Not Christmas Again?

December 25th rolls round again, and it's depressing, just as it's been for a long time now.

For some holiday cheer, you can down shots until you're passed out on the floor, or you can read the Meaningful Story I wrote last year. Both are pretty enjoyable.

For something with a little more bite, you can consider making "Fuck Christmas" your mantra this year, like the way I adopted "I don't do Christmas" last year and am continuing with this year. While the guy does rant on quite a bit, most of it actually seems to make some sense:

Christians just stole a bunch of traditions from other cultures, slapped them together, stuck a fucking tinfoil star on top and called it the Most Important Holiday of the Year. Modern American Christmas makes Michael Jackson look positively organic.

As does Singaporean Christmas, if not more so.

In fact, since we're on a roll, here's something about The Chronicles of Narnia movie from The Guardian, titled, aptly, Narnia Represents Everything That Is Most Hateful About Religion (link courtesy of Tim)

(Aslan) is an emblem for everything an atheist objects to in religion. His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth, where no one is watching, no one is guiding, no one is judging and there is no other place yet to come. Without an Aslan, there is no one here but ourselves to suffer for our sins, no one to redeem us but ourselves: we are obliged to settle our own disputes and do what we can. We need no holy guide books, only a very human moral compass. Everyone needs ghosts, spirits, marvels and poetic imaginings, but we can do well without an Aslan.

I had a discussion the other day with my 15 year-old cousin, a seemingly born-again Christian, although who the hell knows what he's in it for. Maybe it's the chicks. But anyway, what I found incredulous was the fact that he knew there was no logic and no a single bit of rational thought involved with the Bible, yet he chooses to accept it wholesale.

That, to me, is the crux of my problem with organized religion: Blind faith without questioning. In my opinion, there is no truth without questioning, and even when confronted with The Truth, it must hold up to questioning and scrutiny before it can be accepted as Truth. But when you question a "believer", all the tricks of the newly-religious came into play: Avoidance, side-stepping, vague general prepared statements that in fact say nothing at all. They can't give a good answer because they don't fucking have one. In fact, much like corporate-speak.

I particularly like that last comparison. Aren't many churches run like corporations nowadays anyway?

How did I get here? I don't think this post was what I started out to write. Ah well, I blame the drinks I had last night. Here's to more coherence in the future.