They call it religion but isn’t it just trying to define who we are and what our place in the universe is? We build institutions to build a support system, we call religion, to give us a comforting reassurance, that we have it all right. That if we do as we are told, we will be rewarded by an invisible, all-powerful hand, which works in mysterious ways, and we never really hear from. For some, he is a helicopter God, and they look for guidance about everything in their lives, through prayer. I simply ask this question. If God is who we say he is, then why is it that he does nothing, and we have to do everything?
.
Let’s begin with a logical question. Is there anything, that happens, that doesn’t have a logical basis behind it? The earthquake in Turkey for example. Some survive and some die. You can calculate factors such as construction, placement, and timing, to explain all of it. There are times it seems unlikely, the way things work out, but is there any proof of an invisible hand intervening to save someone, and not save someone else. Were they more righteous? Perhaps more godly, or maybe just at the wrong place at the wrong time. And another at the right place with the right circumstances.
.
I can see how the randomness of it all could create the situation where it seems that some sort of intervention occurred, but can you show it in any way? Were there 43,000 bad people and a few good ones, which were saved? That, of course, is where “Faith” comes in, along with the 10%, you pay to the church. It just seems odd, to be able to abuse others, but yet buy your way into heaven. But it has been there since the Middle Ages in the Catholic Church, professing to follow Jesus, and his teachings of the money changers, in the Temple. Religion, simply doesn’t make sense! Because it reflects us!
.
There are a million reasons for me to die. I am old, fat, and ugly, but God doesn’t kill me because I say the church is wrong. Why is that? If I am wrong? Ah, another of the great mysteries! It is time to understand ourselves, for in that we understand everything else on this Earth. We must end the tyranny of faith and begin the evolution to understanding! We, can begin with ourselves and how we are so easily manipulated by conmen and conwomen, authoritarians, and fools in general! How fear can turn us into idiots and non-thinking zombies.
.
I have to believe that there is and was an intelligence behind the creation and function of the same universe we see and touch every day. That we were given the potential to be a higher functioning being, within our DNA. That there is always a choice, within our existence, to become an idiot or a genius, it’s all there for us, inside of us. But society seeks to drive us toward idiocy, for the gain of those afraid, of the potential, each of us processes. That has nothing to do with God! To actually serve God, doesn’t make sense to reach toward the genius, instead of the idiot?

RC Romine