Gordaen’s Blog

You’re going to hell. At least that’s what many religions are saying. I am going to write my own set of beliefs soon, but I thought a nice prelude to that would be to explain some of the problems with the organized religions that I have encountered. Most of these relate to forms of Christianity since that is the religion with which I am most familiar.

Prayer: This is a big part of most religions, which is great, but the contents of the prayers say something about the people making them. Why do people pray to ask for favors from God? Isn’t the point of a religion to express your faith in God? If you really believed in all that he was doing, you wouldn’t have to ask him to do something differently… “Yeah, uh, I don’t know how to say this, God, but you making Uncle Bob sick was just wrong. You gotta fix that, man! Err, I mean Almighty!”

Church w/ God’s power: Is it not God who is supposed to forgive? Then why is it that church often claims to be able to forgive sins or to give punishment? I think Catholicism is the most obvious example. Say X number of pre-written prayers and give the church money and you shall be forgiven. Don’t they believe in Jesus Christ who died for their sins or did I get that story wrong and he actually just asked someone to read some verses and give him a few bucks?

Huge churches: Why is it that so many churches are huge, often in the million-dollar range, yet there are so many impoverished people? The church preaches that its members should give to the poor, yet the church spends an exorbitant amount of money making itself look nice. This is especially obvious in the Middle Ages and the Southern part of the US (where you will see trailer after trailer, homeless person after homeless person, but a grand church every other block).

Give judgement: Religion often says that people should not judge one-another (or you shall in turn be judged). People should love each other and help each other. Yet, churches deny people membership (such as homosexuals) and encourage treating people who are outside of the church’s norms poorly. Shouldn’t the church help these people just as much as anyone else and leave the judgement up to God? If the church denies someone entrance for going against the norms, why does it allow people to come in who lie regularly? If people are not allowed to follow join a church because their lifestyle does not fit the church norms, then how can they ever “become better” (according to that church’s beliefs)?

Non-believers go to Hell: God is supposed to be moral, and if that is the case, he would make judgements based upon people’s actions, but many religions believe that a non-believer will go to Hell and a sinful believer has a chance for Heaven (such as if he confesses). Certainly a generous, altruistic person with a different religion is better than a hateful, sinner who shares your religion.

Natural pleasures are sinful: Religions often claim that natural pleasures are somehow sinful and dirty and that you should abstain from them. You should do what the religion says rather than being yourself. Is not denying who you are lying to yourself and others (and isn’t lying a sin?)? Not that molesting a tree is necessarily good, but that is just the opposite extreme to which religions force.

There are plenty more, such as calling a priest “Father” and calling God “Father” (somehow it seems wrong to equate man and God as the same), but that is a good start.