My View of Religion

People say that my Blog title indicates plenty of God talk, but actually there is not all that much. Well, allow me a slight of hand. First of all, you know what drives me crazy? Those writers, who in a misplaced desire for some sort of accuracy to be filling in the slots of the ancient Israelites, write "G-d" instead of "God". This is their precise analogy to "YHWH" wherein the vowels were deleted, being in some opinions preserved within the cabinet of "Adonai" . Taking the consonants and vowels have us the old "Jehovah", which was not precise at all. Everytime I have to read that bloody "G-d", I read it as "G. D." as in "God Damn!" And it does not matter that I am aware of it or not. It may appear 50 times in the same article, but everytime I stumble across it, I wonder why the writer is swearing. Perhaps he is also spitting tobaccy juice into a cuspidor. So far, so good. Now, Religion is a human event. Like all human events, it can be turned to the dark side. Name one human event, or phenomenon, or behavior, that can not be construed into an evil path. Justice can be turned to evil and execute the innocent. Parenthood can be demonized by abusive parents. Therefore, the innumerable complaints against Religion I see on the web are just men and women complaining about men and women. If you think all our troubles are in Religion, you have another think coming. So what is Religion? I am going to coin a phrase and "cut to the chase", as it were, and jump to the end of this film ahead of time and spoil the ending for you. Religion establishes a sense of community. It can be turned to bad ways, such as a xenophobic exclusion of people of other groups without our religion. Arnold Toynbee speaks of Universal Churches, which are religious institutions and provide a bridge from a dying Universal State, such as Ancient Rome, through ensuing Dark Ages and providing a basis for the societies of the future. This is Religion. Have you ever heard of mankind striving for a greater union? Religion is the behavior of mankind to establish a transcendent communality free from the compulsion and the violence and the brutality of the State or the Polis or the Group. It is the future of man, not his dark, dim past. Every man or woman who speaks of religion and shoves it into the cesspool of hatred, violence, and intolerance, are the enemies to the future of mankind! There! I finally said it! Mr. Dawkins, Mr. Harris, make of it what you will, your come-uppance is right around the corner!