2016 Postmortem

"Religious" can mean very many different things.

I'll state right here that although I was raised Roman Catholic, I long ago left the Church, and I retain a strong antipathy to all who claim religious foundation for how they behave or what they believe.

But here's the real problem: conventional religion tells its adherents that they really shouldn't think for themselves, that they must simply acquiesce to the teachings of their sect. Not to worry. We have the answers. So they say.

Even the most liberal and encompassing of religions ultimately come down to this. Which is why I personally have a huge problem with all organized religions. Okay, so I might go along with 90%, maybe even 95% or what this specific religion teaches. But what about that other 10 or 15%? Should I just shove it aside? Should I allow it to poison my belief in the rest?

For me, personally, (and I cannot stress the personally too much because you may honestly feel somewhat differently) I am not willing to go along with the 90 or 95%. Because to me the 5 or 10% difference really matters.

I want to think for myself. I want to come to my own conclusions If there are those out there who think like me, then GREAT! I want to connect to you. But for you who only disagree with me 5 or 10 or even 20%, I don't think we have all that much difference. Can we talk about it? Can each of us say, I'm okay with our differences? I certainly hope so.

But most organized religions are far more rigid than this. They say: Believe this way.

No if's and's or but's. It's believe, buy into the entire thing or get out. And that's where I depart from conventional religion.

And more to the point of the OP, those religious people are incredibly selective about what matters to them. Just as most religious people are about which parts of the Bible to honor. So, fuck them. I have no use for such hypocrisy.

And as a minor aside, I've had fundamentalist friends absolutely astonished to discover that I, an avowed non-religious person, have moral standards of any kind. Or that I hold to a genuinely higher standard than most people they know. Fuck them.