Religion Isn't For Everyone

I know this has been in the news a lot lately, A Puritan’s ‘war against religion’, for example. And the GOP are manufacturing buzz about some threat to religious people, but it’s just silly propaganda. Religious beliefs can offer great comfort to people, but religion isn’t for everyone, and that’s a point of conflict when folks are taught that people who do not believe the things they do are dangerous and doomed. And lets face facts, we’re really talking about big money. Big!

I once read a study by a sociologist, talking about the challenges certain folks have communicating effectively and how this limitation creates a great deal of conflict. The study was about gang life, and how the inability to effectively communicate leaves these individuals only violence to vent their frustrations.

It is an interesting theory, and I’m just glossing over the high points, so don’t read to much into it, but I see some parallels here. The fear mongering that religious leaders and the talk radio preachers pander in, creates the same kind of frustration, or may be a result of the same types of frustration as the gang member who can’t adequately vent his anger without resorting to violence.

Yes, I know there are logical fallacies in the above thoughts, but these are complicated issues. The whole notion of magical thinking prevalent in most religions make any such discussion complicated.

With luck, we will eventually learn as people that differences are not necessarily bad.

Enjoy!