Recently, whilst perusing the shelves of the local Den of Books I stumbled upon a little leaflett stuck on the shelf.
"Hmm." Thought I. "I wonder what it is about."
That thought led me to stare unbelievably at the little leaflett in my hands. It was a booklet put out by the Illawarra Baptist somethingorother and it told me I was going to hell. Okay, nothing new there. Next to it was a purple booklet, which turned out to be a comic strip called "The Last Rites". In it, the main character, a good-man and a' church-every-sunday' Catholic dies. He gets the last Rites and goes to heaven, only to be denied a spot because Catholicism is actually Idolatory Goddess worship....
It even has a little picture of the pope:
Here, John is talking to God. Here, God quotes the Bible.
It also says: "Dear God, Thank You for showing me what you think about Catholocism. I also reject it."
If you want to read the entire comic, it can be found online --->here<---
^
Now come on. There is no room in today's society for literature like this. I'm not Catholic, nor ever likely to convert to Catholicism, but this is offensive to me. ME. The person who is almost impossible to offend. This hate literature was spread out over the entire science and also the religion section of the library. I spent half-an-hour picking up all the pamphlets. There are thirty all up. Believe it or not there was even a pamphlett on a motocross magazine... Why? Why do they think motocross riders need converting? Why do they think scientists and Buddhists and Muslims and Jews and anybody who isn't them needs to be converted and saved?
Do they really think that God will prevent any person from heaven because they chose to worship the Deity with a different name. Any god who would do this is not God. In fact any god who would deliberatly send somebody to hell is not a worthy God.
Here's a conundrum: Sociopathic Serial Killers - Born, or gain Sociopathic tendencies. If they are born with this sociopathy or psychopathy then it is reasonable to conclude that god made them this way. If God made them this way, knowing they would turn into serial killers and be sent to hell, then is that a god worthy of worship?
I personally like to think that everybody is worthy of a spot in the next place, should it exist. Eternal punishment for a few earthly mistakes seems a bit harsh.
In the end , i'm just a mug with an opinion. I've shared mine, you share yours.
Sorry if I offend anybody, if I did, well, too late now to help it.
I agree with you blogalot on the point of everyone being worthy ....etc, and so forth. Religion of any sort seems to me to be just another man-made excuse for control and power. We're very good at hate,domination and power struggles, having spent the better part of our existence perfecting these destructive tendencies.
ReplyDeleteBut I do have to disagree with your views on what can be printed and circulated. Where we have failed in many aspects as human beings, one of the more advanced and yes, civilized exercises we have fought for and introduced ... namely freedom of speech, is in this case simply (if not very cleverly)being practised. If a pamphlet left on a library shelf is going to convert anyone, well, conversion was not far off, was it? At least they are allowed to distribute them without being thrown in gaol or hung from the rafters. And even better still, you are allowed to be affronted by this printed matter and rant your views in a public forum. Isn't it a wonderfully free world!
Congratulations. You earn my praise. Not many people before you have made me re-think my opinion but you managed it. It is sad that groups are abusing freedom of speech this way, to slander people, but we really can't stop them can we? It is their right to say these things as much as it is my right to rant about them.
ReplyDeleteBugger.
I think that people should be free to decide what to believe without being railroaded into any religion (even Catholic) just so that the do gooders can earn brownie points with their religious leaders. I also believe that as long as you are a good person it doesn't matter what religion you are or if you are not religious at all. I believe God made us with free will. That is the will to choose whether we be a good person, bad person or totally evil and psychotic. In the end you must stand up for what you believe because that makes you the person you are.
ReplyDeleteI see this piece of writing as an extremist act of literature, and I agree that is not necessary. I do not see how pulling someone else’s religion down to promote your own, can do any good. There are extremists in every religion (not just Muslim as we are aware of) and we have a tendency to judge all people within the religion by this one person or persons actions. Whoever wrote this is clearly and idiot and feeling insecure enough to try and rip someone else down. But I think we DO all have to freedom to post and promote what we think. I believe that religion is a beautiful thing and MOST only help us to live in ways that are not harmful to our minds and bodies whether that be Buddhism, Catholicism or Judaism...all these are based on the same thing. And personally I feel better when I am not swearing, stealing, murdering, judging, cheating... not that I have done all of the above, hahahah but these religions give us steps on how to protect ourselves.
ReplyDelete