Killing in the Name of ...

According to Urban Dictionary, BLASPHEMY is defined as “running into church on Sunday and screaming, ‘Jesus Christ is a fake, and you’re all going to hell!’”

According the regular dictionary, BLASPHEMY is defined as the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God.

BLASPHEMY is all capital letters because apparently BLASPHEMY is really bad.  I don’t mean “I-ate-candy-instead-of-dinner” bad; I mean “I-AM-GOING-TO-BE-EXECUTED” bad.  (Different things.) 

Once again, I find myself reading The New York Times and wanting to have a proper freak-out about the state of humanity.  People are dumb as shit.  Truly, utterly, basely, inexcusably, pedantically ignorant.  Let me elaborate:  In Bangladesh (this time – I only single this country out because their radicals are currently splashed across my newspaper) Islamist (of course) fundamentalists (shocking, I know) are demanding the passage of an anti-blasphemy (sorry, BLASPHEMY) law.  They are demanding an amendment to their constitution which would ban intermingling between men and women and punish by execution Bangladeshi bloggers accused of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad. 

Are you fucking kidding me?  

Not only are these jackholes backward, unenlightened cavemen, they are trying to impose their stupidity on the masses of other people in their country.  These fundamentalists are so ignorant, in fact, that they forgot the pillars of their religion.  Not one of those five pillars mentions beating people to death in the middle of the street because they disagree with you.  Actually, none of those pillars talk about separating men and women, either.  And I’m fairly sure blogging wasn’t a thing back in the day, so execution of people with an opinion would also probably not be favored by Allah.

Here’s the deal:  Christopher Hitchens was absolutely right when he said that religion poisons everything.   People take a simple concept like The Golden Rule and fucking pervert it and legislate it and package it up with an inspirational prophet at the helm, and … voila!  People who think they’re better than everyone else start dictating how everyone must act.  Ethics without thought.  Morality fueled by fear.  Critical judgment thrown out the window in favor of dogma and prudishness. 

I, for one, am sick of it.

Nietzsche proclaimed that God is dead, but what most people ignore is the second part of that sentence from The Antichrist, which is:  “God is dead, and we have killed him.”  Indeed.  If there is a God, man (via religion) does everything in his power to harness that power, impose it on other people, and thus repudiate all the teachings of their prophet.  It’s sickening.  No church should have ANY power, because that church is simply a BUILDING which houses God.  That’s it.  It’s a PLACE. 

Let me put my feelings as succinctly as I can:  RELIGION SUCKS.  How’s that for blasphemy?  Do I have to insult your god for it to be blasphemy?  How about this:  if god is real, he/she would flush these fundamentalist killers down the fucking toilet.  IF your god condones such anti-human, misogynistic, childish, homophobic, murderous action, then your god sucks. 

The greatest thing about that last sentence is that it doesn’t matter.  People can make all the asinine, ridiculous, prohibitive laws they want, and people will still be people at the end of the day.  In other words, making stupid laws doesn’t make people less stupid.  If god wants to smite me, he or SHE will.  It’s none of your fucking business.  Get a job, contribute to the economy, and shut the fuck up.  Pray to whatever god suits you, and stop trying to enforce your bullshit on other people. 

Specifically, I want to take aim at the Muslim extremists who make their women cover up their bodies “to protect and respect “ them.  Over and over I hear that, in order for men not to be tempted, women should cover up.  “Not to be tempted”?!  Are you a 12-year-old boy?  Do you have a mental retardation that would stop you from attacking a woman because her ankles are visible?  Or are you simply unemployed and/or feeling unsatisfied with your life, so you need “a cause” to “fight for”?  Are you serious in saying that men cannot control themselves in the presence of flesh?  And if so, what does that say about the intelligence and morality of your men??

This whole ideology of religion and punishment for sins is simply embarrassing.  WHY is it necessary to impose religious ideology on other people?  WHY is it so hard to believe that life is what it is, and there is no afterlife to kill and die for?  WHY do the churches in my area feel it necessary to market their “product” via glossy, expensive fliers espousing their desire to save my soul?

Some of us do not require “saving”.  We do not need Jesus/Muhammad/Xenu/Buddha/Joseph Smith to lead the way to behaving well.  We get it.  Leave us alone. 

One last thing:  you can take your fatwas and shove them up your ass.  They mean nothing.  And if Allah is there, the killers will burn in hell for all eternity for killing in the name of rage rather than god.