Countdown to back peddling

A friend of mine recently challenged me to find 10 positive things that religion has given the world. I struggled to find one. In fact, the only one I did think of at the time was, a fascinating literary work of fiction. However, I have thought of another; after reading an article about the apparent end of days that is promised to be coming to all us non-believers on the 21 May, (that's tomorrow from the time of me writing this, better start repenting). The positive thing I'm suggesting religion has given us? Amusement! A great deal of amusement. With their ridiculous claims of “logic” in their beliefs, to their endless dates for the rapture. These fragile minds continue to amaze us, with our jaws firmly planted on the floor, at how such stupidity has survived for so long.

This claim to the end of the world is from an evangelical Christian group lead by an ageing man with only the slightest grip left on his sanity. The group is unsurprisingly in the US and even less surprisingly, has raked in more than $100 million in the past 7 years. Although funnily enough their leader claims that money is of no importance, as the world is coming to an end. Some followers have quit their jobs to go forth and spread the word about the impending doom.

I am pleased though to have read, in the same article, about an atheist party being held on “judgement day.” It is called “The countdown to back peddling.” This made me chuckle. Mainly because you know it is exactly what will happen. Once the day is over, and we're all still here, guess what will happen? That's right, the group's leader (who apparently came to this date by calculating dates in the bible) will begin peddling, and for the life of him, he just can't seem to get the direction right. His first attempt lead him to conclude that 1994 was the year of the apocalypse, of course, that's when he first confronted his directional problems.

Well, if the world doesn't end tomorrow, and we continue to have religion in the world for the foreseeable future, at least we can count on one thing. We'll always have something to laugh about.

Tolerance

Islam, as I stated in my last post, is an evil religion, however, I would like to say that fundamentalist Christians are not much better. Their attitude towards homosexuality is appalling, (as is Islam's by the way), and their conviction in their beliefs are no less baffling. The difference is the actions that are taken based on these beliefs. While fundamentalist Christians might picket a soldier's funeral, waving banners with vile claims of their god's hatred of “fags”, they still do not go to the lengths of extremist Muslims. By the way, calling them “extreme” is really a misunderstanding, they are simply following their scripture. Moderate Muslims are only different in the fact that they don't strap bombs to themselves. To say there's a difference in their beliefs would be incorrect, for Islam is not a peaceful religion as is so often claimed by “moderates.” They are just not following the scripture precisely, but rather, letting their non-religious, rational, evolution-born morality have a say. They know it's wrong to kill people, despite what their faith teaches. With these people I have no problem, they are free to waste their lives believing in whatever ridiculous hate filled deity they wish (though I would of course prefer if they didn't, wouldn't it be a much more pleasant world?). What I have a problem with is a world where these faiths that allow such extremism are tolerated. Not just tolerated, given special treatment. Given an extremely wide berth. Well, as you can probably tell by now, I will not humour the notion of religious tolerance. I of course will also not incite hatred against anyone of faith, or act inappropriately towards such people. I would treat them as I do any other human being. However, I believe the tolerance needs to end. It should simply not be acceptable for religion to trump all else. I'm ending my tolerance right here.