This Scares Me

OK. I want to be more open-minded, I really do. I'd like to say that Christians are okay in my book. It seems that while there are many who are okay in my book, there are many - like this image evidences - that aren't.



Not for nothing... but when is the last time you saw a bumper sticker raving about Judaism? How about a bumper sticker that boasts "my Allah is better than yours"? Wiccans, by way of contrast to other religions, but similar to Christians, have a multitude of bumper stickers. Wicca is the closest I get to being religious at all but the fact is that I'm never going to be permanently aligned to any religious group. I feel too strongly that people screw up the best part of religion and turn it into an agenda - for whatever reason.

So this isn't me. And as much as I smile and am amused by Wiccan bumper stickers (my favourite is my other vehicle is a broom) I suddenly find, thinking on it, that if Christian bumper stickers scare me, all religiously tilted bumper stickers should have the same effect.

It's true: no Jewish stickers, no Buddhist, Muslim, Zoroasters or Hindi stickers abound on any vehicles. Makes me wonder. It makes me wonder if any religion where there is a need to market it has intrinsic issues. Serious intrinsic issues. The Catholic church bothers me due to the power it wields. I happen to enormous believe that church and state need to be terribly separate. And I'm not the only one. Even my paranoid father-outlaw feels strongly that church and state should be very separate. Imagine if they ceased to be that way. I don't want the Catholic church dictating how I should live - legally. No thank you.

And since most religious people I've met firmly believe that theirs is the only right religion I will continue to feel as I do. Somehow it is staggering how in a world of 3,000 practiced religions, most will only consider their own as right.

Catholics bombing places that perform abortions
Mormons marrying children to beget more children
Muslims killing others to get the 77 virgins in heaven (or wherever they go)
Jewish people wanting to hunt down ex-Nazis
Nazis - at all - existing
Three major religions fighting over a parcel of land in the middle East

The whole thing about Jeruselem is disturbing. Beyond all belief it is. How can all these people who have very similar belief systems all fight and kill each other over a bit of wind-dusted land that is the Holy Land. Somehow I don't think any God/Allah/Jehovah is happy about this and egging on one group saying, "Go get 'em!"

And if you do, think this through more.

Intelligence is not a matter of knowing what E=MC2 means - I know what it means (energy = mass celeritas [speed of light in a vacuum] - betcha didn't think I knew that, eh?). So what? All of that is not worth a hill of beans. Intelligence is one's ability to learn through thinking and extrapolation of data. I liked Wiccan bumper stickers up until 15 mintues ago. And I hated Christian ones. Now I know better - it is all bad news.

Bumper stickers against Bush, well, I'll always support those. Bumper stickers that tell others that they love dogs, cats, mice, rainbows, bands, sunshine, their country of origin (without knocking another's), or slogans reading, "Life is good" are great! Load them up! My car has a few stickers: two for work (which I am very proud of having), one that reads "RUS", one that reads "IRE", one that has NJEMT, one with Car 66, and my license plate frame reads "my other vehicle is an ambulance". I just bought a new one today: "life is good".

Life is good. And not because people read the Bible or the Talmud or anything. It is what you make it - not what God makes it for you. God doesn't work that way; that tie that binds us together is based on free will. You have to face your problems. You have to face your fears. And you have to be the one who thinks and realises that what you've thought has been wrong and then make that change to the better, the more positive.

People are wonderful and not because they are or are not Christian, Wiccan, Jewish, Muslim, Ubantu, Africaans, Pilgrims, Amish, whatever - country of origin, religion, this is not what makes me me. I have that control. I make me the best me that I can be.

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