Wow, my first blog and I'm already talking about religion? Well let me just start out by saying all of this is opinionated by your run-of-the-mill teenage "philosopher", so if you got beef so be it. Actually, please email me at [email protected]! So let's get nitty gritty with religion. Being an atheist, I neither despise or support religion. But don't get confused and think that I think believing in a specific god or goddess is wrong, I just don't see the logic in it! Plus it seems to be holding back the progression of the world. Since I live in America, let's talk about a big argument, gay rights. The Christian Bible states in Leviticus 18:22, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." In short, men can't be with other men and women can't be with other women. The odd thing is is that no reason is given to why it isn't allowed, just that God says it's not cool with him. The thing the really boggles my mind is the reasoning that Christians come up with behind being gay. Many say that being gay is a choice. Seriously? Would anyone choose to have fewer rights, be spoken down upon, and have entire religions against them? No, of course not! The actual reason behind the birth of a gay man or woman is all genetic. And this isn't a theory, it's a fact! A scientific  fact that has been proven! So why do so many people continue to think it's a choice? Because the Bible, that's why. But many Christians believe in gay rights. My question to them is, why are you still a Christian? If you are openly going against the word of your god then why do you still follow everything else he says? If you think that parts of the Bible are barbaric and not the way any sane person should think then why do you still consider yourself a Christian who believes in this god? You can't tailor your own version of the Bible, you can't say "I don't believe in this thing God said, but I'm still a full on Christian." That way of thinking is totally against the purpose of having a bible to follow! Either believe in a 2000 year-old-book or think logically. Now again, I don't mind when people believe in a god, but when they try to control how others live then I got beef. When you kill for your god, when you restrict other's rights for your god, when you take control of others for your god, then I have a real problem with you. It's not right, even if the majority of America is Christian, that doesn't make it right. Just because everyone thought the world was flat, that didn't make them right. -John Stephens