Things I would like to see in the future Part IV

And end to organized religion.

People have the right to believe in whatever it is that they want to believe. That needs t o be straight. I do not advocate and never will advocate the destruction, ethnic cleansing, or any other terms that essentially mean the elimination of people that do not believe whatever the ruling group of people believe or do not belong to the group that is appropriate at that time.

People can read their scriptures and decide what they believe and what they do not believe and how that impacts how they should act in regards to other people on their own.

The only reason for the existence of organized religion is so that 'mouthpieces' of god/goddess/gods can make their will apparent to the populace.

Well, I say that if any of these gods are worth their salt they should have no trouble making it clear to their adherents what exactly they want without the middle man present.

Too often have I heard and seen the actions of people that are either directed or influenced by the so-called representatives of god(s) cause harm to people.

It seems at present that the sole purpose of organized christians in the United States of America is to limit everyone else in the country to doing only what the organized christians think is right.

They attempt to 'persuade' people that they have a higher moral ground and that is why we need to do things their way instead of the secular way.

There have been many times when the populace has allowed the organized religions to have power in their governments. Devine right rules litter the historical landscape.

And our little devine right president is making our government more of a tool for the organized religions every day.

He has made it so that every department of our government can give money to organized religions while at the same time removing the restrictions on the use of that money for only one purpose - to increase the strength of the organized religions in the United States of America.

You say - hey that is not a bad thing? Well, yes it is...
1) Organized religion is on the decline in the United States - while the religiousness of the population is on the rise. The reasons for this are complex, but it is quite clear that people do not need to be part of an organized religion to be religious. This effort by Bush Jr. has the goal of putting as many of those religious people under his umbrella to make the great white Christian America that people seem to think existed in the 1950's (it didn't).
2) There was a time where religion caused riots in the major cities in the United States - because the local governments were controlled by protestants and there were catholic minorities that were affected. Is this the kind of behavior we want to encourage? But the past is being 'cleansed' and it gets harder and harder to find information on these riots that occurred in Philadelphia not too long ago, historically speaking.
3) You may be a religious person, but which religion is exactly going to be in control when the United States becomes a divine right state? Well, judging by the current president - better be ready for a fundamentalist state.
4) Religion and science are rather unfortunately on organizational levels - incompatible. The stronger religion is in the world (organized religion) the more they squelch research. The reason is quite clear - with every scientific breakthrough - at least on an organization level - it seems that science leaves less space for a god or gods to be necessary. I am not saying that a person cannot be religious and a scientist. I am saying that a dogmatic member of organized religion has no interest in they why things work or how they work - after all god did it and if we needed to know why or how god would explain it to humanity.

Organizations are particularly dumb, and religious organizations are worse. There is nothing in any of the religions that actually says you need some hierarchical structure in reference to how people worship on Earth. But heirarchy is inherent in organizational structure - as is the inability of people that are members of organized religions to question their leaders decisions and perhaps appeal them. I fear that one day some religious leader will say 'I have a list of unbelievers - go forth and convert them or else!' and well, I'd be up a creek at that point.

And this isn't some kind of irrational fear. Religious leaders make all kinds of weird statements - sometimes that they are forced to take back - like 'Satan is on Earth now and he is a Jew' some famous fundamentalist preacher said and then recanted.

But like any recantation - people can read quite squarely that if he didn't mean it - he wouldn't have said it. He recanted so that he would avoid being demonized by the rest of the population.

http://slate.msn.com/id/45483/
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Just imagine idiots like this in control of our government - and using vast amounts of government money for their own pursuit of religious 'freedom' - where you are free to be what they want you to be and that is final.

http://www2.davidduke.com/index.php?p=6

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