The Never Ending Story

Church.

My wife and girls love to go. My mom and dad go. Both of my Grandfathers go.

But..........to me religion, christianity, god, and faith all ruin the experience of being human.

We share a common ancestor with other apes. It is a fact.

The earth is 4.6 billion years old (+ or - 10%). It is a fact.

Demons don't possess humans. It is a fact.

Witchcraft is make believe. It is a fact.

Your life isn't affected by God's divine intervention. It is a fact.

God doesn't change the number of protons in an element. It is a fact.

People are the saviors that religion only allows you to read about. Put your faith in them.

You make your own demons. Put your faith in yourself.

Nature has true laws. Put your faith in them.

Have faith in hard work.

The beauty of life is here and now, don't let it slip by waiting for something better.

I have a memory that I cannot let escape. I was sitting in church at long hollow baptist when the preacher brings out 2 religious leaders from Haiti. These are the guys that are helping LHB distribute their funding for relief. One of these leaders begins to talk about Voodoo in Haiti, and how 85% of Haitians are Catholic and 90% of the Catholic population practice Voodoo. He proceeds to tale stories of Voodoo Queens being struck down with lightning and how he personally exorcised a demon from one of the Voodoo leaders, and the church CHEERED and the church LAUGHED and the APPLAUDED this guy. Never once did they factor in the fact that he was lying. Not once did they think about their personal beliefs. Last time I checked Baptists think that Pentecostal churches are crazy for faith healing, exorcisms, and speaking in tongues. So I don't know, maybe people in Hendersonville can't be possessed but people in Haiti can be.

Let's be honest. It's not that this congregation actually went home and thought about it. It's not that the Voodoo leaders are actually practicing witchcraft. It's that they both need a better education. If people at LHB understood fetal biology they would know that we have tails in the womb. If people in Haiti knew that bacteria actually causes cholera then they wouldn't blame the Voodoo leaders. If the voodoo leaders in Haiti actually learned modern medicine then they wouldn't kill chickens and drink the blood (or whatever).

In the new movie "Seasons of the Witch" the viewer is shown that a witch really did cause the black plague, not Yersinia pestis, a potent bacteria. This feeds our need to believe that supernatural forces cause the hurt and pain. Modern health guidelines and cleaning methods would solve the whole issue, why isn't LHB and it's affiliates helping to teach these principles instead of archaic religious practices like exorcism and faith healing. I saw on CNN yesterday that some voodoo priest was murdered by a group swinging machetes, because they felt like the black magic was responsible for the cholera. If these people are willing to kill in the name of religion surely they will clean in the name of science.

One other example. My wife had an argument with 2 of the other teachers at the preschool where she works. Instead of addressing the issue it was decided by the head administrator that Satan was trying to infiltrate the school. Of course, all the other teachers jumped on that band wagon. The discontentment was caused by the evil lord, until everyone got home and called Renee to thank her for calling out the 2 teachers with the problems. These are the people that are teaching my children.......yet I let it go on because I don't want them to be the weird kids in class. Life has enough hurdles without being the White House Witch sisters with the father thats going to hell. Besides, my girls are smart. They'll figure out these things on there own one day. No wonder adolescents sucks, it's just a shame that it has to continue throughout life with some people.

I wonder what religious people would think if they understood Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, and Astrophysics. Notice I capitalized the sciences and lowercased the religions.