Just wanted to say a bit about the rapture that never happened. It is a shame that people get fooled like this over and over again. I’m not a religious person, but I’m not fully against organized religion either. Church provides a nice sense of community that can benefit the community. What I don’t appreciate so much is the “spreading the message” part. I don’t need to fear God, ask for his forgiveness or give God any money of some organizations. Getting into the minutiae in what is contained in the Bible is problematic on many levels since it is a book to be taken at face value in my opinion. There is no hidden meaning – the bible was not written by Lewis Carroll. If a story from the Bible has helped you morally in any way, great! That is what it is for, but the bible is not a cure all for all of our ailments.
The problem I see is that we turn to religion to fix our problems when, most of the time, we should be looking inward. Before you believe in God or anything/anyone else, you need to believe in yourself first. Turn your energy from preaching a Doomsday prophecy into one of philanthropy, not because you want the person to accept Jesus as their savior, but because you want the person to see that there is good in this world. If you give money in church, give to the the church community and not solely to please the “almighty.”
Believe in your family and friends next. Have hope for human nature. When we are put in seemingly hopeless situations that are out of our control – family, friends, and even strangers come to our aid. They are our saviors. We, as human beings, have the power to make GOOD happen. You have the power to make YOU a better you.
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Great post. The thing that had me turning against my parents’ religion (born again evangelical) when I was so young was that they relied on prayer to fix everything, even if it was something that could be fixed by themselves with common sense and fortitude. My parents were poor as shit but they kept giving money to their rich ass mega church and then when they’d deny us basic necessities they’d say it was in God’s hands. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. When my sister had Bell’s Palsy (a temporary condition) they took her to church to have the pastor lay hands on her instead of taking her to the doctor. I’ve seen reliance on religion used as a crutch to not look inward and it’s just so frustrating. Today, everywhere you look you see people leaving notes about how they’ll “pray for Joplin.” Call me cynical, but maybe instead of praying, you could donate $5, or $10, or whatever you can? Wouldn’t THAT go much further than your supposed good thoughts?