Even on a slow news day, my general feeling for ALL mainstream religions is one of disgust, hatred and utter contempt. I seldom need a barbaric "headline" to exacerbate that position....but as you may guess....a barbaric headline does very little to stimulate a sense of reflective tolerance where I'm personally concerned.
I simply believe that life is too damn short and precious to waste time trying to parse the differences between the malignant and the benign, when it comes to those who have deep, religious affiliation.....and believe that ANY religion is only as good as it's worst proponents portray it to be, in terms of being a useful social construct worthy of any secular respect.
Just as each person has the right to their religion, then so too, does each person have the right to assess religion as a social construct and decide whether or not it truly brings the best out in people, or whether it merely sates some rather unwholesome, antiquated human biases and failings....which over time....have become consecrated within each religion's unique version of "holy" writ.
As Judge Judy would say..."I'm an ecumenical abuser"....but in my own case, it is religion which unites my sense of fair and equal contempt.
The problem is, detesting "Islam" just as much as I detest Christianity....but then opting to only voice contempt for the former whenever it raises it's ugly head by way of barbarous headlines....well...it kind of puts one in the retaliatory firing line before those who feel the necessity to defend Islam, and it's right to exist as a benign construct for the many millions who follow it.
But I do not believe that it IS a benign religious construct, any more than I believe that the bible has given rise to benign religious constructs and believe ALL of those constructs to be harmful to those who adopt them, and especially so to those who adopt them with a sense of zealousness and militant fervour.
So with each "beheading" or act of atrocity on fundamentally innocent people, religion (as a whole) discloses it's own sickness and unworthiness of respect from folk (like myself) who maintain a secular stance. The burden of proof that religion is not a malignant construct...lays with the "religious" themselves...be they Islam or Christian, but these atrocities do very little to convince any onlooking non-subscribers that religion is a force for good in this world or is even worthy of the tolerance and respect that many moderates bleat on about whenever religion shames itself in such a barbaric manner.
Where are the "not in my name " movements and marches, which by rights....should be provoked by every heinous act which slurs the spirit of what these religions are supposed to represent? Where are the collective denouncements and disavowals of the violent and dysfunctional people who....by their actions....bring shame and bad publicity to the religiously "benign?"
Religious people are notorious for espousing the view that their "god" is watching them and judging them, but there is also another entity who watches and judges them in the form of their fellow men, but they seem to care very little for their collective reputation as seen through the eyes of their secular contemporaries...whom they deem to be nought but faithless infidels or apostates.
And that.... is why religion is such a malignant force.
The "religious" simply do not care how they look, act or come across to the "non-religious."
The religious have gods who tolerate their worst behaviours, sometimes even endorsing and rewarding them for these.
The non-religious do not tolerate their worst behaviours and speak out judgmentally against them as a dysfunctional and dangerous social collective who are a blight on society.
The religious (and others) earnestly defend their "right" to exist as this blight.
The secular resign themselves to tolerance.....but cannot in good conscience....afford such ones any "respect."
