Cardboard Armor & Quicksand

These days, after some years of dealing with religious fundamentalist bigots, I have little patience for people who jump up and wave their fingers down at me and people like me - not for anything bad that we have done, but simply for existing. They typically use flimsy and baseless religious rhetoric as a foundation for their hatred and prejudice, quoting scripture against established scientific reality as if it were some sort of magic bullet. 

 

You're running into battle wearing cardboard armor and waving plastic swords! Go back to school and ask for a refund!

Prejudice kills. Don't you know that? 

 

Is your religion, whatever that is, fueled by hatred? Or is hatred your religion? It's not mine. Get over yourselves!

I address religious fundamentalists - that doesn't mean any specific religion... but since you bring it up - I'm a little peeved at people who make nasty remarks, thinking they can use religious beliefs as a soap box to stand on, and as a hammer to hit people with.

I'm very well aware that not all people of any particular religion feel the same way about anything, but once again, my comments are not directed at an entire group - just the fundamentalists. You aren't a fundamentalist, are you? Are you a Levitican?

Let me just ask you, since when has hatred ever made sense? Whatever happened to "treat other people how you want to be treated" and "love others as you love yourself"? How about "Judge not, lest ye be judged"? Hypocritical bunch of finger-pointers. I find it laughable and obvious when the rules which they apply to us somehow just don't apply to them.

Be that as it may, too often the religiously intolerant set about destroying other people's self-esteem, dignity and lives by using their own beliefs as a sledge hammer to brutalize and to smash out their foundations - and then of course things start to get a little ugly, because at that point they open up their belief systems to scrutiny and attack - and just as any other religion or belief system, it cannot hold up against an assault of science, logic and reason - which cannot but fail to prove a religion.

I say this because if there was any single religion or belief system in existence which COULD prove itself as a FACT, beyond any doubt, then there would be absolutely no debate or question about the supremacy of that religion, nor any competition from another. And today there are a multitude of not only separate religions in the world, but each religion is itself divided into sects and cults of their own - each claiming to be the ONE true faith, and all others to be false. I think the conclusion here is pretty self-evident.

In this respect, my point would be that not one single religion today can claim with any legitimacy that it is "true", "factual" or "correct" - and truly expect to be taken seriously by a skeptical or questioning mind. Therefore any individual or group using religion as a tool or justification to destroy lives, is attempting to build its house on quicksand, so how can it expect to win any serious debate on such issues?

Of course, the most typical reaction when this is pointed out, or when people being victimized and brutalized by religious zealots stand up against their attackers - is that the persecutors suddenly paint themselves as the victims in astonishing and breathtaking displays of victim-blaming.

I respect people's beliefs, whatever they may be. The way I see it, what they believe is their business, not mine - the trouble is that too often they make it their business to know what it is I believe, or to try and force me believe what they believe. How often do we see the anti-equality pundits chipping away at democratic underpinnings, using irrational fear of diversity and beliefs differing from theirs as a "threat" to civilization, democratic values, and their "way of life"?

Perhaps there is something wrong with me for holding the view that all people should be treated equal before the law - even bigots and religious fundamentalists - and if people would just respect each other first, and then the fact that nobody believes EXACTLY the same thing - the world would be a lot more peaceful, and a better place for all of us to live in.

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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.

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