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I Can Give A Few

I was born in 1951 in Manchester UK as a Christian, (Church Of England), My first real encounters were in my R.E. class (Then Religious Education), This class was always taken by a hellfire breathing dragon called Mrs Dean! (no joke).

As to to educating me about religion this old bat had the opposite effect on me, As a child I was fairly bright and inquisitive, She used to drill the ten commandments in to us at the start of every lesson, They all seemed fair enough really,(don't mess around with your neighbor's wife etc.) However I did have an honest question about Thou Shalt Not Kill.

The reason for my question was this: The other thing she used to constantly go on about was her brother, He fought during the second world war and was killed fighting in Germany and She would tell us constantly about his bravery.

being an inquisitive ten year old I just had to ask the question, "If Thou Should not kill, then how come Thou Could Kill when in uniform?, (Don't get me wrong here my Father fought in the same war and I am proud of him), It was just a simple question which resulted in me being dragged out in front of the class by my hair, She shook my head so hard that clumps of hair were ripped out by the roots!

Other questions I raised at a later stage on the same subject were: If we are not to worship graven images, then why did we have to worship graven images in gold, silver, bronze and stone, (and just about every other substance), of a man being tortured and nailed on a cross?, This triggered the same reaction and I decided to remain silent whilst I still had some hair left!

When asking these and other questions in later life I can say I still have never had a satisfactory explanation, Another is this: If there is but one God and one true religion, how come there are hundreds?, Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Baptist, Islam, Hindu, etc, all worship various graven images of men, women, cows, goats, snakes,dogs, cats, the sun, moon and stars.

Let me say this, There is no doubt in my mind that many of these people did exist, I also believe that they did preach and write great things, but I do feel that what they have said has been bastardized and idolized down the years.

Let me tell you where I stand on this: From all the above I am non, I am a "Citizen Of The Earth", and it is the the Earth which I worship, It needs no graven images for it is spread in front of us and is beneath our feet, It gives us food, the air we breath and water to drink.

It is clear to me that non of any religions I can think of worship the Earth, on the contrary they, rape, pillage, steal, kill, bomb and burn, No matter how superior we think our technology and intelligence is we must remember the Godmother Earth may demand payment in full one day.

Famine, disease, war, plagues, floods, earthquakes? Nah it will never happen to us will it?, Maybe it was just something I read in the Bible, Ouch!

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