Ash Wednesday

Well, as you can guess by the title, I have a religious based rant tonight...


Just to be sure everyone is aware, I was brought up as a Catholic.  I have a lot of issues with Christianity in general but this time of year really bugs me.  As a joke, I have called Ash Wednesday Dirty Forehead Day.  Why is it that putting ashes from some burned log is supposed to prove your devotion to a particular religion?  But beyond that, how is it that giving up some kind of luxury is supposed to further that?  As some of you may guess, this is only a small piece of my problem.


The real problem that I have is that so many suddenly become devout Christians.  They suddenly follow the "rules" and think that they are going to be saved because of it.  They don't really follow anything during the rest of the year but suddenly they feel the need to follow everything.  For example, the no meat on Friday thing.  To start with, why does anyone think that Jesus, God, or whatever deity (or deities) you believe in really care what you eat?  I don't think (s)he/they do!  In fact, I don't think there is a care in the after-life about how much you curse or attend church.  What I believe is really cared about is how you act throughout your life.  That's right, I don't believe finding God at the end of your life, or in prison, is going to save you!  Either you have lead a life where you deserve to have a good after-life or you haven't.


Which brings us to another thing, who really gives a mortal the right to say you are forgiven?  Yes, I get it, they have supposedly spoken to God.  But notice that supposedly.  I just don't believe that any deity would take the time to talk to an individual just to give them permission to forgive people.  How does someone saying 100 Hail Mary's forgive them for treating someone poorly or worse?


Rather than go on and on about my thoughts on that, I would like to point out something that most people forget.  Religion started as a form of government.  Most of the "rules" that are in place are really a way to get you to conform to a norm.  And if you look at some of the laws that are there now you will notice that there is a similarity to one of these "rules" of a religion.  Once it proved to be just another form of monarchy and people started to defect, they began praying on people's biggest fear, the unknown.


Now this is certainly not to say that people who devote their lives to following a religion are bad people or wasting their time.  In general they lead a good life.  There have been a recent rash of these people not following a good life, but that is, I believe, truly rare.  The only issue that I see with those few is that the "separation of church and state" in the US has allowed these criminals to get away with something that would put someone like me in prison for a long time.  True separation would mean they pay taxes and face the same penalties as we do.  But perhaps that is a different rant for another day...