How Christianity Ruined the World

I've been sitting around lately, unable to formulate a thought coherent and cohesive enough to put onto this thing, and therefore, have been letting it and other projects collect metaphorical dust. What I didn't know then, but do now, is that there has been something on my mind lately and I just couldn't put a finger on it.

Now, as I go into this, some may begin to question my sanity, and I'd have to assure them that this is only proper, and that I encourage it to be done with every person that you encounter on a daily basis. Just in case.

What's been on my mind is the lack of progression as more than just a society, but as a race in general. If there is intelligent life out there besides human beings, I'm confident that they've already found us, made contact, and then said "To Hell with these people. They're too violent."

It amuses me to think that they have Cockney accents.

Not only are we a violent species, known throughout history as far back as we can trace it to be killing each other (read here for further reference) - scientifically and religiously, both! - but we are also very easily led.

The problem with this is that we kind of let it happen, and have been doing so for countless ages. Ever since mankind first got drunk and said "To Hell with moving around! I'm staying here!" and the first real city formed, we have decided that we needed a leader. The problem with this is that there are people out there who only see opportunity and grab for it whenever possible, and they are usually pricks of the highest caliber. In today's day and age, we call them lawyers.

Back then, they were referred to as "Your Majesty."

Oh, we also continually refer to one as "Your Holiness."

I cannot believe that we, as human beings, believe that the Pope is the mortal voice of God, and that everything that flows from his mouth is Divine. I'm not saying that every Pope has been a prick, because there are certainly many cases of the opposite. The problem is that there are just as many cases of douche-baggery in the Papacy. This has led to many a bad decision being made with seemingly good intentions, but the weed of corruption is there, and its roots are starting to form in the lower echelons of the Catholic hierarchy, as is evidenced by many recent events.

While I and many more have a long list of complaints about the decision-making capabilities of the "mortal voice of God" that is conveniently elected, there is one in particular that I feel has made a devastating blow on humanity as a whole: The decision to go at odds with science.

Many people say that it's because science is an evil thing that exists only to disprove the existence of God. I understand how some people would come to those conclusions, seeing as how quacks and charlatans abound in every profession that you can possibly think of. The opinions of this special breed of jerk exist solely to anger others, and should be excused as such.

Any good scientist will tell you that they just aren't sure about the existence of God Himself, even if they dispute happenings in the Bible. Being uncertain about something isn't the same as outright not believing. To feel and see it otherwise is simple foolishness, and if this is how you react to the things that science says are happening and how it is that way, then you should be ashamed of yourself!

Or pat yourself on the back, because my list of railings against science are equally long. We may get to talking about that later, but for now, more to the point.

In the days of the Renaissance, the Church got offended by things that scientists and other creative minds were saying and doing. There was a cultural revolution going on, and they feared losing their grip of power on the people. A silly and needless fear, to be sure, but one they felt was valid nonetheless. They declared these free thinkers to be sinners, heretics, and blasphemers. They oppressed them into submission.

Those that resisted were the ones who formed what was to be forever known as the Illuminati, but again, that's a different discussion for a different time that is probably never.

I feel that it was around this time that creative minds went into hiding. This is evidenced at the fact that the only real technological jumps we made in the years following were, for the most part, for the purposes of killing each other, or preventing ourselves from being killed long enough to kill someone else first. This vicious cycle was brought about due to not only the metaphorical war being fought against science, art, and so on, but the physical ones that were constantly being fought "in the name of God."

It seems that the Church began to forget about the 11th commandment that Christ Himself brought to us: Love thy neighbor as you would yourself.

I find that the Church and those belonging to the far Right tend to be the first to cry out when their freedoms - the one of religion in particular - are being tread upon, but are also the first to plow right over the express freedoms of other individuals "in the name of God."

What kind of God tells us to do one thing, but then expects something else that can only be described as the almost-polar opposite? Certainly not the God that I believe in, because the One that I know shakes His head at such things.

This can probably be linked to the fact that many belonging to the far Right tend to believe more in knowing their Bible than they do in knowing God, and taking such old language so literally as to become completely blind to love of anyone that is outside of this bubble of yours is shameful to Him, and what He really wants for you. For all of us.

I'm not going to turn this into a preaching session, don't worry, but that is some food for thought.

The Church has since been fighting against some of the most brilliant of innovations in technology, not the least of which was stem cell research. They have constantly lobbied Congress to pass abortion laws nation-wide, all because they can't separate their moral stances from their political ones. They have constantly stuck their noses where they don't belong for far too long and impeded on us for so long that we have suffered for it by not being where we should.

Too often does the religious Right preach messages of hatred, intolerance, and fire and brimstone. They have made us afraid of anything that is on the Outside. They have taught us to fear anything that is different, because if it's different, it is against God.

Despite us being told to be fruitful and multiply, we are taught that sex is an evil and dirty thing. Despite being told to love our neighbor, we continue to speak and show hatred towards them, and further try to impede on their rights to be happy, just because their vision and lifestyle of it doesn't match ours. We are being taught, from a very young age, to match the image of God deemed appropriate by one guy, whereas God wants us each to represent Him in His way.

We have strayed very, very far from these principles that were given to us so many thousands of years ago (the world is not 6000 years old, thank you very much) by the One that we say we follow and love with our lives and all our hearts... the One we refer to as "Father."

And yet we disrespect Him so.

It's no longer just affecting small groups of people, though. It's now gotten to the point where the whole world has been held back, and now we're in a situation where the excrement has hit the air conditioning as a result. Our very planet is facing issues that, I believe, had science been given a fair chance to grow alongside with religion instead of constantly against it, we would have already had solutions to these issues by now and they wouldn't even be of concern.

Or I could just really be a sociopath. Who knows?