Solid Block of Ise

(This is quite a rant, be warned that it might not be very coherent or even spelled right)

There’s an article (in a major Swedish newspaper, so obviously it’s in Swedish) about how a large Humanist/atheist-based association is warning that Intelligent Design (aka Creationism) is undermining the scientific teaching of evolution, and in the long run corrupting larger things such as the basic human rights.

I’m not a big fan of religion in any form. I was born into an atheist-family with strong socialist and humanist convictions, and in that sense I am a result of my upbringing. Sure, I’ve encountered god and christians all my life. Personally it’s not so much god that annoys me, it’s his fanclub.

My opinions on religion are firm and well-known: I’m certain that religion severely slows the progress of humanity.

It scares me when I read about how powerful and wealthy christians are corrupting our society with (what I feel is) complete and utter nonsense. I read about the Intelligent Design-museum that purported to showing the “real” history of the world, and I laughed my ass of at it. Seriously, Jesus hanging out with dinosaurs? It’s absolutely ludicrous.

I’ve always like how Sweden has a somewhat secular stance. Church and state was separated some time ago, and even though there are remnants of it (such as how every new-born child is automatically accepted into the church) in most things we have a nice lack of biblefreaks in high power. Sure, there’s a political party which has an outspoken christian conservative bias, complete with most of the prejudice that I feel religion introduces in people. Sure, they’ve climbed pretty high up on the rungs of power for the last 30+ years, but most swedes aren’t interested in religion.

And it scares me that this might change. I’m strongly convinced that religion only leads to bad things. It leads to fear, prejudice and hate. I don’t really care if it’s christianity or islam or whatever, but when I look at religion I see narrow-minded and badly outdated principles which don’t jibe well with human nature.

It scares me that such a large number of people rather put their stock in some god and some book, and who rather pray than actually do something worthwhile. I admit that I sound kind of trite and cliché when I say this, but together humans can do really great things. Why do we then insist on spending our energy building shrines to a god we’re not sure exist?

I’ve met a good number of christians over the years. With only one exception they always end up trying to hawk their religion on me, like it was a used car. They might start out like nice people, but after a while they always end up threatening me with fire and brimstone unless I repent my wicked ways and start believing in the lord.

That’s the first thing that really upsets me. Isn’t faith supposed to come from the inside? Isn’t faith something personal and spiritual? I can’t just flip a switch and start believing in some invisible god just because someone threatens me with a hell I don’t believe in either. In my opinion hell doesn’t exist, so why should I be scared of it? My will to do good things come from (duh) my will to do good things. I don’t need to be scared by some godlike father-figure waiting to smite me. I’m not a perfect being, but I try to be a nice, caring and good person. It ain’t easy all the time, but I really try.

So, I am really opposed to this insanity that Intelligent Design should be taught as if it was some kind of proven science. For all I know, I’d rather go off and start believing in the flying spaghetti monster. At least that seems like a fun thing to believe in. If Intelligent Design should be taken seriously, then why not start preaching about Santa Claus as well? Seen from my perspective he’s about as real as god or the flying spaghetti monster.

The only believing christian who I know and who isn’t a complete tool is my old friend Magnus. He’s a really swell guy, great in every sense that the word “great” can communicate. He’s charming, funny and 100% good and solid. He’s also a devoted christian. He’s the only christian that I can talk about deeper things with, without him resorting to spouting bible-quotes or flatly saying I’m wrong. His faith comes from a deep and personal conviction that there is something more out there, and for that I respect him. Admittedly, if I wanted to be all nasty about it I could point out that he grew up in a christian environment, but that would just be mean. I know his parents, and just like him they have a personal and soft faith that doesn’t need to be flaunted like it was some kind of fashion statement. They’ve all helped me when I needed help, and they did it from the goodness of their hearts.

But other than Magnus and his family I can’t say that I like christians. Again, it’s not so much god that annoys me. It’s his fanclub.

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