Is That A Graven Image You Got There?

Religion never took with me. I don't know why, it just never did. I decided, a couple of generations ago, that I was a primitive animist. I venerate that force, which inspires purposeful movement, animation. It is what differentiates a living being from a lump of dead flesh. It's not just about life. It's what makes the brooks babble, the surf roll in, the Sun rise and set and vulcanism erupt. It's not like I worship a Sun God, or frolic with woodland spirits on Midsummer's Eve, or long to toss sacrificial virgins into erupting caldera. I'm just really glad everything in the Universe, including me, doesn't hang around in permanent stasis. I know it's not much. It's the best I can do.

I don't look down on people with religion. They're OK. I feel no need to convert anybody else to primitive animism. If it's just me and a few grub eating aborigines in the various armpits and assholes of the World, who come by it naturally, good. I think people should be free to believe anything they want. They can make up any Gods, commandments and mythologies they can think of. If they're too stupid to do that, they can adopt or adapt somebody else's religion. They can band together or live alone as hermits in caves.

While I believe in freedom of religion, I believe in freedom from religion as well. I believe I am supported in this by the founding fathers and the Constitution of the United States, as put down specifically, in the Bill of Rights. Religion must not be mandated, recognized with preference, nor it's dogma be used as a basis for the law of the land. I should be free from the harassment of the religious. If it was up to me, it would be illegal for evangelizers to accost me on the street or on my doorstep, offering me tracts, attempting to expose me to their deity, or engage me in prayer and song. I might be willing to tolerate an exception, if the offers included sex or barbecue but I am a weak vessel.

Some people believe that because we have freedom of religion in this country, that all religions are welcome here. I don't think that's true. Those who would use coercive measures to influence people religiously, who believe so strongly in the primacy of their religion that they can not peaceably abide with others, or those whose practice of religion negatively impacts on the lives of others or on society, should get the heave ho.

As far as I can determine, there is no specific religious group, that I know of, who should be deported, in mass. There are some, from most of them, who qualify. I don't know where we'd send them though. If there was anyplace that wanted them, they'd probably already be there.