Okay, this is a quote of a quote from
one of moJoe's writeups:
"Religion is not a salad bar, you take it all or you don't."
Apparently a
nun told him this once. Well, I say that
religion is a salad bar, and you can
pick and choose all the little
bits and pieces you want. If you only like the first five
commandments, believe only the first five. If you like
buddhism's
nirvana, but think you can kill mosquitos on the way there, then
squash the little bastards. Nobody is going to come around with a clipboard to
confiscate your morals, ideals, and beliefs because they caught you with only part of the complete
Christian collector's set of doctrines. That's the great thing about life.
You can do whatever you want. Believe in what you think is right. Make up your own religion to suit your
beliefs. You can
cut and paste from other religions, you can belive in
nothing, you can make up your own ideas. Start
a cult based on home-fitness infomercials. Whatever makes you feel complete. There are no rules. There is no structure except what people create. It's all
disorganized religion.
If you want
a slightly more serious and philosophic take on the issue from me, my basic thoughts on the matter are this. If there is a god or gods, and there is some set of rules or morals by which I am supposed to live my life, I trust that whatever powers there are would not place me here and expect me to behave accordingly without giving me
the ability to sort right from wrong. So I sort.
If you want to have faith in a creator, you have to have faith in yourself. From this point of view,
it doesn't really matter if god exists. The rules are the same either way.