Well, I've been back from Taiwan for a good 3 months or so now and I must say, it's pretty nice to be back. Although things haven't exactly gone off as planned sometimes, everything has worked out more or less in the end. Just one little thing left to take care of and I'll be set for a good year or so. Well ok, maybe moving isn't exactly a "little" thing but it hopefully shouldn't be too bad.

Anyway, my peeve of the month is religion. Religion irritates the hell out of me. Well, maybe not religion in and of itself but the way people wind up handling religion. The problems I have with the whole instution of religion is that it inevitably winds up being exclusionary and is often used as a crutch by people who should know better (or as I like to call them, losers). Especially the two main religions today that seems to cause the most problems throughout history: Christianity and Islam. You don't see wars lasting decades and hundreds upon thousands of people dying for say, Buddhism do you? Christianity today isn't as bad since it's evolved more or less with time and in general, most Christians these days aren't very gung-ho about it. Non-practicing Christians I guess is the phrase. Islam on the other hand still scares the hell out of me. Mainly because it seems like there's still a high ratio of psychos to peaceful folk involved in Islam. Two out of the five hotspots in the world today involve Islam: Southeast Asia (Indonesia & Philippines specifically) and the Middle East. In Southeast Asia it's mainly a battle between the haves and the have nots. Why is it that the have nots always seem to be Islamic? Could it have something to do with their antiquated beliefs like their attitudes towards women? Of course not, it's obviously because the heathens are oppressing the chosen people. But in Indonesia and the Philippines, even Christians are have nots but it wasn't until the Muslims decided to alleviate their sorry state of being by butchering non-Muslims that things started getting out of hand.

Then you have the problem that will never go away: the Middle East. A never-ending source of fun. I believe the current broohaha started because some Israeli politician showed his dumb face at a joint Jewish and Islamic holy ground. Granted that probably was not the brightest thing to do but that doesn't exactly excuse the Palestinian warmongers from whipping shit into a frenzy either. I found it incredulous a few months ago when I read that some other Islamic nations were lodging formal protests with the UN that the Israelis were using automatic weapons, tanks, and attack choppers against the Palestinians with their rocks and Molotovs, and the occassional AK-47 when the militia decides to get into the fray. For one thing, I think somebody has to disabuse the Palestinian zealots of the notion that stoning people (and actually, violence in general) will get them what they want. I don't care if you're using chunks of concrete or dum dum bullets. Both will you kill you deader than dead. And if the Palestinians are dumb enough to be an aggressor and start a fight against an opponent with superior firepower, that's their own fucking problem. I mean, someone tell me, am I missing something here?

In my opinion, Christianity and Islam seem to provide an apparently desperately needed facet of life for the poor and the oppressed. All those promises of heaven and whatnot must really appeal to those living in squalor, poverty, and general crapiness. That, in and of itself isn't a problem. What _is_ a problem is the conclusion that some people come to that if a person isn't like them, then they're a nobody that can be dispatched if necessary. I mean, religion _does_ teach people to respect their fellow man, right? Am I wrong on this? But where the hell does it add "but only if they're the same religion as you." Or the same whatever. That's why those white supremacists piss me off. They actually have the gall to say that they have religion on their side. Biggest bunch of hypocritical shitheads I've ever seen. Maybe my problem isn't with religion but with the people twisting it to their own needs.

And then there's the whole evangelism shit. Here's another situation where "no _means_ no." If someone doesn't want to hear about Jesus or Allah, then leave him the hell alone. How hard is that? And do we really need religion as our moral backbone? I grew up in a family that didn't even touch on religion and as far I as I can tell, I don't have any urges to screw (over) my fellow man. I don't think you need religion to know that you shouldn't do some things. You just need good parents who give a damn about the offspring they unleash upon the world. You shouldn't need the "fear of God" to know you shouldn't be doing bad crap. It's called common sense people. Do unto others what you'd want others to do unto you? That's common sense wouldn't you think? It doesn't have to be a religious thing. Although actually I think that saying should more accurately be, "Do not unto others what you wouldn't want them doing to you."

Anyway, I've vented more than enough today. Hope I haven't pissed off too many people. ;-p Thanks for listening, it's been a blast. =)