Article Contributed on: 4/27/2006 6:08:35 PM
The
Word of God may have been holy in the days of Jesus Christ;
however, it has evolved into the word of His human followers.
This goes for whatever religion you practice. The word of
God or gods is now the word of the men who have miss-translated it.
To clarify, I'm not against God; I'm just questioning those who
follow Him.
I can't say that I have read the Christian Bible front to
back, but I believe nowhere does it say it is ok to crucify or
persecute those who don't share a specific belief of God.
In some religions such as Islam, it is taught if a person
does not believe in certain ways, or Islam's God, they must be
killed.
Too many people have been killed and/or tortured in the name
of God.The Crusades, for example, were a massacre of all those who
didn't follow the Pope at the time. It was also a way to reclaim
the "holy lands", but that was just an after thought.
When people unite under one banner or religion some tend to
discriminate against all others who don't share their beliefs.
Countless religious wars have been fought, and are still being
fought because of this. One religious sect will declare another
wrong and they will go to war.
Today in Israel the war is still waging between Jews and
Palestinians of the Islamic belief. They have been fighting for
hundreds of years, all over their variances in religion.
The Spanish Inquisition was an event geared toward
persecuting those who did not convert to Christianity. Artisits who
were not for the church had their works banned from distribution,
lives were uprooted.
Arthur Miller, author of
The Crucible,said, "anyone needs to feel right to declare
someone else wrong."
This proves that if a person believes strongly enough in
their specific religion, they will try to prove all others wrong.
Organized religion is one of the most ridiculous ideas of
humans' minds. Some say religion is when a person assigns
themselves to a sect or church. Holiness and spirituality shouldn't
be measured by the amount of time spent on your knees in a house of
worship.
Anyone can listen to a preacher and consider himself/herself
a Catholic. Anyone can pray in a Buddhist temple and consider
himself/herself a Buddhist. Real religion comes from original ideas
and views.
To accomplish this you cannot limit yourself to one ideal or
religion. Being atheist, agnostic, Jewish or another religion is
fine as long as others aren't forced to concede of aren't put down
because of thosebeliefs. The best religion may be to have no
belief, or a mixture of them all.
______________________________________________________
Mollie Backowski helped with the
research and the editing of this piece.