Perhaps God was punishing me for questioning Him and his almighty ways but I've been stricken with gastro for the last few days, so to say that my weekend 'blew' would be quite an understatement!
I hope yours was better, Sim.
As far as religion goes in our day and age, I consider Christianity to be relatively harmless. This was not the case in the past but times have changed and the Christians of today don't cause any problems for me. Christianity has just been the easiest point to discuss in this thread because most people participating are Christian and I was educated in Catholic schools so I couldn't help but pick a few things about the religion along the way. My musical interests have always been on the heavier side of things and my favourite style of music originated in Scandinavia and has always had a very strong anti-Christian theme. I've never fully identified with their militant view against Christians because I come from a Christian country but their heritage of paganism and vikings was 'converted' to Christianity and they feel that their country has been taken from them. Their lyrics and imagery have also lead me to read further into Christianity so I feel that I know Christianity a little better than other major religions.
Religion itself is what I cannot accept as it provides a cause for people to die and kill for, hence why I find Christianity relatively harmless these days... not many suicide bombing priests
. However, jokes aside, one only needs to look to the endless fighting in Israel to see the full extent of disgusting, wretched, ignorant, religious fools who fight and die for something they cannot prove. It is this utterly blind, willful ignorance that leads me to believe the very idea of a monolithic structure of beliefs 'to be held above all others' is a fundamentally bad idea. I consider the main problem with the general human understanding of divinity is that it must be a
shared experience. If religion became an individualistic experience in which one embraced some sort of divinity that emanated from within themselves I don't think religion would be a problem. This is something of a 'satanic' attitude, I realise, but I do believe that it is a less inherently conflict-inducing understanding of divinity, provided you stay away from the 'evil' that some people embrace with that internal understanding of the divine.
Religion wouldn't concern me if it was followed entirely by level-headed people like yourself, Simaril. The problem is that this is most certainly not the case and religion provides a very big banner for the brainless scum of the earth to flock to.
To answer your question directly, I've not had any seriously negative experiences with Christian people... I've met some very, very simple people who preach God's word and also people who were so insulated from what was going on around them by their silly white robes that were completely out of touch with life altogether. I've also met some very wise and genuine people who heard God's call and these were guys were outstanding teachers who made the passage through high school easier than it would have otherwise been. The men who wore the robes all seemed quite miserable, actually. It was the regular guys with wives and kids who taught the important fundamental Christian values that seemed to have the best grip on life as far as religious experience goes. That suggests to me that it is a respectful moral code that one needs to follow, not any divine figure, that will lead one to a happy and successful existence.
That is the base of the way I view the world at this point (which will always be subject to change until the day I die).
