It seems that almost every time I reread one of my posts I wonder if I was too harsh in making my points? I struggle with the tone of my posts. I do not set out to offend anyone, but being a grouchy old curmudgeon, it is bound to happen, at least once in a while. What got me to thinking about this is a comment Debbie left for me this morning. She noted that not all religious people are extremists and that many religious people are better and happier people because of their religion. I absolutely agree with that. I sure didn't mean to imply that religion makes all people fanatics, less good and less happy. On the contrary, I know many religious people who do great works in the service mankind. Selfless, generous, upstanding and yes, happily religious folks, making a difference. And I also know a few fanatics who would bend me into their own image, given the opportunity. At the core of western religion, is the belief that people are flawed when measured against the standard of a perfect god and cannot overcome their flaws on their own. It requires divine intervention. That is quite different than being good human being. Being a good person is about this life. Being perfect in the eyes of your god, is a concern for another life. The reason this is important is that there is a difference your world view if you come from a belief that people are basically bad, except those saved by grace than if you believe that people are good by nature. If you believe that people are originally bad, then your vision of what measures are needed to control their bad instincts, is very different than mine. This is a problem for me. I think that people are good in general. A good person is not good because of religion, religion merely provides them a vehicle to express their already good instincts. I would submit that good non-religious people do good for many of the same reasons that religious people do. Acting for the benefit of humanity or acting for the glory of one's god, seem to me to be quite similar. Both cause us to think outside ourselves. I don't like to speak of either the good or bad things that I do in life, especially the bad ones, but for the sake of illustration, I will. I financially support a couple of religious organizations in their work among the homeless. My motivation is my instinct to want to help people who need some help. The fellow next door or down the block might support the same groups in the hope that it leads someone to religious conversion or because he feels a religious calling help others. Different motives, but the same result. Religious people have a different world view than me, but one that is perfectly valid for their personal understanding of this life. I respect every one's right to believe what they believe but I have to go back to my original premise that religious beliefs are personal and are best left that way. Our governmentnt functions because of our constitutional restrictions that keep individual communities of believers from mandating a society in their own image. Since we are a diverse people the government has to remain secular for us to remain free. Merle Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgemental and cranky Tag: Daily Life Personal Finance Humor