A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson
Mormon America by Richard N. and Joan K. Ostling
Reading about major religions convinces me further that they’re all constructed around lies, bullshit, xenophobia, prejudice, and idiocy. And these books are hardly anti-Mormon or anti-Jewish; they’re both highly sympathetic to the faiths and look at the religions through rose-colored, smudged, blurry glasses.
I’ve always been fascinated by religion, but the more I read about it, the more disillusioned (or wise?) I become.
I don’t subscribe to the notion that religious people are idiots. We all choose to believe what we need to believe in order to live our lives–whether that’s the myth of an American founded on noble ideals, the myth of a man who healed the sick through magical powers, or the myth of a Promised Land in Illinois, Missouri, Utah, or the Fertile Crescent. Some of us need to believe that we will be rewarded financially for our artistic efforts. Some of us need to believe that we will one day have children who love us. Some of us need to believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy by the U.S. government. Whatever floats your boat, whether it’s “Loose Change” or the Book of Mormon, if you cling tightly to any idea as a life raft in the tossing sea of human existence, you’re not alone.
This post reads as a cynical take on religion.
It is that.
It’s also a realistic one.
But I don’t want to misrepresent myself as a nonbeliever.
The truth is, I want to believe.
Desperately.
I just can’t find a reason.
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