Religion
is not for everyone
For this week’s article, I feel I must present
a small disclaimer.
What you are about to read may offend or
infuriate you, but remember, this is on
the opinion page, and is simply that: my
opinion. I also must make another thing
clear: the word “god” will not be spelled
with a capital “g,” as I do not believe
in god at all. Since a god does not exist
as far as I’m concerned, I will not capitalize
the name. Now that that is out of the way,
enjoy the article!
Towards the beginning of last week, I, as
many of you also did, went to buy my textbooks
for class. Also like myself, most of you
probably bought your books at the campus
bookstore. After you left the bookstore
did any of you look around at all the tables
set up? Sure, we have the Bally’s Total
Fitness table on one side and the Los Angeles
Times table right next to it, but after
that, all of a sudden one feels like they’ve
entered a strange and fantastic world populated
by religious nut jobs.
What is with this campus and religion? Can’t
we, as intelligent adults, realize that
there is no such thing as a god? For starters,
the whole concept of there being a god is
ridiculous! How can someone look at you
with a straight face and say there is some
man that lives in the sky that sees everyone
at all times? So, essentially, even when
I am going to the bathroom to “drop the
kids off at the pool,” so to speak, god
is watching? What kind of sick voyeuristic
fantasy is this?
It is funny to me how supposed righteous
people go and pray to some imaginary figure
in the hopes that they will be rewarded
after they are dead. How are you going to
be rewarded after you die? The last time
I checked, death is when a person ceases
to live: their heart stops beating, their
brain stops triggering electrical charges,
their life simply ends. What makes you religious
nuts think that after you are clinically
dead you will be rewarded? And what in the
world makes you believe in a so-called heaven
or hell? The only heaven I know of is a
little place in Los Angeles called the Playboy
mansion, and I know I probably won’t be
going there anytime soon!
Seriously though, let’s consider the concepts
of heaven and hell. If I live a “good life”
(whatever that means), I will go live in
the clouds for the rest of eternity? Conversely,
if I sin, I will be doomed to a life underground
in hell, where fires and a demon will torture
me forever? Does this seem at all ludicrous
to anyone else reading this? This
is so utterly absurd, yet tremendous amounts
of people believe it! Why do so many humans
believe in the equivalent of a children’s
fairy tale?
Let me tell you something: there is no such
thing as god, heaven, or hell, just as there
were never really any monsters under your
bed. Religion is, simply put, a crutch for
people who find strength in numbers. There
is no reward for us after we die, only the
fact that our bodies will become food for
worms, maggots, and ants (which might actually
be heaven for the Greenpeace activists we
see around campus)!
I can go on and on with reasons why religion
is a complete fallacy but because of space
constraints, I won’t. What I will leave
you with, however, is a quote from the great
comic George Carlin: “I would never want
to be a member of a group whose symbol was
a guy nailed to two pieces of wood.”
Gerry Wachovsky is a business major at
Cal State Long Beach.
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