Confused Disciple

Religion.

Man, where do I begin?

I mean, I don't have a problem with religion. Religions have basically been around as long as people have been around. Whether pagan or otherwise, religion has been a topic of discussion for millenia.

Which brings me to (the beginning of) my point: I think a little differently than the majority of people. I'm not saying I'm something unique or special, because some people I know are quite similar.

I'm saying that the majority of people have religion. They cling to religion for answers. These "answers" are written in books. These people run to these books written by other people--hopefully, but honestly that's sometimes hard to determine--posing as the god they write for, which ironically enough is blasphemous by religious doctrine. When I really think about all of the inconsistencies within religion it gives me a headache. It's no wonder these religion-writers wrote what they did. They thought to themselves, "Ahh, these people need something to follow! If they think about it too much they'll hurt their brains, and no one likes pain, so they'll keep following instead of trying to find the real answer thus allowing us to govern over them with ease." For the most part they were right. Thankfully, they weren't completely right. There are a lot of sheeple in this world, but some sheeple found a way to knock out the heard-dog and go on their own path.

These religions are pretty decent in principle. Not completely great, but some of their stories, parables, and lessons are very useful. Some stories are so great, that if we all followed them to the best of our ability, the world might actually be a bit of a better place.  Other stories are so terrible that if we followed those stories the world would be...well...probably about the same mostly crappy place.

That aside, one of the reasons I've slowly moved away from religion--other than authoritative issues--over the course of my life is because of the mild and extreme insanity that have come from people following their religions. I'm not even talking about the people of one religion who tell people of another religion that their religion is right and every other religion is wrong. They are a different kind of insane, but it's not the one I'm focusing on.* I'm talking about the people that feel like they understand their religion so well, which they don't or else they wouldn't do what I'm about to say, that they deject people of another religion based on biases that their own religion could be guilty of.

That kind of madness is just...what?! So, why am I saying all of this? Great question.

I've seen an article going around on social media that talks about a middle school teaching children Islam. This article, of course, was posted by very religious Christians voicing their indignation towards said school. The article**, if 100% true, talks about how the school never notified the parents that they were teaching them Islam. That's definitely an issue--in fact, it's illegal--but it's not the issue that concerned these awe-stricken Christians. No. What concerned them was that these children were learning Islam.

This is basically where I lost. My. Shit. (It's also the reason I'm writing this post. Isn't that fancy?)

Before I continue, some background: The Christian god is, uhh, God. Early Christians wrote a book, you might have heard of it, called the Bible where it basically teaches that everyone should follow God, submit to his will, do crazy shit in his name, etc.  The Islamic god is, uhh, also God. "Allah" in Arabic means, you guessed it, "God." And in that book it basically teaches that everyone should follow God, submit to his will, and do crazy shit in his name. Cool? Are we on the same page? Hope so.

The article, as you'll see, mentions that the main things the school was teaching out of Islam are: "The one true God, Allah," and "All people must submit to Allah."

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? If you said, "Yes, that sounds a lot like the teachings of Christianity," then, hey! Congratulations! You're not a lunatic (yet). Aside: I say "yet" in parentheses because some people already know this to be true, but look at people who learn similar teachings of Islam as, basically, POD for their non-crime crimes of learning similar doctrine. If you're not one of these people, then you're my kind of person.

Now, I will admit that there are "Islamic Extremist" psychos that think flying planes into buildings and kamikaze sucker-bombing people will give them some ridiculous reward in the afterlife. I have Islamic Extremist in quotes because they are not Islamic. They say they are Islamic, and our stupid media feeds the whole Islamic Extremist shtick to Americans as if we're all ignorant know-nothing toddlers who are waiting to be spoon-fed in their high-chair--which they might have something there--but these people are not Islamic. They are terrorists. Period.

But, PatInTheHat, what about Christian/Non-Christians? What crazy shit did they ever do? Oh, man, I'm so glad you asked! Ever hear of the Crusades? Yeah. Look it up. And that's just the beginning of the Christian mayhem.

The people who commented on said social media post said things like, "Oh, but they won't include the Bible in schools," And, "That's really sad." And "It's a disgrace."

To answer them: No, no Bibles in schools (either) thank God; yes, you are sad; yes, you are a disgrace.

To conclude, it's lunch-time and I'm hungry. What am I getting?

Mashed Potatoes, of course.

- PatInTheHat

*The reason I find these people to be insane is because there are so many religions that the odds of their religion being right--which 9 times out of 10 is just a branch of another religion--are slim. They're basically playing the Religion Lottery Sweepstakes, and hoping to god--literally--that their religion is right so they can indulge in the bliss--or fire-y burning hell--that is the afterlife =)

**Here's the article, which doesn't really say all that much:
http://www.truthandaction.org/middle-school-students-taught-islamic-faith-one-true-god-allah/