Let God Sort Them Out

Fanaticism is a disease. It’s an obsessive behavior that needs to be recognized and dealt with more if this world is going to progress.

According to the definition from Dictionary.com, a fanatic is, “A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause.”

Notice the words here. Extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm. These folks can be considered to be over the top.

Now many people obsess over various things, and some of us are even fanatics when it comes to benign hobbies or other interests. When does being a fanatic become a problem for humanity as a whole?

When your fanatical position drives you to force others to your belief, then I feel you have passed through the threshold of healthy fanaticism and moved right into crazy land.

It’s downright funny to see every company that can remotely take advantage of the latest craze in no carbs jumping onto the bandwagon. “Arby’s” is becoming “Carby’s”, and anyone and everyone is trying to real in all of you diet chasing fanatics. When I saw a commercial for a carb version of a multivitamin I just laughed.

Then there is the anti Bush/Administration fanatics. You’ve seen the type. They are on the radio, television and in the news spouting all manner of silliness that makes no sense to anybody who has actually been following the reality of world news and events.

They scream stupidity at the camera as if yelling slogans will make their fantasy become reality. You would think they would be embarrassed for revealing their ignorance to the world. Of course, their ignorance is pretty much what has placed them in the spotlight to begin with.

This reminds me of a quote I have heard.

"Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
-Anon

Finally we come to religious fanatics of all faiths. I’m not talking about people who believe in their religion, I am talking about people who believe in their religion so much that they are willing to do anything to force others into their belief system.

These are the folks who plot and scheme to take over our school boards so that they can control the information being taught. These are the folks that scheme and plot to take over government offices so that they can control laws and bend them to their personal belief. And these are the same people who are starting war throughout the world.

If we look back through the history of the world, we see that most wars are started because of religious differences. Almost all fighting currently going on today is based on some religious issue.

Here comes the medicine. If your religion preaches death to anyone who does not believe how you do, don’t you think it’s time to find something else to follow? Why continue to condone violence in the name of your belief. What are the non-believers doing that is so wrong and hurting your right to live?

Killing in the name of religious beliefs has never been acceptable to me. Fighting for social rights and freedoms is something that I can get behind.

Are social rights and freedoms a type of belief? Possibly, but if you take rights and freedom to the core then everyone has the right to believe in whatever manner they choose. It also removes the right from you to attempt to force your belief on someone else.

You read that correctly, you do not have the right to force your belief on someone else! You may have some powerful words in the religious book of your choice regarding people who do not believe as you do, but you do not have the right to act on those words in a free society.

Christians. Have you read Deuteronomy Chapter 13 lately? It pretty much tells you to kill anyone who does not believe in God. This includes friends and family.

What about Samuel Chapter 15, where God has commanded that the entire city of Amalek be “utterly destroyed…both Man and Woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” How is this any different then any of the other wacky religious books that spout the same directives.

Let’s all kill anyone who does not believe as we do! How can anyone rally around that mantra? How can anyone believe it is righteous to kill anyone who is different then themselves?

We can spout all of the warm and fuzzy comments we want, but until people start realizing that the problems of this world are from the fanatics living within our own society, we will never know peace.

Take a long look at your own belief system. Become the champion for the freedom for everyone, and do not further the ignorance that permeates this planet with hatred and intolerance.

This brings to light an interesting question. How do we prevent people who kill based on their religious beliefs? Do we kill them based on our belief of freedom?

Things that make you go, hmmm...