Open Letter To Jacob Hubbard:

In light of the recent arguments that were taking place between you and Serra, I have a few comments and notes I wish to express openly.

I was hoping, as I read through the back-and-forth dialogue, that you of all people would have some "meat" to discuss.  Specifically if you are going to make a claim that you can back-it up.  What I read was a lot of surface comments and deflections and, to be frank, personal attacks.  

Personal attacks, in my opinion, are nothing but quick and cheap jabs and an attempt to deflect a question or comment.  Not only that but personal attacks divert off the main course and go down paths unrelated or create conversations which have no depth, point, or logic.  

While I realize you and Serra will never see eye-to-eye, I was quite shocked and taken back to the extent for which you carried the personal jabs.  I am a believer that two educated individuals can have a good conversation without side-tracking.  I would have liked to seen less personal jabs and more "meat."  Personal jabs and deflections is just fat.  

Finally, repeating what Serra posted and changing a few words is not only immature but pointless.  And as a long-time user of Facebook you should have known that if you post on my wall only two people can delete what you wrote: yourself and the author, in this case, me.  

Religion, God, Afterlife, Etc.

One thing I was taught in my college classes is everyone has their own opinion and no matter how “right” you feel you are, someone will always have an opposing view.  And the beauty to that is nobody is “right” or “wrong”; rather, each individual has an opinion that they believe to be “the truth” and no matter what the opposing party does “the truth” cannot be changed.  Likewise, on the topic of religion, Serra and I have opposing views.  However, as you noted, I like to step aside from my “this is the way it is and that’s the end of it” attitude and try to see things from another’s point.  As a sweet old lady once told me: “I respect your opinion and the fact that you have one; I just may not always agree with it.”  With my lengthy introduction aside, let me just say (and I say this with sincerity and bias aside) I was very impressed with Serra’s over-all posting as well as points she made.  I consider Serra, whom I’ve never met, to be a very bright and talented writer.  I commend her effort and thought process.

I read on an online post somewhere the following statement: wars are caused by religion.  And I both agree and disagree with that.  I believe that yes wars are often fought because of religion but I feel the underlying reason is because people don’t agree and for whatever reason people feel the best way to solve it is to shed blood.  Likewise, Serra feels that because of religion and because of God, there is animosity and problems in this world.  And Serra is right.  Because some people put their belief in a spiritual being (“God” for Christians, “Allah” for Muslims, etc.) they are very serious about it and get very defensive when a put-down or disrespect is given.  And who can blame them? They are simply standing up for something they believe in.

I suppose my first question for Serra in an open forum discussion and with respect meant is this: how is it that “religion is bullshit”?  Religion is simply a belief.  What is it to Serra whether I believe in a God or if I believe that I was abducted by aliens? To me, as long as I’m not pressing my personal belief on Serra then, in essence, I am in no way disrespecting Serra.  Just like my friendship with Es is not based on what religion or system of belief Es and I have but what makes us connect, what makes us enjoy each other’s friendship. 

Adding to my previous paragraph but onto a new thought process, Serra goes on to say: “Why be such a bitch about it? What did religion ever do to you?” And I was thinking the exact same thing. 

Now, on the topic of “God isn’t real,” that is an argument that goes nowhere.  Proving whether or not God is real is as logical as proving that love is real.  You can’t see/touch/feel (physically)/smell/hear love yet you know it exists.  How? It’s just something that you feel.  The idea of God is kinda like that.  I’m no scientist and to be frank I am not a fan of arguments based on textbook research.  I don’t believe it’s important to prove or disprove whether God is real or not, just like its not important to prove or disprove love exists.  In short, to each their own. 

On the idea of afterlife let me throw out a shocking statement: I don’t know if it exists.  I know what I’m taught, I know what I want to believe, but I simply cannot prove it does or does not exist.  Rather it is something I want to believe exists.  Why? Because otherwise what’s our purpose here on Earth? Why live 25 years or why live 50 years on Earth? I like to think we’re not just going to end up in the dirt rotting our flesh away to let bugs and worms make us the next meal.  I’m not professing there will be streets of gold and a big mighty God up there.  At the same time, I’m not stating there isn’t a God and that there isn’t a Heaven.  Again, I’m curious as to know if I have a certain belief or opinion why it matters to someone else?

And to conclude, my only criticism of Serra’s blog post is she made the mistake of generalization.  Generalization is erroneous because it makes the assumption that because of “A” then “B” happens or because of “C” then “D” can’t exist.  What do I mean? To clarify, Serra stated that: “Religious people shouldn’t get… appallingly free reign to molest children…”.  I think she was referencing Catholic bishops but I don’t know because she generalized.  Not all religious believers molest children – mistake of generalization.