Pharyngulaic Morning

I hope this helps explain my disdain for god-belief and religion in general.

Now, granted, there are times when I wish I had blind trust that things would work out. Lacking such, I sometimes get frustrated before even takin' a stab at a thing I know, from experience, is highly unlikely to go the way I want it to go. But the problem I have is not having any faith in the one thing that truly needs it; myself.

I almost want to post the whole essay cuz, man, can PZM say it straight and true! I'll just leave y'all with the two paragraphs that hit home the hardest and most relevantly.

Enjoy and Happy Monday! {-;

That's backwards. The problem is that we have a well-regarded institution that is practically a mandatory component of public life that demands that people believe in the unseen and unknowable, that insists on an exemption from critical thought, that routinely proposes nonsense and expects its adherents to swallow it hole on the basis of traditional authority. O'Brien writes as if critics of religion think the only flaw in religion is biblical literalism, and that we think all religious people are fundamentalist kooks. This is incorrect. I think it's obvious that even the most rabid fundamentalists pick and choose which parts of the Bible to worship, and pluck out whatever turd fits their inclination from that foul nest of inconsistencies; and I don't care whether the religion is some soft and fuzzy grab-bag of noncommittal platitudes that fosters all kinds of humane and charitable activities. It still bears the damning necrosis at its core.

The problem is faith.

Faith is a hole in your brain. Faith stops critical thinking. Faith is a failure point inculcated into people's minds, an unguarded weak point that allows all kinds of nasty, maggoty, wretched ideas to crawl into their heads and take up occupancy. Supporting faith is like supporting people who refuse to be vaccinated: they're harmless in and of themselves, they may be perfectly healthy right now, but they represent fertile ground for disease, and they represent potential severe damage to the social compact. When you're in a culture that worships Abraham's insanity, you're fostering the nonsense that enables the Son of Sam.

[Enjoy the rest]