I have often said that I respect people’s faith, and I do. If their beliefs bring them comfort and joy, and if they don’t spend their time trying to impose it on others through oppression, believe away.  I also refuse to argue religion.  Faith is just that – faith. It doesn’t have to be based on any type of fact.  That’s why it’s called faith.  The moment people bring faith into the debate, the debate is automatically over, because you can’t argue with someone whose side boils down to “this is what I believe no matter how much scientific fact you toss at me.” 

I’ve never been able to do that.  I always question.  I always want answers.  Even as a kid, when dragged to Temple, I sat there and fidgeted, because people FELT God, and I didn’t.  I didn’t understand how people could put their entire trust in an old book without a shred of actual scientific proof that it was somehow written by God (or man inspired by God).

But it gave them peace.  It made them happy.  My parents were at peace and happy to be able to be Jewish without the persecution and fear they experienced in the Soviet Union.  If it makes them happy, who am I to question it, and why bother?  I followed my path, and they followed theirs.  And it’s just fine.

They call me on high holidays and send me greetings.  It makes them feel good, and that’s fine too.  It’s a peace, and it’s a nice one.  I don’t debate their faith with them, and they leave me to my questioning and seeking.

What I DO resent (aside from frothing fundamentalist fruitcakes who seek to impose their beliefs on free people and free minds through coercion and force) is those who claim that without God there is no morality, and that if I’m not a believer, I somehow can’t be a moral person.  That, to me, is insulting, rude and superciliously ignorant.

When I adopted my two daughters, I’ve often had people tell me how extraordinary it was – how not everyone would do that for two kids they barely knew just to rescue them from a horrible situation.  But guess what!  I don’t feel that rescuing two little kids from a household of neglect and drugs is extraordinary.  It’s HUMAN and is the STANDARD, not the exception!  I’m not saying this to brag and to show what a good person I am.  I’m telling you this in order to emphasize the fact that I did this because it is the right thing to do – not because God told me it was good, not because the Bible told me that I’d go to heaven, and not because any kind of ancient Jewish text told me that I must do good works.

I know it was the right thing to do, because of the nature of the human being – because of who we are – because I have a rational, thinking mind – because my rational, logical thought tells me that innocent children who depend on their parents for their survival need parents who actually care for them.  That is justice.  It’s not divine justice.  It’s just justice.  It is right based on the fact that we are human beings, and that to achieve the joy that is the purpose of life, it is right to do what is necessary to perpetuate that goal.

Joy is not an arbitrary concept.  Yes, it is subjective, but by the nature of right and wrong, if everyone has a simultaneous right to joy, no one has the right to attain that joy at the expense of others, and by the violation of their rights.  This is not a concept created by any kind of deity. It’s logical and rational.

I teach my kids right from wrong.  Not based on any religious concept, but based on objective rights and wrongs. 

It is wrong to steal what is not yours.  You haven’t earned it.  It does not belong to you.  You don’t need God to figure it out.  You need thought and logic!

It is wrong to lie and cheat.  It is disrespectful to the recipient of said lies.  It hurts those whom you deceive.  Cheating, meanwhile, unfairly tilts the playing field in your favor at the expense of someone else.  It gives you an unfair advantage and takes away what rightfully belongs to someone else.  It’s a betrayal of the principles of justice.

I love my kids. I’m highly involved in their lives. I work hard, and I do my best to earn my salary. I help others when I’m able.  I like to think I’m a good friend.  I’m not perfect, but no one is, and I do my best – NOT because some book claims some deity tells me, but because it is the right thing to do.  It is a function of being human.  Those who do not recognize objective rights and wrongs, are actually acting contrary to their nature.

I do all this because of rational self interest.  Period.  I do these things because they are a function of being human – to perpetuating life and living it to its fullest.

Is someone honestly going to tell me that because I strive to be the best person I possibly can, but I do it because it is the right thing to do, and not because some guy in a white sheet up in heaven tells me so, that I’m going to burn in hell for eternity???

It doesn’t make sense, and it never will.

We are the sum of our actions, and we are what we do.  If we want to change what we are, we must change what we do.  My music teacher told me this in high school, and it holds true today.  And I’m insulted and repulsed by those who claim I’m not a moral person because I’m not a believer in God!

I have lost good friends because they claimed they were “sad for me,” because they wouldn’t see me in heaven!  I can’t abide by that kind of zealotry, and I never will!  That kind of death cult is contrary to the nature of human beings – it is contrary to life.  When you live your life in order to be happy in death, you are abdicating the very goal of living in favor of awaiting to die.  If that’s what keeps you going, good!  Go for it.

Just don’t expect me to convert to that way of thinking or to accept the fact that I’m going to hell for it.

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