Religion and the Unsharkly Shark

For those of you wondering where I have been, the answer is simple: I've been visiting my grandparents for the last time before the baby arrives. While there, something curious happened, which I must confess, left me puzzled and very angry.

I had a conversation with my aunt about the movie "Shark Tale". I quite liked the movie, but she said that she was disgusted with it, because of the shark wanting to dress like a dolphin and not being "sharkly" enough, and the parallels it has to those of homosexual persuasion. She detested that the movie advocated that everyone get along, even sharks who aren't "sharkly", because it teaches kids that it's okay to be friends with someone who's "not normal", or even to *be* "not normal". This, she said, was not something she wanted to teach her kids.

I then pointed out (politely enough, actually, though it makes me mad when people are so short sighted) that we can't afford to teach our kids anything else in the world we live in, even if we don't agree (which I do), since they are the ones who'll have to function in a society where it's criminal to discriminate. She then said: "But it's against what the Bible says" (which, by the way, is an entirely different debate).

This got me to thinking, and after chewing on it for a long time, I concluded that most of the world's evils can be blamed on the concept of organized religion, no matter what religion we're talking about. It's the reason behind most wars, most terrorism, and most stupidity. Honestly. That whole concept of "My religion requires it from me" has been modified to "My church/fellow worshippers would expect it from me".

That's what horrifies most "religious" people about something like a pregnant unmarried: not so much the fact of the pregnancy and its implications, or even the failure to conform to the religion, but "What will the X's think", "What will the church say", "How can I ever look the neighbours in the face again".

And that just makes me sad. People who spend most of their time and energy judging others and wondering who'll go to Heaven or Nirvana or wherever, and losing sight of the actual religion and the actual deity they worship in the process.

I guess that's why I'm so agnostic. No religion, no rules, just pure spirituality. Besides, I'm such a rebel, I don't think rules and me were made to co-exist in any case.