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Oh, how fun.
May. 24th, 2011 03:15 pmMy gleeful mockery of the Faux-Rapture came to an abrupt end on Monday morning when I started reading the news. I hate publicly agreeing with Bill Maher on anything because he's such a smug prick. But I am slowly being convinced that religion does more harm than good. I like to cling to the belief that many religious people are well-meaning and honestly try to do what their faith demands. Sorry, but in my experience, that is not the majority. Okay, we know about all the war and oppression and stuff people attribute to religion. But that isn't religion, that's a bunch of asshats using religion as an excuse for their fuckery.
However...spending your kid's college funds, selling houses and throwing the money away on billboards (Can someone explain to me what, exactly, a billboard advertising The Rapture is suppose to accomplish? Is it like a post-it letting people know you've gone? Seriously, how does informing people of an impending apocalypse changing the outcome AT ALL, unless the presumption is that you just have to recite the magic words to get your salvation token that allows you access to The Rapture Ride?), or murder-suiciding your entire family? What the sam hell fuck is wrong with these people? Yes, I understand that fear is crippling and some people simply cannot handle it.
But this is just beyond the fucking pale. It's different than people who are already violent, aggressive, bigoted asshats claiming they're being asshats in the name of their lord. These are purportedly average people who listened to the wrong dude and were convinced of something so horrible and petrifying that they simply could not live with their fear of it. You'd have to be a sociopath not to see that it's hurting people more than it is helping.
My incessant need to Understand this frustrates me to the point of madness.
But hey, The fake rapture date has passed, humanity is back to normal, yes? Well, yes and no... Utah is on the gold standard. Bully for you. You gonna get back to leech application, separate but equal drinking fountains, and making it legal to shoot a man who steals your horse? Seriously people, Glenn Beck is a lunatic. Please stop doing what he says before his show finally ends and he has all day long thinking up new kool-aid recipes for you to chug.
Make no mistake, I practice a faith. I am a pagan humanist. I revere and respect the old gods of many pantheons. It's more like a fan club than actual worship, and it helps me focus, reframe, and figure shit out. Of course, I say largely the same thing about LSD. Crowley is my guy, and the idea that the final authority on what we do and what we need is US, ourselves--is really the only thing that makes sense.
Problem is, being a humanist is hard. You have to think and evaluate; it requires introspection, honesty. You need an inner barometer and a moral compass in keeping with what you actually believe to be true. I'm told it can also require discipline, but I seem to have successfully maneuvered my way around that. *snerk* Point being, you don't just trust some guy who's taken some classes and believes he should be your conduit to your deity. If some like minded people want to form a community so they can do their thing--I'm all for that. When it turns into scorn and vilifying disagreement, heretics, and then violence...well, you've kinda gone Animal Farm at that point and it's time to stop. A good rule of thumb is to think about what the world would be like if absolutely everyone lived just like you. Not how you tell people to live, but how you actually live.
Okay, now lets get out there and quit being such ignorant fuckwads.
So say we all.
However...spending your kid's college funds, selling houses and throwing the money away on billboards (Can someone explain to me what, exactly, a billboard advertising The Rapture is suppose to accomplish? Is it like a post-it letting people know you've gone? Seriously, how does informing people of an impending apocalypse changing the outcome AT ALL, unless the presumption is that you just have to recite the magic words to get your salvation token that allows you access to The Rapture Ride?), or murder-suiciding your entire family? What the sam hell fuck is wrong with these people? Yes, I understand that fear is crippling and some people simply cannot handle it.
But this is just beyond the fucking pale. It's different than people who are already violent, aggressive, bigoted asshats claiming they're being asshats in the name of their lord. These are purportedly average people who listened to the wrong dude and were convinced of something so horrible and petrifying that they simply could not live with their fear of it. You'd have to be a sociopath not to see that it's hurting people more than it is helping.
My incessant need to Understand this frustrates me to the point of madness.
But hey, The fake rapture date has passed, humanity is back to normal, yes? Well, yes and no... Utah is on the gold standard. Bully for you. You gonna get back to leech application, separate but equal drinking fountains, and making it legal to shoot a man who steals your horse? Seriously people, Glenn Beck is a lunatic. Please stop doing what he says before his show finally ends and he has all day long thinking up new kool-aid recipes for you to chug.
Make no mistake, I practice a faith. I am a pagan humanist. I revere and respect the old gods of many pantheons. It's more like a fan club than actual worship, and it helps me focus, reframe, and figure shit out. Of course, I say largely the same thing about LSD. Crowley is my guy, and the idea that the final authority on what we do and what we need is US, ourselves--is really the only thing that makes sense.
Problem is, being a humanist is hard. You have to think and evaluate; it requires introspection, honesty. You need an inner barometer and a moral compass in keeping with what you actually believe to be true. I'm told it can also require discipline, but I seem to have successfully maneuvered my way around that. *snerk* Point being, you don't just trust some guy who's taken some classes and believes he should be your conduit to your deity. If some like minded people want to form a community so they can do their thing--I'm all for that. When it turns into scorn and vilifying disagreement, heretics, and then violence...well, you've kinda gone Animal Farm at that point and it's time to stop. A good rule of thumb is to think about what the world would be like if absolutely everyone lived just like you. Not how you tell people to live, but how you actually live.
Okay, now lets get out there and quit being such ignorant fuckwads.
So say we all.
