Religious Peeves/My Opinions on Organized Religion

Before I just dive right into this heated topic, let me give some explanation as to why I’m writing this. I’m a little tired of having religion shoved down my throat at every turn, and tired of everyone professing to have the “right” answers (they can’t all be right). There are more registered organized religions and faiths out there than you can shake a stick at, and just about all of them profess to be “the one”. A great many of them are downright offended if you don’t agree with them, and quite frankly, what is there to be offended by? You don't agree with me, fine move on, don’t persist in telling me how wrong you think I am.


Let’s also clarify that I am closer to an Agnostic than an Atheist. The two are often confused by the fervently religious, and people such as myself are often thrown into the latter category. I do believe there is a God I just don’t believe or buy into the whole organized religion ritual. I have read the bible (actually several different versions of it), and quite frankly don’t buy into it either.

Will what I am going to say anger some people? Absolutely. Why? Well because the fervently religious, fanatically religious, the entrenched since birth, and the terrified very often no longer have an open enough mind to be able to listen to an opinion and understand it without becoming offended, and then trying to explain “how they are right and I am wrong.”

Just remember I’m not telling you that you’re wrong (believe what you want, it works for you), I’m just voicing what I believe, once again, ”My Opinion”.

I have researched and studied multiple faiths, religions, bibles, holy books, documents, and religious histories. While I can’t quote chapter and verse, I do have a solid understanding of the teachings.

Too often those fervent followers, who quote chapter and verse and persist on throwing it in ones face, can’t take it beyond that. They know only the memorized quotation and the meaning of it as it has been defined to them. Don’t ask for further explanation because it gets referred to other chapters and verses and on and on. Don’t explain what it means by bouncing me all over the bible explaining one chapter and verse with the next and never getting down to what it actually is trying to teach.

So Off We Go.

My stance, the bible is a great book, and it does provide a great source of “How to live your life advice.” An overview if you will of moral code. How to live your life, how to treat your neighbor, do unto others and so on. The type of stuff that’s supposed to be built into us as a higher life form on this planet. Though all it takes is a half hour of the evening news to see that there are many out there missing the gene programming for decent humanity. So if your moral code is slipping then the bible might be a resource you want to reference. That being said so are the writings of great religions Buddhism, Hinduism, Muslim (not the fanatic fundamentalists).

The Bible is a great book full of stories, fables, tales, and psalms. What do they mean to you? Not what did your pastor, priest, rabbi, deacon, minister, or other such religious piety tell you they mean. They are a bit deeper than Aesop’s fables, but really not to difficult to figure out.

I don’t believe the bible was written for someone to pick out a meaning and incorporate it into a religion and then thrust their meaning on to others as the absolute and only way to interpret the bible. Thus I don’t believe in organized religion. To me organized religion equals “This is what it means, I’m right your wrong.” The truly fervent often are so brainwashed by this teaching mentality, they are often offended by anything and anyone that doesn’t believe what they believe.

So which version of the bible is correct? You thought there was only one? Yours perhaps? Just a few are Catholic, King James, New World Translation, and New King James and so on with more revisions and changes than you can shake a stick at. Most are very similar, but none are the same. Oh by the way, if you are thinking that your bible is just an English translation of the original scriptures, think again. The variance between bibles can be as small as the phrasing of one line, or as large as the deletion of an entire chapter, book, or even an entire scripture. So now who’s being duped? Why delete or change parts of the bible? Why put interpretation into the bible as the gospel? Because people are human, and for whatever drives or influences them, good, bad, right, wrong, fear, love, jealousy, or even power, it gets adapted by their influence. Do you really think that when King James commissioned the interpretation (oh sorry translation) of the bible, that those working on it weren’t influenced by the Monarchs mandate even just a little, then you my friend are very naive. Do you really think that a panel of scholars, clergy, or even a single man has the right to change it, or even to tell you how to interpret the bible? If so then you are now losing your own thought and free will and basing your beliefs and faith on someone else’s opinion of what should or shouldn’t be included or what something should or shouldn’t mean in the bible.

Is the bible divinely inspired in whole or in part? I believe it is no more divinely inspired than that which you are reading right now. Some of it is stolen and rewritten from ancient texts, scrolls and word of mouth stories that historically predate the Old Testament by centuries.

With all that being said which version of the bible is correct? Everyone believes that the version they use in their congregation is correct, so there you have it. I believe they are all corrupt and none are exact translations without bias or change.

