???

I just don't have a snappy title for this. I was sitting here earlier thinking that I hadn't blogged in awhile. I had a bit of blogger's block and I didn't feel like writing one of those "This is what I did on my summer vacation" posts. Well, lo and behold I stumble upon a controversial topic and I'm off to the races.
What is the topic you ask? RELIGION.
I've been talking about it more lately with certain people. I only talk about it with close friends I trust and I think can be open to different opinions. Because....here is comes....I'm pretty sure I don't believe in god. I definitely have serious issues with certain religions and the more I seek information, the more I don't buy into it all. Now, please, please DO NOT TRY TO SAVE MY SOUL. I speak the truth when I say others have tried. You cannot save me until I want to be saved (insert my eye roll here). This is where I insert my fair warning with both respect and sincerity that you might not want to read any further or you may offended. I really don't want to offend anyone as I know some of my friends are religious. I respect your beliefs but I just don't share them.
So I was reading an article this afternoon and woman was expressing her displeasure that prayer is no longer in the school and that the Canadian gov't may removed the words "under god" from our money. She was not happy about this stuff. She say it is her religious right to pray etc and that our society needs religion. She is of course corect but here is my take on this -

The Canadian Charter of Rights Section 2 (a) states that everyone has the fundamental rights of freedom of conscience and religion. The Canadian Human Rights Act and the International Declaration of Human Rights both state that we cannot be discriminated against due to our religions beliefs.
Beliefs do not mean Christianity. Beliefs mean Judaism, Islam, Satanism, Paganism, etc and...duh, duh, duh...the Atheists among us too. However, in North America it always seems to come back to Christianity. As far as I know, I could be misinformed, Canada does not have an "official" religion. So if we are going to promote religion in the school than you need to cover all your bases. When you take into consideration a geographic area with a diverse ethic community, you get into alot of different religions to cover during morning prayer at school.

Here's another thought - Why is Sunday shopping not permitted in Nova Scotia (and wasn't for many years in New Brunswick)? Because it's the day of God, right? Now, there are many groups that oppose Sunday shopping because they say it's the one day/week they can spend with their families and I cannot argue with that. But for those who argue the religion aspect - where does that leave the Jewish community? They celebrate their "god" on Saturday. Are we not discriminating against the Jewish community by forcing them to work/be open on the Holy Sabbath?
Just for kicks ponder this - What if someone in Nova Scotia decided to challenge the "No Sunday Shopping" rule based on the fact that they are banned from opening that day because it's a church day. Could they claim they are being discriminated against by being forced to remained closed when that Sunday is not a relgious day for them? The Charter and Human Rights Acts say you can't do that.

Essentially, I'm saying...What about my religious rights to NOT believe. I know most religions encourage believers to try to spread the word to us non-believers. But you know what, I don't go around trying to spread the word to the believers. I pretty much keep my mouth shut. There, there is another example, the believers feel free to talk about god, thank god, it's what god wants, god does this for a reason etc, god only gives us what we can handle. Those comments are people voicing their beliefs. Can you imagine if I answered with, "What do you mean God only gives us what we can handle? There is no God." That would go over like fart in a spacesuit. But I would never say something like that. You know why? Because I respect other beliefs. So, at the end of the day, I'm suggesting the believers shouldn't say these things - they should, it's their belief. What I'm saying is try to respect my non-beliefs too. I don't want to pray.

I had to go to court a few months ago for work. I had to get up in front of the judge and swear on the bible. That really made me think. Do they do that for Jewish people or do they have a Torah for them to swear on? What about Muslims...do they pull out a dusty copy of the Koran for them? For me swearing on the bible has no more significance than swearing on the phonebook or an old copy of Cosmopolitan magazine. But if it makes you feel better than so be it.

I apologize if it's choppy but I find this difficult to write. It's much easier to verbalize in a somewhat intelligent fashion.