After evaluating this article I wrote about some entertaining rubbish that claimed to prove god I figured it would be wise to cover my own ass. So here, for the first time and most likely for the last time are my actual views on religion and the religious.

Religion:I’ve got absolutely and entirely no problem with religion in general. There are perhaps a few specific religions, sects, cults and denominations I will draw issue with simply because they are faulty by their very nature. I’m not afraid to tell you that there is something inherently wrong with the Westboro Baptist Church and it’s constant attention whoring while slandering every group they can possibly come up with. This is a sect that I hardly like to even consider associated with the larger collection of Christianity because there is something fundamentally wrong with the single family that makes up it’s congregation.

However by and large I haven’t a problem with Catholicism, Asatru, Wicca, Buddhism, Shinto, Anglican and I’ll even tolerate the Evangelists because they’re not really hurting anyone. People can believe what they want to believe and I hold that religion has done plenty of good for the world. It’s here to stay and I’m welcoming of religion.

Being a scientifically minded person I can not bring myself to deny any religion’s validity. Time will tell on that one and it is wrong to brush religious ideas aside as fiction without proper scrutiny.

Religious People: Now this is a tricky issue simply because the group is so diverse. There’s certainly no religious people that I hate by merit of their being religious people and I’ve known plenty of people who believe in something strongly and had wonderful theological discussions with them.

At the same time I somewhat mourn what this group has become. Once upon a time the earliest and most magnificent forward strides in science were made by theologians and monks. Somewhere along the way, however, it became too frightening and ideas such as evolution were too challenging to accept and we see far too much rejection of science.

Religious people almost seem to divide themselves into two groups. There are those who act like brain washed slaves to their church and there are those who actually consider religion. I pity the former group and very much enjoy the company of the latter. How can I clarify this delicately?

There are those who interpret religion for themselves and think about what they’re doing and actually understand what their faith says. These are the kind of religious people I like. Then there are those who have the work done for them and act unquestioningly. These are the people who I wish would take some initiative to join the other group.

But really, as long as you’re not hurting anyone I’m not too fussed about how you chose to approach your religious activities. That’s your freedom to do so.

Religion and myself:Do I have a religion? I don’t think I do. Do I believe in God? I believe there’s something. I don’t want to make an attempt to name or quantify the forces that be because I think it distracts people from what’s important. Believe in something and just do your best to be a good person. That should be enough and it is for me. I spent many years looking for answers but it’s clear that only time will provide answers. I’ll either know the truth when I die or I’ll be fortunate enough to see a time when science and religion are no longer separated by either side’s fear that they can’t know everything.