Is religion playing the correct role?

Published 11:57 am Monday, December 12, 2011

Letter to the Editor

Religion is:

1. A very simple word;

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2. A very worldly word;

3. The most abused word in the world;

4. It is not an object you can see or feel;

5. It is not something you can put frills, labels or price tags on;

6. It is a feeling you get when you have faith in your religious beliefs.

It comes from your heart, mind and body, not from a book that a bunch of people with a lot of stories to write about.

Remember that old country song, “Give me that old time religion, it’s good enough for me.”

Atheist: A person who does not need a god to have faith in their religious beliefs.

Religion:

1. A particular system of beliefs built around moral ideals, a philosophy of life;

2. A state of mind expressing love for their way of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and trust in themselves and their fellow man.

3. A belief in one’s self, knowing right from wrong, truth from lies.

This makes them the real believers. Then we have the so-called believers:

1. A belief in a superhuman power to be obeyed and worshiped as a creator or ruler of the universe; a god or group of gods.

This is not the universe, we are the United States of America. This is a country of the people, ruled by the people and for people, not a group of so-called superhuman gods, or people who think they are God.

We also have those who go to church, pray to a god, read the Bible, and believe in the 10 commandments. They end it all by going out and breaking the commandment, “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor’s religious beliefs.” I would say this would be hypocritical. This would be worse than calling someone an atheist.

Why do people think they have to die to get to heaven, when we have heaven in this country? We messed it up, so now we have to fix it and clean it up. Then we can leave this old world with a satisfied mind.

Gene Seavey,

Austin