Paper I wrote for English, 'Arbeit Macht Frei'

Arbeit Macht Frei

This I believe. I believe that we as human beings should rid ourselves of the chains of religion and it’s closed minded, murderous dogma. I believe that religion as a whole is one of the worst legacies that we constantly leave behind for our children to deal with. We try to lead normal and happy lives while feeling as if an omnipotent, omniscient, totalitarian, celestial dictating creator is watching, hearing, memorizing, taking part in and writing down our every move and thought. The worst fictitious big brother known to humankind and with it; fear, torture, death and destruction that never ends. Mistranslations and overzealous actions taken by religious leaders and their followers of the Abrahamic God, including Judaism, Christians, Islam and the Mormons are the sole reason for many of the world’s problems today. All of these religions with the exception of Mormonism came into this world by illiterate men in ancient times. Joseph Smith, the creator of Mormonism was an illiterate felon but did not bring this tall tale into existence until the 1820’s. The Mormon superstition is relatively new to the world.

I believe the existence of God is something that no human can prove or disprove. The creation of deities by humans was our first attempt at philosophies and science. When I look at my world around me, I know why the sky is blue, I know why lightening occurs and I certainly know why earthquakes occur. Religious people have been explaining natural occurrences in our world by way of God(s) for tens of thousands of years. Even today we have religious leaders using spiritual ignorance to explain catastrophes and acts of nature. Pat Robertson, the fanatical leader of The 700 Club, said the reason of the earthquake in Haiti, which occurred in January 2010, was because the Haitians made a pact with the devil to break away from French rule in 1803. He also believes that God sent Hurricane Katrina to punish us for homosexuals! To believe and support the theory that a whole group of people and/or their descendants are punished for the actions of their fellow neighbors, family and fellow countrymen is absolutely absurd. This type of thinking follows right along with majority of Christian theology. The majority of today’s main leaders of the Christian faith have been in line with this type of doctrine. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, and Billy Graham, all are guilty of making Anti-Semitic remarks! They truly believe that the Jewish race is to blame for the world’s problems! At the heart of these preposterous claims, the Jewish race is also to blame for the death of Jesus of Nazareth!

The holocaust is one of the most ignorant and horrific tragedies in documented history. Adolph Hitler was a Roman Catholic and believed that the Jewish race was to blame for the death of Jesus of Nazareth. Hitler, with corroboration of the Catholic Church and its leader Pope Pius VII, the nation of Germany tried to ensure the extinction of the Jewish race by way of brutality, brought forth by ignorant religious doctrine, unadulterated hate, and greed. To blame, and then have such an explosion of violence towards a people for something that they had nothing to do with because of a religious doctrine is beyond ignorant, it is sheer stupidity in the rawest form possible!

The Germans would take these people from their dwellings, march them until they could not possibly walk anymore, and force them into slave labor until they dropped dead from exhaustion, starvation and/or dehydration. When the German Army would take over a Jewish town they would bring all the Jews to the center of the town or a field outside of town to begin selection. They would separate them into groups; slaves in one group and the soon to be executed in another. They would beat the fathers and mothers, and shoot the weak, elderly and handicapped. They would then heave these bodies into a pit, douse them with diesel and set the deceased or almost deceased on fire. While the townspeople were watching their neighbors, cousins, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, grandfathers, grandmothers, sons and daughters being shot, beaten and their bodies set ablaze in a bloody massacre of body parts. That is when the actual horror begins. The German Army set up their machineguns, and prepare for target practice. The German soldiers pry and rip infants and toddlers from Mother’s and Father’s arms! All while the parents and other family members are begging, crying, pleading and praying to their God for their child’s safe return! The German soldiers lob the not yet weaned infants into the air; the frail and innocent bodies of the Jewish infantile children are no match for the hail of bullets that are so ruthlessly and relentlessly guided in their direction. Not yet able to make a decision on what they believe in this world of ours. Still they bear the harshest penalty for religious ignorance. The lucky ones are shot and killed in mid-air, while others are missed by the hail of bullets and are tossed into the flames alive to be burned and never seen again. Sadly, in some cases, never thought of or loved again. Welcome to your Hell.

The German Army, the Nazi regime brought forth Armageddon to the innocent Jewish people, all because of a superstition, folktales blown out of proportion.  In all of this detestation and ferocity, lie the prayers answered? Over six million Jews along with over 5 million other Europeans who were murdered senselessly under the Nazi regime and not one German soldier reported as turned into a pillar of salt? Where is the morality? All of these and other atrocities done in the name of the Abrahamic God! In the name of the Greek myth Jesus Christ! In discussing this with other people who practice the Christian religion, the popular statement I get is, “God never said life would be easy” or “It is freewill! God gives us freewill!”  What a ghastly, disgusting statement. I would guarantee if you set these people in front of an oversized oven with their children, the aspect of freewill would go straight out the window. The question, “Father, why hast thou forsaken me?” would quickly be brought into the argument for their life.

I believe God is created in man’s image. If god did not create us, we surely would have created him out of shear creativity, not necessity. I believe that we are a very resilient species and highly adaptive to change. We are a very energetic species that needs a constant outlet for our excess energy, and that leads to ambitions in artistic and conquering natures. I believe that if we learned to love one another for which we are and not what we want to be or what we want someone else to be, we would truly find the meaning of life. It’s human nature to look for patterns and fit those patterns into our life to suit our necessities. I believe once you realize that you will only live once and the only reward and punishment you will see is brought upon by yourself and by yourself alone, you will truly live! The only immortality we have is through our children and our descendants. The stories and good deeds that you pay forward in life is what keeps you alive in the hearts and minds of those who love you and those you love for eternity.

We are but a mere blink of an eye in nature’s timeline on this rock that we call Earth. I consider it an honor and a privilege to have tumbled on this rock and live life’s experiences and lessons with you all. I believe that once our brothers and sisters can let go of the superstitions of our ancestors that are brought forth and kept alive by religious leaders, ignorant theologians and thoughtless philosophers, we can begin to love one another for what we are and what we could be. Cherish our life’s journey, not the destination. Then maybe we will have truly evolved into something great. It’s the road less traveled, it will be a tough but fruitful journey, but together with education, respect, rationalism, love and compassion for our fellow humans, we will have set our minds free. Hard work will have truly set us free.

“The true value of man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth. It is not possession of Truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectibility is to be found. Possession makes one passive, indolent and proud. If God were to hold all Truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for Truth, albeit with the proviso that I would always and forever err in the process, and to offer me the choice, I would with all humility take the left hand. ” ― Gotthold Ephraim Lessing