Wednesday, August 24, 2005

'ello mate

It's always nice to see a comment from a new visitor. In this case, it's a person who found my blog via the Freeper we all know and loathes' blog.

As an aside, that Freeper is still not in the military, and argued something about paying taxes and voting the last time I asked him why he hasn't signed up. It was all a little incoherent. It's always fun to argue with somebody who is starting off with the definition "coward" applied to them.

Anyway, I went and looked at the new visitors blog here: The impression I get is that he's a really complex guy, to the point he probably confuses himself. He's British, and I just adore Brits for some reason. The best drinking buddy you could ever have would be British. My buddy Dave in London could slam pint after pint, but then he does have about 150 pounds on me. Nice excuse for my being a beer wuss, eh?

I realized something about my blog after reading Dave Bones'. I tend to take each topic and wrap it up nicely in a very neat and tidy way. Reality is a whole lot more complex than that. I'm as guilty as the next of dumbing things down.

The more I read, the more it does seem apparent that there is a holy war going on in the world right now. The Muslims are evangelizing tremendously. The Christians always have. I just don't understand the allure of either one. How is it possible to twist a persons mind to such a degree that they'll strap on an explosive belt and blow themselves up along with innocent people?

I had hoped, and thought, that religion would be on the decline world wide. That is until about the year 2000, when all of a sudden it started gaining more and more prominence. It truly is the most divisive force in the world today, and I just don't know when it's going to stop, other than a huge and bloody conflict between Muslims, Jews and Christians.

And you know, it's not like the Christians even like the Jews. It's more of that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" kind of thing.

And then there is the rest of us, agnostics, atheists, pragmatists, etc., who have as much stake in the situation as anyone, but are the least involved. There really is no great anti-religion evangelization movement in the world.

I'd dearly love to setup and run an organization on the scale of, say, the Mormon church, but the "mission" we send all our young members on is to preach the word of tolerance and humanity, not religious nutbaggery.

I can see it now..

Knock, Knock:
"Hello, my name is (insert your name here). I'd like to speak to you about a life without (insert subjects prophet here). Over the course of mankind's history, conflicts between religions have destroyed innumerable lives. In today's world, where technology grows ever more lethal, the danger of religion is reaching the critical point. I'd like to urge you to reject religious labels and the hatred that goes along with them. I'd like to show you how you can live a totally fulfilling life by trusting in your neighbors good will, instead of some God who never seems to do anything anyway."

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