Losing my religion

So, I was just watching some crappy lawyer TV show (because I still secretly want to be a lawyer when I grow up, I just don't want to go to school for ten more years) and one of the fake cases was a girl suing her high school because they only teach abstinence and she had unprotected sex and got HIV. They told her that condoms didn't work and the only thing a person could do was be abstinent. So she felt the school was partially responsible for her contracting HIV. The school's argument was that if they taught sex ed as opposed to abstinence, they wouldn't get federal funding, so there would be no teaching. This raised my eyebrows a bit. I wondered, as I watched, if this was true. So I did some research and found that things like this are happening. In fact, I was turned on to strange things like this some months ago when I learned that the government no longer gives money to operations in Africa to combat AIDS if they're giving out condoms or teaching......instead of, say, preaching? So the point I've taken oh so long to get to is: religion is making a mess out of, well, a whole lot of things these days. Sure, I can sit here and bark about the crazy Muslims and the hundreds of virgins they're promised for blowing up innocent people, but how about cleaning up our own back yard first. The crazy folks that have taken control of what is politely referred to as the Religious Right, are on this insane mission to keep people from having sex. Wait, is that what they're trying to do? Maybe they're trying to make people miserable? Maybe it is the goal of the religious right to get you to stop having sex, stop doing anything remotely scandalous, turn all your attention to God, pay the church handsomely and watch while they go and spend it. On what you ask? Well, hookers for one. Jim Baker anyone? I mean, it's like the chicken and the egg here: Jim Baker grows up religious, suppresses all sorts of urges, gets famous, acts out all the urges that he can't bottle up anymore, then comes back to religion to "save him." But what he's really being saved from is the damage that religion caused him in the first place.

Ok, I'm getting off the point here. My point was not to take shots at the religious right, it was to take shots at the overly-religious in general. And to keep religion out of our schools and our politics. Religion is a series of fabrications, hypocritical truisms, fear tactics and war mongering. I mean, really, I'd bet 90% of all wars in the history of the planet were started because of religion. Take out WWI, WWII, Vietnam (although that was capitalism vs. communism, which you could argue are two opposing religions) and there a lots of wars left in history which were started because of religion. How about the Crusades alone, for starters. With religion comes problems, and now what seems to be happening is that religion has seeped into our school systems. Teachers NOT teaching evolution, schools being forced to teach abstinence, religious curricula, it's all insane! Does anyone remember separation of church and state? It was kind of a big thing the founding fathers focused on. Why? Because religion caused so much trouble in their everyday lives!!! Thomas Jefferson: Maybe stoning people who have slightly different religious ideas isn't such a good idea. George Washington: Hmm. Maybe not. And there you have it. I honestly don't know what the goal is of the insanely religious person, but I do know that it may just be that they're unable to see the world for what it actually is: scary, dangerous and problematic. People should be prepared for that. Kids especially.

A quick post script: I realize that just about anyone who reads this will be religious. Most people are. But you're not crazy. At least I don't think you are. I didn't write this to offend the average person who goes to church every Sunday and tries to live a good life. I try to live a good life too (I don't always do that well, but I try...). My mom goes to church every week and I don't think she's brainwashed or evil. There's nothing wrong with the ten commandments. It's the people who take religion over common sense that bug me. And this was for them. Not you. Sinner.