Nearly two years later ....

What has happened in the last two years? Well, I conceived, got married, had my second son, and he's now a year old.

And now, a wonderfully random return to ranting.

Has anyone ever noticed that in the religious world NOTHING is ever your fault? If good things are manifesting in your life it's because you must have done something right, you prayed, you did something good, etc. But if things are all going wrong and nothing in your life seems to be going well at all, it's not your fault! It's not because you did something wrong. It's because "God gives the greatest challenges to the best people" and "God never gives you anything you can't make it through". Okay, fine, but maybe God also lets you suffer the consequences of your own choices.

I'm not anti-God. I'm not even Atheist, I'm Agnostic. I have a very difficult time believing that human religions can contain all of the truth. If you do believe in God, and believe that God is perfect and Humanity is flawed, then by their very nature as human-led organizations religions are flawed as well. All of them. I believe that each person on this earth has a right and a duty to discover the truth for themselves. This doesn't mean finding something that resonates with you and then blindly following anything the leaders of that religion say that's stupid. In my opinion especially if you broke away from a religion that you were raised in to find the 'truth' and decided a different religion held it for you, you should always be open to the possibility that the leaders there may have their own human flaws which may lead said religion in a direction that is not in line with your 'truth'.

Having faith in God, and even having faith in the tenants of a religion, doesn't necessarily mean that you have to follow everything the leaders of that religion say. The second you close your eyes to possible faults and flaws of that religion and its leadership is the second you become another mindless drone. I can't stand mindless drones.

I recently have seen a "like" going around Facebook. A "like" that states "If you think this country would be in better shape if we all started asking for God's help, press like". Okay, seriously? The country would be in better shape if we all closed our eyes and prayed. Forget about opening our eyes, getting off our asses, and doing something to make our world better! Forget about that, that's not necessary, just close your eyes, whisper a few words of "God protect those poor poor people" and you've done your civic duty. I call bullshit. Serious bullshit. If you have an issue with the way this country is moving get off your ass and do something about it.

If you're a strongly Religious Republican maybe you need to sort out your priorities. Maybe you need to really think, think about why there are so many Republican leaders, men who claim to be religious, who break every tenant there is to break of their religions. Maybe you should think about the theory that the government should only help people who "deserve to be helped" and how you don't want your "hard earned money" going to some "lazy slackers on welfare". Whatever happened to helping your neighbor, no matter what? What happened to that aspect of religion? Or is that only valid when you have money you want to give away? Or do people somehow have to earn the right to your charity. How much sense does that make?

And then this nonsense about how the government should leave charity up to churches, etc who are dependent upon donations. Okay so, the poor should only get help if people want to give it? That poor starving child on the street corner shouldn't get any assistance unless someone wants to provide it. If no one wants to share their money right then let him starve! Or then there's the fact that these same people argue that the government should stay out because there's so many "welfare moms" out there, people who get on welfare and stay on it who are "lazy bums". I'm not denying these people are out there, I was on welfare for a while and I saw my fair share of people who I felt didn't deserve it sitting in those lines. But think about what you're saying for a moment. You're saying that non profit organizations who don't have the funding to do any real research on people's backgrounds, let alone the access to their tax and employment information that the government has, can keep slackers from getting aid better than the government? You're saying that it's better for someone to take money from a church, from people who are giving charitably and where they can up and leave and just not come back if they're found out rather than from the government, who can garnish their wages and taxes to pay back any fraudulently gained aid. Yep, that makes a lot of sense (note the sarcasm).

I'm not speaking out my ass here either. I have a relative who shall remain un-named who is perfectly fine financially. I don't think you could argue this woman was starving if you tried, she's obese and suffering because of it. She regularly goes to Dunkin Donuts, she eats whatever she wants whenever she wants. And yet, this woman goes to a food bank twice a month and takes anything she can take. She feels entitled to it because she's older. And yet, half the stuff she gets from the food bank she can't even use. She then gives it away to other people who pretty much don't need it either, but who's going to argue free food? And anything she can't give to friends she "donates" to her church. Okay so, you go mooch food off of a food bank, probably run by a church, then "donate" it to your church. HA! I refuse to believe that's charitable! I refuse! My point is, this woman can't get on government aid, she doesn't qualify, but she can take food out of the mouths of truely destitute people right here in Detriot, Michigan in the good old United States of America. So, charities are the way to go right? Much better than welfare. Mhmmmmmmm.

So, back to the topic of my post, pray for things to get better, don't do anything about it! For heaven's sake don't give up any of your hard earned money! If you're Christian forget about the fact that Christ said "It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a Rich Man to get into heaven." But don't give up that hard earned money, those other people don't deserve it. Heaven forbid you allow the government to tax you in order to provide a minimum standard of living for everyone in America.

Heaven forbid that we allow government to tax the rich in order to provide necessary health care for all. If a rich person's kid gets cancer they fight it to the death. If a poor person's kid gets cancer that's just too bad, they should have had insurance (which they couldn't afford dumbasses). Or they should have had a better insurance policy (which they also couldn't afford dumbasses). Heaven forbid you fall in that category where you make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but your child has a pre-existing condition, even something as simple as being born premature. You can have a perfectly healthy child born 4 weeks early, and have them denied health care coverage for life. But that's fine, they don't deserve health care coverage, they don't really need it if they pray enough they'll be miraculously cured!

Seriously, comments like that make me want to vomit. Prayer doesn't cure everything, even God requires effort. Get off your ass and stick your neck out, do some good in this world, then find my "like" on Facebook that says "If you think this Country would be in better shape if we all got off our asses and helped someone every day, press like"