Impulse Reality 009

eZine lover (@eZine)

Published in 

Impulse Reality

 · 5 years ago

  

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                              -IMPULSE-REALITY- 
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                     [we're just fucking with your mind] 
                     [http://www.impulsereality.zzn.com] 

==file #009=======================================================5/13/2000== 

                      today's episode: 
                           Religion? No, Thanks. 

=========================== appreciated by linear =========================== 

 
	Here's a little essay/rant I came across on the jacket of a CD I  
have. Propagandhi's "Less Talk, More Rock". I totally agree with what is  
said. But I should probably say that just because I myself agree with this  
and made it into an IR file, doesn't mean everyone else associated with  
Impulse Reality agrees with it. Of course, some of them might. Whatever. 

 
*  *  *  * 

RELIGION? NO, THANKS.  

Religion is an impulse to explain. A natural impulse that everyone has and  
everyone grapples with. It's an impulse that, sadly and ironically, has been  
exploited to convince people to take actions that defy and demean that  
impulse. The exploiters are (fuck - not these guys again!) the ruling elite  
of nearly every society, in every era, and ours is no exception. It's not  
hard to understand the false sense of comfort and security of faith that  
religion provides. A lot of us have been throuh it and can understand how  
hard it can be to shake the grip of dogma. Religious dogma, which is a set  
of rules, is a tool used by people in power to keep other people powerless,  
and to coerce them into serving the interests of the powerful. History is  
flooded wih examples of religion used to defend and promote most of  
humanity's dumbest moves. Like genocide: the holocaust and the annihilation 
of the worlds' indigenous populations. Like war: from the beginnings of  
"civilization" to the Gulf War and beyond. Like prejudice: the continued  
subjugation of women in all the major religions. Like poverty: as a tool of  
capitalism, religion has taught the poor to accept injustice. Probably the  
worst effect religion has on us is its' ability to create divisions so  
remarkably deep that people will kill for them. Fuck, scratch at any major  
conflict in the world today and just beneath the skin of diplomacy and  
territorial demands you will find a fundamentalist, bloodthirsty form of one 
or more organized religion. Many "progressive" people involved in religions  
believe they can work eithin their religious institutions to change them for 
the better. It's an understandable desire- we all work within institutions to 
some extent, but it's kinda dumb in the same way that the Catholic Church's 
motivation for wanting to feed the hungry is kinda dumb: their writings and 
dogma tell them to. Shouldn't they be motivated by simply knowing that  
feeding the hungry is the right thing to do?? People indoctrinated in  
religions (including the religions of ideology... not mentioning any names), 
seem to believe that a moral code cannot exist outside of their institution. 
It can and it does. We have the ability (and the duty!) to do the right thing 
without the rhetoric of dogmas, the threat of hierarchies or the fear of some 
old coot in a beard firing a fucken lightning bolt at our sinful, hairy,  
zitty little asses. The saddest thing about religion is what is lost.  
Religion, or more accurately, I suppose, the appropriators and exploiters of 
religion, have taken our purest impulses of solidarity, compassion,  
celebration of the wonder and mystery of our lives, and turned them against  
us. This, moast of all, is why I reject religion: so that I can reclaim these 
impulses for the causes they deserve... love and justice.  

*  *  *  * 

						---- linear 

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                      http://www.impulsereality.zzn.com                       
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