The Conversation on Religion

I finally heard someone say it....

A few of my friends posted a video on Facebook the other day, and it was a friendly debate between an atheist and a christian on a late night talk show called “Totally Biased.”  They started off talking, and I was impressed how they two were interacting, especially how great the christian guy actually was.

A debate between an atheist and a Christian.

"A debate between an atheist and a Christian has quite a surprising result. You should share this if you wish every disagreement went just like this..." - Upworthy about this clip from Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell ( W. Kamau Bell)

Posted by Jamie Kilstein on Saturday, April 25, 2015

It never got heated, and both made great points.  But there was one line in there that got me, because I had used it several times before, but he said it quite eloquently:

"So my take is if I get up to Heaven and there is a God and he's like, 'You were wrong, how did you live your life?' And I'm like, 'I tried to help people, I tried to give to charity, I didn't know if you were real, there was no evidence,' and he was like, 'Well, you didn't worship me every day.' And I'm like, 'Fine. Send me wherever is as far away from here as possible because you're a sociopath!'"

THIS is how I feel when christians get all christian on me.  The christian bible is full of analogies, so let me do the one I always say.  “When I go and rescue a dog, I don’t do it so that dog will worship me, I do it to give the dog a better life.”  If I did it to get worshiped, what kind of being am I?

I fully believe we were all given this life to enjoy, this world is beautiful and amazing.  We were all given morality to know right from wrong.  The biggest evil in the world, when you look at it from this direction IS religion.  It has divided us beyond any possible belief.  It might be the point of a popular song, but imagine if there was no religion, and we could work together as the human race?

In the end, I’m not saying anything one way or another, because I don’t know for sure.  But when I look at this world, I don’t want to believe its all some crazy coincidence.  And when I think about everything that’s out there, I know in the end it doesn’t matter.  We are in a huge playground, full of beauty and mystery, if it wasn’t put here for us to enjoy, if it wasn’t put here as a test to see how well we do this thing called life, then there’s something wrong with...well, everything.

To quote another song, “I’m not a slave, to a God, that doesn’t exist.”  No one is a slave.  Most of us learned that slavery is reprehensible, that dictatorships are bad, and freedom on all levels is the most wonderful thing, the right thing.  Why do people break the bonds of others to be willingly enslaved to some factious dictator that the preacher believes is real, that the preacher makes up dogma to control you for?

My advice is the simplest of advices.  Find out for yourself what is out there, find out what you believe before you believe what some book says, or some other man says.  The truth is within you.  It always has been and always will be.

Why So Many Churches in Small Town, USA?

Why are there so many churches in small town USA?  I mean, seriously....  It doesn’t make too much sense.  I suppose it does when you get down to normal human social interaction, but...I thought religion was supposed to bring humanity above such nonsense....

Its when you talk to people that you realize what exactly is going on.  People not liking a particular preacher because of something he said about somebody.  Or people not knowing why certain people go there because they are too poor or too rich to be in the same company as others.

(poem) The divine blessing of life

I’ve stood upon the mountain top
And looked down upon the Earth
This is where I found God
Where I found life’s worth

Most people see such beauty
In the eyes of their child
Others when simply
Trekking through the wild




It’s hard to look past
The beauty of nature
When you find inspiration there
You fill find nothing so pure

I can’t help but create
When touched by beauty
The blinking icon on the page
Has anything so taunted me?

I want to share my dreams
With the entire world
They are marvelous stories
When they are unfurled.




I’ve moved people to tears
Made them flood with emotion
With the written word
The world can stop its motion

I’ve gone to beautiful places
With a pen and pad
And let inspiration rush over me
Writing among proverbial dryads.

There is absolution nothing more calming
Than laying in the hammock
On a warm windy day
Watching clouds run amuck

Swaying in that breeze
Listening to the sound of the world turning
Fills my soul
With gentle yearning




To dream a dream
Recreating forgotten lore
Oh to be a Bard
In the days of yore

To spin tails
To play the lute
Allowing people to relive
Deeds of great repute

Yes, I found religion
In the beauty of life
Why can’t others find the peace of God
Without the damning strife?

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!