Friday, October 18, 2013

“I Hate Religion!” says the religionist. What’s behind this non sequitur?



If you spend any time following  Xtian news and the reader commentaries on line, you will eventually come across the hyper-religious fanatic who declares  “I hate religion too.”    You’ll even come across this absurd “God Hates Religion” message through-out the internet. 
 

This patently contradictory disclaimer makes sense to the fanatic because they are attempting, through word games, to separate their own flavor of religious delusion from the religious delusion, dogma, rituals and politics of established denominations.  They will even go so far as to admit the damage and horror religion has caused over the centuries. But this is a falsehood – either intentional or as a result of self delusion - for at least two reasons.
First, by definition their Xtian belief and acceptance and adherence to the belief system of Xtianity is by definition a religion.


re.li.gion
 : the belief in a god or in a group of gods
 : an organized system of beliefs,
ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods

:  the service and worship of God or the supernatural

:  commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

:  a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices




Note that while they’d like “religion” to be defined as belonging to an organized sect, or denomination, and boiled down to “… ceremonies, rules … or institutionalized system”   religion obviously means much more than that.  In fact as we can see, those elements are the least important aspects of the definition for religion. The meat and potatoes of the definition are a personal belief in god/gods, acceptance of the Xtian doctrine/set of beliefs, worship of said god/gods, devotion to and observance of that faith, and a personal set of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices.  This is precisely what the devout believer embraces. Thus, they are religionists / practitioners of religion.

Second, whether or not they identify with a sect or denomination and that sect’s  prevailing social or political perspective or the activism of some sects, if they perceive their scripture to be against homosexuality, and it prompts/guides/ justifies their homophobia, they don’t have to be members of notoriously homophobic denominations (Catholic, Baptist, Mormons for example) to be thus influenced by ancient scripture. Their perspective of this (and other) hot button social or political issues is in fact religiously driven…they are just “unaffiliated” or perhaps better stated: they are freelance religious bigot homophobes at god’s behest.   

Even if their interpretation is that scripture does not condemn homosexuality, if they are establishing their more liberal social perspective on religious scripture they are by definition religionists / practitioners of religion.

No, word games not withstanding,  there is no escaping being a religionist by cherry picking what parts of the definition of religion one prefers.  And if you’re a Xtian and  truly “hate  religion” you may be schizophrenic and in a love hate relationship with yourself.  Get some professional help.
  

11 comments:

nude0007 said...

A personal relationship with a non-existent and possibly assumed to be all powerful being is still a religion. It is unfounded, invalid and harmful.

Dromedary Hump said...

nude007
precisely.
Now if I had just said that, I could have saved 1000 words ;)

Den!s said...

christianity ... a word derived by combining 'christian' and 'insanity'. Put 'em together and what have you got?
BIBBETY-BOBBETY-BOO

Isn't the 'I hate religion' thing the very reason we have so many christian sects?

WhyNot said...

Oh well, who gives a fyling fuck what religious nuts think and say. I really don't see why you are so concerned and keep writing about them fuckers. A whole blog dedicated to them? Gee, what a fucking waste of time and energy.

Are they still such a plague in USA? Here in Europe religion has been dead and buried for decades.

Dromedary Hump said...

Whynot...
you answeredyour own question.

The US is about 30 years behind Europe when it comes to acceptance of reality and rejection of religious stupidity. We have a significant contingent of politicians who would love to see this a theocracy ... Dominionists... and they are part of the powerful TeaParty movement.

In many states (in the south) Creationists are trying to force their fable into the biology books of our schools. Infact, other than Turkey we have the highest% of people who reject evolutionary theory and believe in creationism of all industrialized nations.

People like me and my readership, and atheist orgs, many thousands of us, are committed to keep awareness of this threat to our freedoms and our educational system on the front burner. To ignore it is to surrender to the ignorance and backwardness of those who would inflict their childlike beliefs on our laws, government, personal freedoms and public schools.

Now you know.

paul said...

God hates religion.
I hate religion.
Therefore, I am God.

Dromedary Hump said...

Den!s,
The reason we have 30,000+ Xtian sects is the interpretation of scripture and doctrine. It seems their god doesn't know how to make its words actually mean stuff.

Paul,
That works. ;)

WhyNot said...

Hump,

Thanks for the explanation. However, something still puzzles me:

I lived in Florida (Tampa) for 2 years. During that time I never once encountered a religious nutcase. In fact I never even notice one single church - in spite of the fact my wife and I drove around all the time for fun, and my job was delivering papers (St Petersburg Times) all over the Tampa/St Petersburg metropolis.

I certainly never once encountered one single religious nutcase. And yet I get the impression Florida is considered in USA as a kind of backward republican conservative religious state. Why so?

Maybe it's completely different elsewhere in Florida? And I suppose it is very different in other states...

I did have one religous born-again fuck, Jeanette Lucey (Rock Hill, Carolina) who plagued my now defunct blog for years.

Gee... what a treat she was: I'll skip all the unreal shit she dropped on us for several years, and jump to her last achievements: multiple death threats to me and my lovely special young Russian friend Stiletto (real name Olga, and now lives in France).

PS: you mention Turkey, which is interesting for me as a European. Turkey has been trying to get into the European Union for decades.

Geographically, it kind of qualifies since it is part of the Eurasian continent. However it has been knocked back for as many decades as it has applied - for one simple reason:

Death penalty is ONE big NONO, in fact the first mandatory prerequisite of admittance to the EU.

But also, its human rights record is appalling - such as arbitrary imprisonment (without trial), and severely throttled freedom of speech.

I guess the first 2 reasons (death penalty and appalling human rights record) would disqualify USA even if they were geographically eligible.

On the other hand, I wouldn't mind Russia being part of the EU... we might get a deal on really cheap gasoline prices, lol. And although death penalty still exists in Russia, it hasn't been used for over 50 years.

Anyway... thanks for answering my questions, and keep up the good fucking lord's work, lol.

Dromedary Hump said...

Whynot,
Florida is a "blue" state...has been for a few election cycles. They are an outlyer to the south, having been largely northernized by transplants. It's sort of like how Atlanta Georgia and Austin Texas are bastions of reason in an otherwise moronic pair of religio-states.

Thus, that you weren't exposed to the fanaticism one finds in the other southern states is no surprise..especially in the Tampa area.

Thanks for your other insights. BTW, The south represents 85% of all executions in this country. Of those 65% come from only 4 or 5 counties of which 3 are in Texas..if memory serves.

Infidel753 said...

So we have some groups of fundie nutters insisting that science is a religion, so they can pull evolution down to the same level as creationism for the purpose of subverting science classes in school -- and others now claiming that (their form of) Christianity isn't a religion.

Orwell couldn't have done better. But at least we seem to be establishing that a "religion" is an undesirable thing to be.

Dromedary Hump said...

Infidel..
Excellent observation.

And on a related note..they insist non-belief/atheism is a religion. Unsure whether it is to discredit our disgust with religionists, or as an attempt to drag reality down to the level of superstition.

Likely both.