The smile on a dog.

Time for that long put-off post about religion.

Or so he said, self-confidently before actually starting to type it up. Now that I'm actually trying to do it, I've got bubkis. Or is it butkis? Whatever it is, I've got it. Or don't got it, as the case seems to be.

A while back there was a poll about religion on the WD. I didn't vote, because I couldn't quite decide what to choose. I suppose if a gun were put to my head, and I were forced to declare a title for my belief system, I would pick "atheist". (I was torn between that, "agnostic", and "other" in the poll, thus the nonvotingness.)
A choice that was not on there, but that has been attracting my attention of late (I still need to do some more research into this to determine whether I'd be willing to accept this label or not) is that of "animist". From the limited amount I know about this "religion", it seems to be mostly just spiritualness and ecology mixed together. In other words, treating the world as a source of awe rather than some fairy-tale Creator thing.

Something I was thinking about saying in response to that poll was that it doesn't matter what you believe, it matters what you worship. Even those of us who are devout atheists worship. And those who claim to be religious also worship, although, ironically, it's not necessarily the gods of their religion. I would venture a guess that most of the people reading this are similiar to me in the worship of technology (television, computers, telephones, etc), and the worship of money (to varying degrees). Other "gods" that are worshipped today by the masses:
School
The Military
The Government
The Media (I've done my fair share)

I don't think that most Christians actually "worship" Christ, or God, or anything like that. I'm not saying that they don't believe in their religion, just that it is not the important thing in their lives. Or perhaps I'm completely wrong.

My point in this matter was that all too often we get wrapped up in what someone believes, when really, what does that matter? You can't change what someone believes, and even if you were trying to convert someone to your religion, and you were successful in changing the belief of someone, if you don't alter (heh. pun.) what the individual worships, you ain't changed nothin'. (Does that make sense?)

Then, there's the whole aspect of "saving". Everyone needs to be "saved", Jesus is going to do all the "saving". In The Story of B, Daniel Quinn talks a great deal about religion. He mentions early on that you can go anywhere in the world and mention the phrase "Have you been saved?" and people will know what you are talking about. A key element of any religion, it seems, is being saved.

From what? is what I used to ask. And I still haven't gotten an answer to that that I find satisfactory. From eternal damnation?
Let's break that down a bit, shall we?

First and foremost is the problem that to believe in any sort of afterlife, one has to believe in a soul. I do not. That discounts me being "saved" right off the bat, but just for fun, we'll continue the examination and ignore the not believing in souls.
If one has to accept Jesus as a saviour (or whatever one has to do in the religion of one's choosing - they all seem to be hell-bent (heh. another pun.) on the issue of saving souls) in order to prevent burning in hell forever, is that really something you would want? You're spared eternal torment because God allowed you into heaven because (even though you supposedly have Free Will) you choose His side? It's not much of a choice, is it?

The other problem with "being saved" is that it reinforces the belief that there is something inherently wrong with human beings. Until you are 'saved', you're unworthy. You are flawed.

Lastly, being saved means nothing. You are not any more secure from the threats in the world because you have uttered some words. In other words, it has no "real world" effect. Just because you are saved, does not mean that your life will get instantly better. You have to wait for the afterlife to reap the rewards.

Fleh. I feel, mostly, like I'm preaching to the choir (hee!) or that I'm not making my points (did I even have any points??) clearly.

So. I will wrap it up with two short quotes. One is mine, the other is the lyric to a song I heard just the other day. They kinda coincide with each other.

Hell is other people. So is heaven.

I don't need no one
To tell me 'bout heaven
I look at my daughter and I believe