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Freedom FROM religion!

Some time back I read a quote on the news where some hyper-ventilating right-wingnut Christian stated "Freedom of religion doesn't doesn't mean freedom from religion." Actually, it most certainly can mean that and for many people it does. We have a Consitution that guarantees us freedom to approach our spirituality in any manner we choose, whether that be through an organized religion, simply being spiritual or to choose not to believe in God to one extent or another (agnostics/aetheists).

The vast majority of people in the world do believe in a "higher power" most often referred to as "God" and that's why very broad statements of belief in God are rarely successfully challenged, such as "In God We Trust". Most of us feel comfortable in acknowledging the existence of God but it's when we try to force our individual views on who/what we think God actually is and means for us that we get into major trouble.

Whether you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist etc. - you will never have anything more than a belief system (what we call "religion" or "faith") - but beliefs are not facts, they are merely beliefs and simply because a particular set of beliefs has been held by a certain volume of period for a certain period of time does not in any way, shape or form grant validity to those beliefs or basic them any more in fact.

That organized religion, which purports to offer love, compassion and healing to the world has in fact become the single most devisive and destructive institution (alongside our corrupt governments) is frightening. (I wonder, if evil really does exist, where would it hide? Perhaps in the least likely place we believe it could exist - right in our own houses of worship). Christians/Orthdox Jews judging and condemning GLBT people as if they had some superior connection to God is just a sad testament to their arrogance and hypocrisy. Muslims that can rationalize and justify murdering innocent people because they feel that there are pieces of land that belong singularly to them is beyond equally sad. We exist on a floating rock in space and if they believe in a God that is so petty, so shallow as to be concerned about some small piece of that floating rock as to justify the murder, violence and hatred that their obsession with it has brought about - they only have my pity.

There is but one fact that is indisputable (accepting the belief that God does exist) and that is that nobody, no one single person in this world today, can prove this supposed "special connection" to God, nobody that can prove that what they believe is in fact the one true, correct view of God and God's will. All ANY of us has is a BELIEF in that most arrogant and presumptuous idea.

To my mind, nobody has the moral authority to judge the quality of someone else's worth as a human being, their soul if you will. To assume that role is to pretend to "play God" and is the height of blasphemy. So how much longer do we, like sad children, desperate to be found "special" in the eyes of our Universal Father - continue to inflict pain and suffering on each other? How many people must suffer injuries to body, mind and spirit or even death before we realize that none of us is truly better than the other - that we all bleed red, that we all have common needs to be loved and supported? What will it take before we stop painting God in our image and likeness by projecting onto our view of God all our petty needs and insecurities? Time will tell. In the meantime, please keep "religion" far away from me- this one spirit has no use for such a cruel and destructive force in his life.

Chris Sullivan
Chicago, IL
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