This is heady material...

*NOTE: While I may seem bitter and overly critical, these thoughts are the representations of the extremes of my doubts on religion and theology.*

I don't really buy into religion in the sense of "heaven" and "hell". Why? I don't believe in such simplistic classifications of good and evil. Rather, I believe in absolute good, and absolute evil, but I do not believe that either of those manifests themselves completely in any individual.

Why have this discussion? Well, I was talking with my dad about this. I love the guy, and he's superfucking intelligent, but he believes what he believes and I wind up talking in circles with him getting nowhere in our conversation (or my understanding, for that matter). So, I'd like to know what any of you (anyone reading this - even if you happened to stumble here by accident) thinks.

Heaven and hell are okay concepts in a general sense - ultimate punishment, ultimate reward, but is anybody really qualified to go into any category? I mean, it's like "the good people go up here, and the bad people go down there", but since I don't believe in ultimate good or evil in any individual, what criteria does one have to meet to be rewarded?.

Each religion has its views, but since I was raised on Christianity, I shall focus on that belief system. In layman's terms, if you join a specific club and acknowledge the leader as the greatest guy ever, you win. If not, you lose. This method of thinking, however, is more flawed than the simplistic heaven/hell concept!. Someone who doesn't deserve reward sucks up to some guy in the sky and gets a ticket to dreamland, while an altruistic, hardworking bloke who lived his life the best he could burns in eternal damnation - do you see what I'm getting at?

Also, on heaven - heaven is supposedly a perfect place. for it to be perfect, however, no one would be able to do "bad things" (sin). To ensure this, people would in essence be stripped of their free will. Is this really a good thing? It sounds a lot like soma to me, a constant holy happy pill clouding your awareness as some sacred surgeon amputates part of your base essence. Would I rather live in happyworldland with no free will, or suffer eternally, still able to feel? For that matter, what is the use of perfection when there is no imperfection off of which to base such a standard? Without evil, good is not good, good is simply... normalcy. Status Quo.

Sin itself is a ideological minefield. Who says what is sin and what isn't? God? The Bible? I took European History class and I know how corrupt the Catholic Church used to be - who's to say they didn't alter things? Premarital sex is a sin? No, its just humans acting on their base animal nature. How many animal species picks one mate and stays with them forever? Very few. It's more common for animals to mate frequently and with numerous partners. So we don't do it because it separates us from the animals? Again, pointless, because the way humans enjoy sex differs from animals - we are one of the very few species that engages in sexual acts for reasons other than mating. The sex act itself, in its purest and most beautiful form, is simply a way for people to establish a deeper connection between themselves, a mesh of the spiritual and the physical.

And while I'm on the subject of sex, what the hell is the problem with homosexuality? I mean, I'm not gay or anything, but the amount of intolerance I see is staggering. If it makes two people happy, and its not hurting anyone else, then who the hell has the right, the authority, the audacity even, to condemn them? It seems to me that religious institutions want relationships to be submissive (as we should be "for God") and used to produce more submissive Godly drones. The fact that these people may love each other has nothing to do with it (marriage for love is a fairly new concept. For millenia, humanity has arranged marriages for breeding purposes, economic gain, etc).

I'm sure there's more I could talk about, but I think I've said enough. Thoughts, anyone?

(and I'll post this on facebook, too...)