At what price comfort??

Comfort.

Religion is good because it gives comfort to people.
Ya hear that a lot.

This comfort component to religion is why atheists typically get blasted in the face as some kind of soulless bloodless demons for trying to mess with it.

I dunno about mess with, I think I only lay out the case for why I believe as I do.

I dunno, maybe I could leave the thing alone, and let people have their warm little fantasies,...but...that's not all it ever does, all the other stuff always comes with it.

Especially the whole Hell mess, and I believe I made my thoughts and feelings clear on that whole bit of business.

So, holding that aspect in my mind, that always makes me ask the obvious next question...

At what price your comfort?



I mean, just think of all the fear Hell has caused throughout the centuries.

All the childhood nightmares.

All the tears.

Was your comfort worth the tears of one child?
I'm not seeing it.
Someone's going to have to explain that one to me.

I'm no economics major by any means, but it seems to me the price of Heaven is way too high.

A system based on fear of torture, that's wow...if it were any other ideology or thought system, the horror would be instantly obvious to anyone.

It ought to be obvious when it scares children.
That first tear back in whenever BC should've been the wake up call.

But..apparently, people are SO damned scared of death, and thus crave Heaven so deeply, they'll pay that price.

But how much is too much?

Where does it stop?

Clearly the tears of children didn't shake the idea free.

And the inquisitions weren't enough.
And the crusades, and the conquistadors, and the witch burnings, and....

At what price, this comfort?

Is death REALLY that mind-numbingly terrifying?
Well, as I've shown, I don't happen to think so.
Seems to me the process treats us just fine.

The process of dying is the bitch.
But Heaven doesn't protect us from that.

So what's really being feared?
Non-existence?
Why fear that?
You don't feel anything.
That's the point.
And it's inevitable.
We're all going to do it someday.
May as well fear going to sleep.
That's a little slice of non-existence.
Who could live fearing sleep?
Sounds like another one of those Hell things.

Maybe it's the final loss of control.
That people won't be exerting their will on their surrounding universe anymore.
Maybe that's why people have all these elaborate wishes for the removal of their remains.
Cremated in a viking ship, mummified, frozen, etc.

One more last thing to make people do.

Yeah, if it were even just stuff like that, I could leave it alone, and shut up.
Go get fat on pie or something.

But...it never is.
It never stops there.
Start with fear of death, then you get Heaven, then there's a price of admission to Heaven, then it expands into a little set of rules, and the writers of the rules are always the sort of people that want a big fucking burial structure after they die, and you have to build it, and it just goes from there.

And then different tribes have different Heavens, and different rules, and so they fight!

At what price your comfort?

You open a history book, or just watch CNN for an hour or so, and it just bites you in the ass.
"No, this costs too fuckin' much".

Aren't we better than this?
Aren't we better than a system that threatens torture?
That frightens our youth?

And for what?
Comfort?
Are you fucking kidding me?

I dunno, maybe there really is an equation that connects those two things together.
Funny that it's not taught in every school.
Seems like a useful thing to know.
Geez, could you imagine if that formula were applied to our economic system?
That would fix up a few things.

Yeah, I'm not going to wait for it to appear.

The price is too high, fuck comfort.
Fuck comfort.
I said it.

How about love? How about family? How about friends? Isn't that comfort enough?
And isn't life precious enough all by itself?
Why does there have to be this cosmic "meaning", bestowed by the universe?
Doesn't your life have meaning all by itself?
You can't love the people around you without this stuff?
Without this extra bit of magic dust?
This magic dust that costs a fucking fortune in blood by the way.

That's the part that sticks in my craw.
If it were just sad, baleful, wish-thinking, and fear, and insecurity, I could almost let it go.
I don't know for sure if I really would or not, it would still certainly make me sad, and frustrated, and disheartened.
But I could maybe let it go.
Maybe.
But that price tag, son of a bitch.
And we all pay it.
And no one asks.

And you're a bastard for piping up about it.

(Does scales gesture with hands)
Yeah, blood, war, fear, lies, shame, lies, lies, fear,....comfort.
Something's out of balance here.

Hey, maybe it's me.
Like I said, maybe someone could explain it to me.
No one has yet.
I begin to doubt anyone can.

But, maybe I peer into this stuff too much.
It is my nature after all.

Maybe you're supposed to "let life just wash over you", and don't worry about the puppetmasters.
I've thought about it.
Can't do it.
Ain't wired for it, there's no going back.
So, these are the thoughts I have, and this is what I see.

A world out of whack, out of proportion, full of bullshit, and I take notes on the whole thing.
And they accumulate in rants like this.

Rants with cheery messages like "fuck your comfort!!".

Why aren't I embraced to America's bosom?
Shocking.
;)