The Pleasure of Ignorance

Religious Visions and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man made me giggle. I foundmyself nodding and shaking my head at the same time. I nod because I agree and Ishake my head because of the ridiculous ideas some people hold onto and attachsuch significance to. Throughout my reading I thought of a number of examples: Ayoung lady in Mexico discovers the image of the Virgin Mary in a tree and peopleflock to it and light candles and cross themselves and rejoice at this "proof"of divinity. More recently, Jesus manifested himself in a bruise and this wastaken as a sign that he himself had set his hands on this young man to heal him.Even Michael Jackson made an illustrious appearance in a tree stump on the dayhe died, according to a family in Stockton. What I find even more humorous isthat these images of Jesus and Mary are not even true depictions based onphotographs but rather representations that had been created by EuropeanRenaissance artists that had never actually met them!Another aspect that I love is how religious individuals can justify andexplain anything away. "Oh, I prayed every day and God finally answered myprayers...." and then in another instance, "Oh, things didn't go the way I hadhoped? It's God's will." Well, there is just no way for us secular folk to winis there? When you can turn any arguement in your favor, it provides an unfairadvantage and makes most rational people throw their hands up in the air andwalk away defeated. After all, how can you reason with faith?It appears to me that religion can only be rationalized as a completelyindividual experience with no two people having exactly the same idea of God,heaven, hell, what it means to be a good person, what it means to be a goodChristian... It is as if I were to say to you, "My dreams are real. The thingsthat happen to me while I am sleeping are actually happening to me but yourdreams are just figments of your imagination and manifestations of yoursubconscious." Well how can you argue with me? You are not there in my dreams.You cannot convince me that what is happening to me while I am sleeping is notreal. I am the only one who knows the truth. You, on the other hand, are sillyif you believe that the dragon that chased you through the streets of Londonlast night was real. I mean, seriously... If you want to start having realdreams like me you better start praying to your mattress every night andsprinkling your pillow with sugar....I like to poke fun at religions but having taken a World Religions class Iunderstand that this is a very important subject for a lot of people and mostwould take a lot of offense to anyone trying to diminish or break down theirentire belief system, but I just have to laugh at how even the most intelligent,articulate, educated individuals can throw common sense out the window when itcomes to questions of faith and religion.