Don't Sell Me Your Church
I for one, believe that the world would be a better place without organised religions.
I had the misfortune of bumping into a roadside-evangelist today (I thought they went extinct when Armageddon didn't happen 6years back as they planned...pity): the type that loiters amongst Man attempting to look human, or intelligent for that matter, with the book (haha) and pamphlets printed with the same proselytizing jingles. They are classified in my brain under the same section as door-to-door salesmen, or mosquitoes, or bad sex; and the common evangelist (also known as minor spiritus irritatus) is the amalgamation of these aspects manifest.
Actually, I must looked the archetype of sin, for it never fails to amuse me how they could single me out in a freaking bus interchange during the evening rush hour. Or perhaps, I looked gullible enough and had the scent of new born lambs (the smell of fear and innocence attracts them, I heard). In any case, the devil inside of me wanted to hear what she had to say - curiosity, if you will, and I was kind enough to allow her to believe I was actually concerned over the good news she was about to portent for that few minutes in her god-fearing life, well, because I am tolerant and had good manners.
In anycase, she told me that it was time to repent, and to renounce all my sinful ways (if I had any..*cough*) in the embrace of the lord god. Nothing breathtakingly new. She asked me what my religion was, and I told her that I had none but am a practising Buddhist, to which she responded with a wiry smile (I took it as she couldn't understand the difference between religion and spirituality) before going in that cute little pratter of hers. She handed me a plastic thingy with several pamphlets inside, before asking me my thoughts on pre-marital sex. I told her that premarital sex is cool and that marriage is not part of my agenda in this lifetime. She seemed alittle concerned, and thus proceeded to talk about abstinence and how sex before a sanctified marriage demeans the value of love and spirituality.
At this juncture, I knew I had expended my good karma points for the day, and sanity was slowly slipping; and so I managed to say something to the extent of - "Love cannot be debased" before excusing myself posthaste. It was only when I got home did I realised that I had no idea which religious organisation she was affiliated with (I threw the thingy away). Talk about bad salesmanship.
On hindsight, as much as I crave for a higher-love, for a belief in being the centre of some cosmic attention, I cannot bring myself to blindly follow the dogma regurgitated through the unbeknown thought processes of some man (also known as major spiritus interruptus) or group with their own agendas. A collective belief is such a powerful force that it can overcome reason and logic: just look at the fundamentalist lobbying against condoms and stem-cell research or the magnificent planet-wide coordination of the paradoxical muslim terrorists. 2000 years from the birth of christ, and these same people brandish their time-worn book and hide behind their archaic parishes; refusing to budge from the comfort zone of stoic faith, refusing to acknowledge anything else besides the collective ramblings of men long gone.
What good are religions, but an organised effort to inject the dogmas of the past into the blood of the present? Jesus was a revolutionist of his time, he wasn't a man shackled by status quo, and sometimes I wonder if the current state of things were of his original intent and how much of the corporate-ship religion-model nowadays are really the byproducts of men with agendas. Simple minded people flock to the nearest church promising an afterlife that would be meaningful and not maggot-ridden. People fear death, so there really isn't an argument here, 'cos whatever floats your boat, baby. The problem is that these same people do not think, they possess no mental faculty or a basic modicum of ideological individualism. They rely on someone else to feed them their beliefs: to tell them how to eat, sleep, act, think, behave. I giggle at the delicious irony whenever the term "Shepherd and his sheeps" comes to mind.
Sometimes, I'd look at the terrorists and think, these are poor souls who are dying to resist the tides of change. And in seeking out their personal evil, they had projected their own fears and resent onto a much grander scale - the american wave sweeping the world. America (and everything associated with it) is thus, the evil that must be defeated for the old ways to stay pure. Very simplistic thinking actually. We'll just have to hope the terrorists implode themselves from the face of the planet...and maybe bring a few churches along with it too.
Oops. Deicidal streak exposed again.
And yah, I went off on a tangent. Blah.
Say no to mind-control. Nights.
