Heeere comes my rant about that “I hate religion” video.
Don’t lie, you knew it was coming!
This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY&feature=player_embedded) is frustrating on so many levels. I feel like I’ve been textually shouting till I’m blue in the face on my blogs and online platforms for years, talking about how “religion” doesn’t mean what most people who hate it *think* it means. Religion is defined as a system of beliefs concerning a God or gods, simply put, and defined as such, Christianity (including “plain and simple” “Bible Christianity”) is a religion. Jesus didn’t come to “abolish religion” — He clearly states that He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets (Judaism) but to fulfill them. He instituted rituals, like the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, and commanded us to follow them.
What this guy hates is hypocrisy, not religion. He hates what he believes religion to be, not what it is. Religion, as my friend Marc put it so well in the blog I’m linking to below, is “an urge as primordial as sex and song.” It can be done poorly, it can be done well, but it itself is not inherently bad. It’s part of who we are.
On a less crucial (but still important) note, aside from the subject matter, why is this considered great poetry by so many people? I’d rather sit and listen to Christopher Hitchens’ diatribes against religion any day than this guy’s.
Check out Marc Barnes’ well-written and more intensive critique here.
