovsky is a graduate student and columnist for the Daily 49er.
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