The Reason for Religion is What exactly?

Fawell I don’t get religion, I really don’t.

I don’t just mean the convert-or-die jihadists or the bible thumping televangelist nutbags, because no-one outside their own little cults ever really gets them.

It’s faith itself that makes no sense to me. The belief in an omnipresent deity who knows or cares about the vagaries of human existence and has the power or the desire to interfere in, it is one I find utterly incomprehensible. I don’t view people who have such belief with distain or contempt, indeed there are times when I think I envy them, I just think it’s bizarre.

I’ve listened in bewilderment as those mad American golfers thank God for helping them win another multi million dollar tournament and American /Australian / UK Idol winners talk with tears in their eyes about the divine intervention in their 3^rd place so-called victory. I’ve even goggled in amazement at devout Christians giving sincere prayers of thanks for God’s help in finding their car keys and getting bits of fluff off their socks.

Do these people truly believe that a sentient creator of the universe is ignoring the prayers of all those poor buggers sitting in fox holes just so He can take some time out to help make their privileged lives a little less inconvenient? Or, if they truly do believe that, why are they not turning in horror from such divine capriciousness

Why do so many deeply religious folk so cheerfully endow their deity with such small minded redneck prejudice? God created the universe and loves all his creations; except the ones who are gay or who happily shack up without a princess-for-a-day party and, by the way, He ain’t too keen on women getting out from behind their menfolk and if you get His name wrong then that’s it, you’re gonna burn in Hell for all eternity. Why, why, why would anyone want to cleave to such a God

My husband is many lovely things, but patient, tolerant or well disposed towards his fellow man he is not. However, despite his “it’s so unfair that I’m not allowed to just shoot people who don't use indicators and apostrophes properly” approach to humanity, he would recoil in horror at the idea of condemning even the most irritating of shitheads to fire or torture, even for an afternoon, let alone eternity. God, apparently, doesn’t have this much compassion . Ergo, Justin has more compassion than God. Now we should indeed be trembling before Him

My hairdresser is gay (no, really). He and his boyfriend have been together for over 20 years, they are both kind, gentle men who adore each other and, for the last 8 years, have taken an active de facto paternal role in the lives of their fatherless nieces and nephews. How can anyone look at them and say anything other than that the world is a better place for their presence

Apparently most of the Judeo-Christian religions can and do - and they can do it with a self righteous smirk of superiority too

Perhaps I’m being too harsh. It may sound as though I am ascribing all the faults of judgmental narrow-mindedness to a belief in God. Not so. One of my closest friends is a deeply devout Christian and ironically (given the subject of this rant) she is also the least judgmental person I know. She is a kind and generous person and a staunchly loyal friend. However (and she may not thank me for this) I knew her long before she found such devoutness and I don’t believe she is any of these things because of God, she was that person long before she found Him

My boss is a loving husband and father, a generous boss and an intrinsically honest man; he would still be all these things were he not Jewish.

One of my colleagues many years ago was an extremely hard working woman, a devoted mother and a tireless worker in her community; she would still have been all these things were she not a Muslim.

Jerry Falwell would still have been a tight arse, narrow minded, gay-bashing, woman-hating, judgmental prick were he not a Christian.

My husband would still have a deep sense of right and wrong and a strong desire to protect the weak and helpless were he not a committed atheist

I don’t believe that anyone’s religious beliefs have any impact at all on the type of person they are. War mongers, charity workers, rednecks, mincing lungers and apathetic fatties would all be exactly the same no matter what faith (or lack of) they professed

So, if it’s not just a particular type of person who needs religion what is it about people that make so many of them so desperate to find it? Because as long as we’ve had humans we’ve had religion

In my more cynical moments I wonder if it is just a need to have someone else tell us what to think, because it’s so much easier than having to work it out ourselves. That would certainly explain the need for Today Tonight and the Herald Sun, but hopefully it goes deeper than that

Perhaps death explains it. Death is so final, so incomprehensible, so terrifying that perhaps it is made easier if we can believe that we don’t just stop on the final breath.

Maybe also the breathtaking unfairness of life is easier to deal with if we can convince ourselves that someone somewhere knows what is going on and has a plan, even if no-one else around you has been told about it. Certainly this approach eases the lives of public servants the world over.

Or maybe it really is just that humans are inherently silly and as long as you can believe six impossible things before breakfast you won’t have to worry too much about anything else.

I don’t know the answer, I don’t and never will understand it and I’ll almost certainly never find out for sure, but in the meantime religion does at least provide me with great topics for vigorous dinner table debate and alcohol fuelled shouting matches in bars, so I suppose it’s not a complete waste of time…. although I suspect I would be an argumentative and shouty person even without religion to fuel the fire...