I went to a lot of churches, spent time in them, listened, read, studied and in the end picked NONE. Here are just a few reasons why.

Baptists, I went to six different ones, two didn’t even use the same bible as the others and all had different variations of how they interpreted the bible. From the extreme don’t drink, don’t dance, women in dresses all the way to the moderate do things in moderation and control yourself and your actions.

Methodists, I attended two different Styles. United Methodist which I have a real beef with being prior military. Their church doctrine actually forbids entering the armed forces and though they won’t condemn you for it, they certainly want you do everything to get out of it. Most Methodists don’t even know the doctrine exists. Then I went to the American Methodists, Both about the same very wishy- washy, this is what we believe, but you don’t have to believe that way, but this is the right way and you should believe it if you want to remain in gods good graces and live right. Phooey!

Pentecostals, way to extreme for me. Direct literal interpretations of their bible, with a few licks of fire and brimstone thrown in for good measure, oh and the speaking in tongues, way to creepy! They totally missed the speaking in tongues deal. It didn’t have anything to do with someone running around babbling in some incoherent baby talk. The whole point was that the apostles could go forth and spread the word around the world, they had the ability to speak the tongues of the world, not babble like an idiot. A very black and white, no gray areas, fear driven crowd.

Lutherans , seemed to me to be a cross between Catholics and Methodists.

Catholics, well I grew up a fear faithful catholic. The Catholic Church is one of the worst at the convolution and twisting of the bible. The church has libraries in Rome, that only a select few are privy to, where they keep all the documents, the books they leave out of the bible. There are reported books, chapters and so on that they won’t allow in the bible because they say they don’t fit. Let me read it and decide if it fits! That’s all just Catholic control – keep the masses ignorant and you can control them. Heck it wasn’t that long ago that the Vatican didn’t want individuals to own a copy of the bible, Information control. What the heck you might actually think and not agree with them. The Catholic Church still controls by ignorance and fear. One of the biggest Organized Crime Syndicates in the world. Don’t think so? What other church has its own country? Vatican city is in Rome but it is its own entity completely separate of Italy, governed by itself. Bet the Italian government would love to be able to tax the income on that little piece of real-estate.

Jehovah’s Witnesses, now here is a scared bunch if I’ve ever seen one. Death, doom and destruction on the heels of Armageddon preached into the soul of each member. They feel more like a cult than religion. Started by a man in the late 1800’s so afraid of his own death and what would possibly happen to his soul, based on the religions of the day, he modified the bible to produce an outcome more to his liking. Research it and see if you can come up with a different slant on it. Also possibly the least Christian of the so called Christians. Disfellowship of their own people because they mess up. What happened to forgiveness, that you do unto the least of my brothers you do unto me, let he who has not sinned cast the first stone etc... and so on. Oh and they took the 144000 from the thirteen tribes of Israel (Jews) and somehow convoluted that whole scripture to include only themselves.

Speaking of Jewish, went there tried to understand it, way too much crap to go through to convert, definitely not a come on in sit down and pray with us bunch. Seemed a little too snooty, kind of like becoming a catholic.

One thing I found in common with all religions, here is a shocker, MONEY. Tithing- somehow, “give to the lord that which is his, and give what is Caesar what is owed him”, became “Give money to the Church.” I don’t believe that’s what that passage truly means or was intended to mean. Don’t get me wrong I get it; churches need money to keep up buildings, provide for the needy, pay insurance, pay the pastor etc. But to keep track of how much you give and to also designate a percentage of your income that you should be giving. Let’s say I’m barely getting by and I need every penny to pay bills and feed the kids, so I volunteer time to feed the hungry and mentor children and tutor kids, and teach bible classes is there no value in that? And which contains far more value in Gods eyes? Only he knows what’s truly in your heart.

If you don’t believe it’s all about money look at the Catholics. They’ve been passing the plate for centuries. Pope Gregory even stopped the priests from marrying so that property would stay in the church, and you thought there was something in the bible stating that priests should be celibate, hardly, it’s all about the Dollar. As a matter of fact most of the ridiculous stuff that goes on in the Catholic Church has nothing to do with the bible; it’s all in church doctrine, convenient isn’t it? But you won’t find it, or any direct link to it in the bible.

So all in all I’m a bit jaded, but who isn’t in some fashion. Those are just the surface scratches of thoughts on the bible and religion. I’ll have more in the future.