Over the years, religion has become a giant wall between us. You may think that political loyalties cause the divide in this country, but it’s more often people’s faith. Lives and rights are being sacrificed, leaving only one conclusion: The world would be a much better place without religion.
Without religion, religious wars would not exist
Religious wars have plagued us for years, especially in the Middle East. Wars fueled by religion surpass all others when it comes to bloodshed and hate. Technically, Christians, Muslims and Jews all worship the same god. But apparently, that god is telling each of them to wage war on each other using explosives and cheap tactics.
Pause for a second. God is supposed to love everybody. So it’s very puzzling that God would want the “creations” to be so hateful to one another.
Whoosh! 8212; I just erased God from the picture. All of a sudden, there’s a lot more potential and possibility. It’s hard to deny that without religious conflicts, there wouldn’t be such a low standard of living in the Middle East. In fact, the Middle East would possibly be more technically advanced than other top countries in the world. And even more important: think of all the lives that would have been spared, and could still be spared.
Religious war could be totally eliminated.
Religion is used as a tool to strip people of their rights
Moving away from physical violence, religious proponents use religion as a means to deny rights to people. A perfect and recent example was Proposition 8, which was recently on the ballot in California, and which most of us now know denies same-sex couples the right to get married. When asking supporters of Proposition 8 why same-sex couples should not have the right get married like everyone else, the majority of the time the answer is a religious argument, saying that God defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Now, I do realize that some people are not comfortable with same-sex marriage, but that belief is most likely because of their faith. Usually, “discomfort” is not a good enough reason to change the state constitution. It’s completely mind-blowing that a being that’s unproven at best and fictional at worst can dictate the rights of others in our society. If we took religion out of the picture, there would no longer be any argument against the right for same-sex couples to get married, and citizens would be equal.
People use the concept of God to create peer pressure
A friend of mine once told me a story that made me feel both embarrassed and angry, but not for myself. It was about why she stopped going to church. One day, when she was much younger, she was at church, and after listening to the sermon, of course, the time for donations came. As the plate made its way around the room, it stopped by one woman. This woman struggled to make a living, but she felt as if she was required to give to the church. In reality, her donations most likely go to the nice car that “Pastor Larry” drives. This woman was asked by her fellow churchgoers, who were obviously pressuring her, if she was going to make a donation. She took a look into her wallet and she had one twenty-dollar bill. Perhaps, the twenty dollars that would get her through to her next paycheck. After a long thought process, the woman dropped the bill onto the plate.
After witnessing this, my friend stopped attending church. This event provides yet another reason why religion simply should not exist. It seems the only way to be shown some love or mercy from God is if you provide the pastor 8212; the “middle man” 8212; with a nice car and big house.
Religion has reared its ugly head for thousands of years. When you take the modern examples above into consideration, you can’t help but imagine what the world would be like without it. A few pieces of art, a few buildings or music is not enough of an excuse to keep religion around. I would gladly give all of that up to see more peace and to see the people of this country acquire the proper rights, such as the right to same-sex marriage. We need to take a leaf out of former president Ronald Reagan’s book, and “Bring down this wall!”
There are many people who will no doubt say that God is angry with me now, because of what I’ve pointed out here. Just remember I’m an understanding person. I can be negotiated with. Consider that, and tell him I would be willing to discuss this civilly over lunch any day of the week.
8212;T.J. Bronson is a journalism and finance junior.
8212;This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed 8212; include your full name, major and year in school.
