Okay. I'm trying my absolutely best not to go on any more spitful and hissy rants, but something was just brought to my attention that kind of boiled me up... And now I have to get this out of my system.

Before I start, however, I just want to say that in no way am I attacking a specific group of people personally. For those of my dearest and closest friends that do have a religion that just so happened to stumble upon this post... You can either choose to quit reading it now or keep reading to see what I have to say. I'm going to try and not my rant to hit certain people's nerves as much as possible.

Anyway. A lot of you may have realized by now that in none of my blog posts do I talk about my faith or belief in God or Jesus Christ. I don't quite like the points of views in religion and I especially don't like it when religion is shoved in my face. I treat everyone as equally as God does (funny how that works) and if somebody were to come to my door to discuss about their religion, then I'd be more than happy to politely tell them that I understand what it is they're doing but I'm just not interested.

But why do I not like religion of any kind, be it Catholic, Christianity or Mormon? I'll tell you why.

I feel that the interpretations of God's words, if there was any actual words from God through Jesus Christ, are wholly mistaken by preachers and their disciples (otherwise known as church-goers). The main message that a lot of religions state is that God loves everybody, and so must you as well - so then why is it that a lot of people mistreat others in the process of becoming religious? "In finding God, I have found myself... And since you don't share the same views as I do, I cannot be your friend anymore because God is telling me otherwise." I'm sure we've all heard the similar-sounding thing, especially when people who come out as gay to their friends are turned down by their friends. I cannot believe the discrimination in Christians towards homosexual people (okay, not the more open-minded Christians but the real hard-core Christians). When Spirit Day had rolled around in October, I was almost scared to tell everyone about it at the learning centre because I wasn't too sure who would do it and who wouldn't even dare because their religion would tell them otherwise. The people that I asked to wear purple though did anyways, so that was good.

But anyway. I'm not going to focus this post on Christians towards homosexual people, but that's just one example. Another example of a religion and it's misinterpretations that I find outrageous is the Mormon religion - if what I was told was correct, apparently a person cannot go out to dances, must lose their virginity to their married spouse (just kidding!), or anything of the like - in other words, their religion more or less prevents people of Mormon faith to have a bit of fun. Why?! Why must somebody's religion restrict them to being at home, work or church? All in the name of God, of course. Oh please.

If there's one true thing I really cannot stand about religion is how narrow-minded it makes people.

"Oh, I've become so much of a better person since I found Jesus Christ!" I'll give you Jesus Christ in a minute. Right between your eyes. And if you must, tell him I said hello.

All sadistic jokes aside, let's get back to the starting topic: narrow-mindedness. If it's one thing that I've gotten from my seventeen years of living - AND PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong - it's that religion creates discrimination, which is why homosexuals in the States are having difficulties being treated equally and African-American or colored people in the 40's - 70's had such a difficult time trying to settle and become equal in American society. Oh, and that's another thing - if it's one thing that's really portrayed in the media, it's that African-American/colored people have their own church, which is separate of the Caucasian church - again, correct me if I'm wrong on that note but that's what you see all the time in movies and I know that movies are purely fictional (unless stated otherwise). And why is that? Because of narrow-mindedness. God forbid - literally and figuratively - the two races should collide with each other and preach the same thing, which is why I almost wonder if joining an African-American church is better than joining a Caucasian-run church. I wonder...

Anyway, if it isn't just me, it seems as though a lot of people become extremely narrow-minded after they've found religion and Jesus Christ and the whole works and they close off any of the opportunities that could have been a great choice, especially one that doesn't sit well with they're religion.

The other thing that I strongly dislike is that people completely change their views and opinions about specific things instead of remaining to what they've always believed in before finding religion - or in some cases, disallow their children to experiment with finding what religion they want to go to or decide if they even want a religion. I was talking to somebody, who had started this, who had told me that I was really gutsy for doing what I do, blah blah blah, but since they found Christianity a year ago, they now are on the brink about homosexuality. HUH?! Why? Homosexuals will do what they want, and they should be treated as an equal, right? Just like a church's ever-so overused words: "God loves everybody." That's just one example - I guess another example could be that instead of just living for day-to-day, some people become God-fearing and anything a person does wrong, off to the church they go to confess to the preacher.

I'll say this liberally and literally: I'm not afraid of God. I'm not afraid of death and I'm not afraid about my life after death on Earth. Does that make me a horrible person? Of course not. If I do something wrong, I don't think of it as a sin of God and Jesus Christ, or Allah, or whatever a specific religion's "God" is. I think of it as a learning period and if what I did wrong causes uproar, I learn my lesson from the mistake and move on with my life instead of dreading about how my entrance into Heaven will turn out like.

Oh, that's another thing I can't stand about religion: be a good boy or girl throughout your life, don't cheat on your spouse and don't steal or launder money or do anything bad and illegal and you will get accepted into Heaven; otherwise you're going to Hell. PLEASE. As far as I'm concerned, there is no such thing as Heaven and Hell. You do not go through big pearly gates (no matter how many people who've been through life-and-death experiences say that there is big gates wait for you and God is really big or whatever) that either accept you into Heaven or sends you to Hell - or the in-between if you so happened to commit suicide. I just don't believe that whatsoever. There is good in all people, and even though it was a conscious choice to cause some sort of unforgivable crime, everyone goes to their own heaven of sorts - that's my belief. If anyone has watched "What Dreams May Come" with Robin Williams in it, you'll know what I'm talking about because that's what I believe in; or if anyone has read "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom, I also strongly believe in that.

But this religion crap about Heaven and Hell just sends me spinning. "You're going to go to Hell if you keep looking like that." Eff off you miserable cow. Don't tell me where I'm going, because I know where I'll land up.

Okay. I think that was it. If you've managed to get to this side of this blog post, please keep in mind that you've just finished reading a blog post written by an Atheist, so my views are very radically different from somebody who does have a religion.

Don't care if you strongly dislike my views; we all have them, just as we do our opinions.

Stay gold!
- Colten.
xoxo