anto's Journal: OK so I'm not normal....

Well I have finally realised, by any consevative measure I'm not normal... This dawned on me when I received an email from someone I could consertivly describe as a 'rabid christian' now if you didn't know me you could confuse me with a christian (or catholic for that matter) I don't go around shooting people, even though it would be my democratic right if I lived in the US.. In fact many of my beliefs seem to mirror thoes of the catholic church. If you were just a casual observer you may assume that my attending catholic schools would be the evidence you need. So to clear it up once & for all, I am not a catholic, christian or for that matter a member of any organised religion. I am an atheist my general outlook on religion (organised or not) is pretty nicly summed up in the following:

• I can understand why primitive cultures believed that invisible beings controlled what we now call the elements and natural phenomena. With access to factual knowledge, there is now no excuse for believing in gods, fairies or any supernatural concept.
• I live in a natural universe with known natural laws. Religion, based on belief in the existence of the supernatural, is dependent on the indoctrination of infants generation after generation, by parents brainwashed in religious cultures.
• The confrontations and fighting today provide ample evidence of the unstable nature of societies, which endorse religious beliefs.
• Infantile concepts seriously hinder the full potential development of humans in a world with problems that require logical thought.
• Atheists find their motive for action in the needs and problems of their fellow citizens and consider that the worship of, or reliance on, imaginary supernatural beings to be a useless waste of time, energy and resources. Which I pretty much wholesale borrowed from The Atheist Foundation of Australia of which I'm not a member but they turned up in a google search first :) Now back to my original argument... I realised when I got quite annoyed at something someone said today, that
• a large percentage of the population would have probably agreed with the statment
• &amp that dosn't make it right. I've totally lost my point by now so I have to run away and finish this later :)

Like bus terminals

[heliocentric]

For some reason organized religions are just like bus terminals: while they seem to give guidance and direction to those who seek it, they also for some odd reason attract all of society's nuts, crazy people, and out casts.

Also of note, while I agree with most of what you say, I feel that for some (not all) organized religion is not a waste of time, for some find it odd to be locked away in worship instead out getting out and helping people. I have heard some propose that the only god worth worship is one where god is nothing more than love, and who doesn't want to worship love?

My feeling about the waste of time is that it is a waste of time... for me. If someone else gets something from it - fine with me, good for them. I get a lot out of my trainset and I realize that not everyone else does (much to my surprise it's somehow not a chick magnet), but here's the thing - I don't go around pushing model railroading on people. While I personally feel it's a great for children to learn math, electronics, art, and history I don't go around knocking on doors telling people, or when the subject of education comes up in discussion I don't spout some "holier than thou" message about trains or my upbringing reguarding them. And for that matter, I wish others would do the same about cars, boats, christianity, or any other religion, hobby, fascination, etc...