Instead of Saving My Soul, How About Helping The Poor?

My friend is in the midst of a fabulous conversation with his childhood church. Apparently you can never leave that church. They will hound you until you give up. And that includes the pastor and the group of elders (I wish I were making that up). But I did want to latch onto one thing - the need to pray/save for your soul.

Raised Catholic, I get the supposed benefit to saving my soul. But that just illustrates the utter lunacy of the God you might recall from such Bibles as the Catholic Churches. He is a selfish and little man. I'm sorry, but that's not my God. And yeah, it's true - my God can kick your God's ass.

I'll get back on point here. While I have my doubts about the existence of God, I do believe in something. It's up to you to call it God or a higher being or whatever floats your boat. I do not believe God is watching over us, controlling every little thing. Sorry, he is not a control freak. If so, there would be no evolution. He could not be that patient.

So this idea that God is so needy he needs us all to follow his rules is ridiculous. My God favors living a good life over following rules and attending rituals. Your church batting average may be better than mine, but God judges us on multiple levels. Afterall, he would not be so idiotic and simple-minded.

Which leads me back to this desire to save everyone's souls. Imagine what could be accomplished if this religious fanatics used that energy on making people's lives better. I'll leave it up to them to decide what that means. But I think the world would be a markedly better place. And somewhere, the Baby Jesus would shed a tear of happiness.

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religion church God soul Tom G