Lessons we ignore from the bible and religion, Part II (Origins of a Beloved, but Taken Wildly Out of Context, Story, Installment II)

As I think back to my days as a young child, there’s something funny there. I remember playing the game of ‘telephone’ at my catholic preschool (at the time, there was no public alternative). I remember that the lesson or ‘moral’ of the game was that when you say something, and everyone says it to someone else, etc., as the story goes down the chain, it changes, and in the end, it is far from resemblance to your original message. Then they began trying to brainwash us all into believing the bible. What???? Obviously at the time it didn’t register for me, but it amuses me to think back that some of the lessons taught were so contradictory. The first lesson was to be careful what you believe, that sort of thing. The second was that there’s this person, or whatever, called God, and he made the earth, and everything, and then Adam and Eve spawned all of humanity in a garden with a poison apple and talking snakes; and then there’s something about this guy Jesus, and he rose from the dead. I don’t claim to be a genius, but you can’t deny there’s some sort of disconnect here.
The only part that the catholic church, and every other religious institution, forgot to teach everyone was how to connect the dots; how to see the facts at face value. Because it’s not about God, or creation, or salvation or damnation, it’s about control. Because as soon as those men wrote that killer Twilight series, they realized that-- even if it was indirect-- they had spawned with it tremendous power. And the right thing to do would have been to say, ‘hey, it wasn’t supposed to be that way’. But instead, for the sake of their own rewards and pleasures and powers, they didn’t.
In the modern world, religion has taken on an even more twisted pretense. It warps the minds of otherwise rational and intelligent people. The true crime that I see is the wasted power of man without the illusion. Friedrich Nietzsche said that “hope in reality is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man”. I must admit that I concede. I am free from the illusions of god and religion, and the truth is that I am content with it. I have learned to live the mystery of life, and accept what I do not have answers for. If we as people can learn to overcome our own individual fears in life and in death, then we have no need for religion. God and religion represent comfort for people, and that is what holds them to it. If these people could only see that they don’t need god, that they are the primary holder of power within their own lives, maybe they could be free. We aren’t kids anymore. We’re adults now. And I don’t think I’m alone in saying this: we ALL need to start acting like adults, and cut the shit.