Modern Religion is Absurd

I wouldnt consider myself particularly religious, but I definitely do believe in some higher power. Whether or not he’s a large man in the sky, judging our every move, is beyond me; but I feel as though any human constructed idea of a creator is bound to be quite limited. That being said, I’d like to think I’m relatively openminded about ideas that clash with my own, but I still have some major qualms with organized religion.

I find a huge distinction between the values of many modern religions and the rules they impose on believers. Personally, I have no issue with many of the values. Treat people with love? Sounds good to me. Don’t murder? Can’t argue with that. But as you delve deeper into particular religions, a list of ridiculous rules starts to accumulate that I just cannot condone.

It’s not just the extreme Christians believing that being gay is immoral. It’s also Mormons not being able to drink coffee. And Jewish people not eating cheeseburgers because they’re not kosher. And Muslim women being forbidden from touching bananas because “they might get ideas.”

I mean, come on. At this point, every modern religion has swayed so far from their original goals and values that it borders on absurd. Why would God care about these inconsequential things? I feel like he (or she or whatever) has more important things to do. What those things are, I dont really know. But what I do know is, is that these rules instill a lot of fear in people and are used to manipulate groups into behaving in very specific ways.

It’s easy to control people when they follow rules without question. It’s also easy to scare people into submission when they believe they may end up in hell for all of eternity for breaking a rule (seems like a scary reality to me). And I guess I can’t really say I know what happens when we die, and perhaps there’s a degree of truth in some of these religions, but I can’t say any of this genuinely makes sense to me.

I recently read this book, called the Story of B, which (by the way, amazing book) details the story of a priest meeting the Anti Christ and learning about his blasphemous views. It’s full of somewhat complex ideas, which are difficult for me to completely summarize here, but essentially he (the anti christ), believes that the problem with every modern religion is their focus on humans, rather than all of life.

It’s quite presumptuous for us to believe that existence was created for humanity, and humanity alone. When there are millions (or more likely, billions) of living beings out there, the thought of God caring about a Mormon person getting a second piercing on their ear, or a Christian having sex before marriage, or whatever else doesn’t particularly add up.