I don’t believe in religion whatsoever. I was going to start this column by apologizing for this, and then realized I really don’t have anything to be sorry for. Religion does.
Every single time there is a national debate about something in this country the religious are brought into the fold to decide the fate of different things. Stem cell research was pushed back because the church deemed it offensive to their doctrine. We battle over what a women can do to her own body, with a whole sect of people who believe their lord was the bastard son of the Almighty who knocked up a engaged woman.
Education policy is decided by law makers who believe a snake spoke to people in a garden a thousand years ago, never mind the scientific evidence that snakes can’t talk or that our planet is older than that. Our foreign policy for eight years came from the mind of a former drug addict and self confessed alcoholic whose sins were magically washed way when he became “born again.” Policy that has us hated by once former allies, and created more strife with our enemies.
I can’t take it anymore America, I have to say this out loud. Have we all lost our minds? During the election there was a choice between two competent people. One was a war hero with years of senate experience, the other was president of the Harvard Law Review. What did we ask? What religious system did they believe in and how it’s going to help them govern.
Let it be known now, I don’t care what religion someone is, as long as they can get things done. I want the most competent minds in government thinking about how they can improve our lives through legislation, not through bible study. I want world leaders who care about the food that goes into people’s stomach, not the religious symbols they pray to.
To those who believe this nation is a Christian one, take this into consideration:
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.” - James Madison letter to Wm. Bradford, April 1, 1774
“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole cartloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.” - John Adams
“In the affairs of the world, men are saved, not by faith, but by the lack of it.”- Ben Franklin
“What is it the New Testament teaches us? To believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.” - Thomas Paine
If we are going to progress as Americans we need to stop thinking in religious terms. It no longer matters what God you believe in, what matters is job creation. I’m reasonably sure Jesus Christ would agree with me if he indeed exists.
