Someone on my Facebook timeline was dismayed by "so many anti-theism posts lately." It's not hard to guess why we're starting to see more people demanding not just freedom OF religion, but freedom FROM religion. So many radical acts have religion at their core and those who are not at all religious can't help but see it as a bit whacko - slaughtering people in the name of some god who may not even exist, and who certainly wouldn't condone their actions if he did. Additionally, religion has been at the heart of persecution since the dawn of time. The Crusades. The witch hunts. Every holy war ever fought. "Holy war." When I think about that, my widdle brain just wants to twist. What is the purpose of murdering people because they don't share one's belief systems? If that isn't the definition of insanity, I don't know what would qualify.
When I was growing up in central Florida, everybody I knew was a "christian" (or claimed to be out of fear). Even the kids in my class all went to church. I couldn't fathom it. Even though I was raised in a VERY religious environment (Southern Baptist), none of it ever made one lick of sense. I thought something was wrong with the adults who gathered in a hot building every Sunday morning to sing hymns to a ghost when they could have been at the beach or in the forest or anything more pleasant (and more in tune with spirit). It wasn't that I was bored. I was actually fascinated - but not in the way me mum and the church ladies might have wished. Kinda like watching a train wreck - it's a horror of epic proportions, but sometimes ya just can't look away.
My deeper disgust with "the church" (aka organized religion) came when my mother, who was 85 at the time and living on a fixed income of less than $700/month, told me she had just been visited by the pastor of her church. His sole reason for the visit? To encourage her to fill out a "Pledge to Tithe." IOW, give 10% of her very meager income to "god." At that point, I saw the true evil of that which claims to be "good." God doesn't need an old woman's money.
Most religions rob people of their personal power - not by accident, but with deliberate and malicious Intent to control. By always telling true believers to "let go and let god", organized religion takes control (or tries to) of free thinking. People find themselves shoved into all sorts of programmed beliefs, many of which are designed to be self-perpetuating. "If you don't believe this, you're going to hell!" "If you don't give God your money, you are giving it to Satan." The list is long. The manipulation is right up there with original sin - and in this way the church has become the very devil it so vilifies.
So my personal agenda is just to tell people -
Take back your power! If someone wants to believe in God, that's all fine and good, so long as they aren't being coerced or threatened into believing it because they are told they "should"... or else.
Of course... these are just
my beliefs. I don't expect anyone to follow them, because that's just another manifestation of "religion". I just like to get people to question not only WHAT they believe, but WHY they believe it. Most times, a lot of religious beliefs are rooted in what they were told as children and what they were also told to never question.
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your power, visit our website at
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Quantum Shaman (Diary of a Nagual Woman)
Scrawls On the Walls of the Soul
