What really scares me

There was a time when I was afraid of anything "different".  People from different places, a new party in office, even a new idea but now I'm old and with old age I've learned that it's rarely the unknown that hurts you, it's the evil you know.  These days the only thing that really makes my blood run cold are fundamentalists.

There is something disturbing about people that obsess over a book, they may or may not have read, to the point where it consumes and poisons every aspect of their life.  It creates such a tenuous grasp on reality.  People let a centuries old book tell them how to dress, whom they can befriend, how they shall raise their children and what they should eat.  They do it all based on one of "the" books, written by men hundreds or occasionally thousands of years ago. 

Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe this applies to all believers, most people I know that are Christian, Jewish or Muslim pick and choose from their book.  They may hold it dear but accept that it has flaws.  They look at it as more of a handbook or guidelines.  It's those "others" that keep me up at night. 

Stop and take a look at the world and its history.  How many wars and cleansings have been "holy" wars?  How much individual persecution and subjugation of one's fellow man has been done in the name of (insert name of handiest deity).  Half of the human race, females, have been treated as second class citizens because of the ancient words of misogynist men for millennia and it's still occurring in many countries to this day. Anytime we obsess on anything it's unhealthy but when we obsess on the ancient words of power hungry megalomaniacs, the results can be deadly. 

What is the solution?  Well I certainly don't have one.  While I'm not a true believer, I'm a huge advocate of personal freedom, even the freedom to live your life and raise your children drowning in paranoid delusions. 

There is, however, one thing I've always wondered.  Does religion make an obvious few weak-minded, paranoid, intolerant and violent or do the weak-minded, paranoid, intolerant and violent just gravitate towards it?

Food for thought.

Comments

[Trish]

Religion sucks. That's all I have to say.

[Ann]

... But how do you really feel?

[Jane the pain]

Relgious nut balls scare me.

[Ann]

... and are there more of them? Or are we just more aware since 9-11?

[Trish]

I think they feel more free to be more vocal since 9/11. You know, since the world is going to end in 2012 they need to spout their nonsense even louder.