As a practicing minimalist, I find most religions to be obscenely complicated. This is why I could never convert to Judaism, even if it’s my wife’s religion.
Do you know how many laws the Jews have?
This includes laws that forbid the borrowing on money with interest (no more credit cards or mortgages), as well as outlawing the mixing of cotton and linen.
These two laws alone make the religion utterly untenable, let alone the other 611, many of which are equally ridiculous.
The Christians are at least little more sensible. They only have ten rules, otherwise known as Commandments, but even these are a bit silly. The first four deal with God being the one and only deity and the fifth one demands that Christians to spend every Sunday worshiping him.
I am the Lord your God
You shall have no other gods before me
You shall not make for yourself an idol
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy
He may be an-all powerful being, but he’s apparently a bit insecure. Half of the laws that he handed down to Moses pertain to assurances that he remains the one and only.
Yet there is no Commandment forbidding rape.
As you may know, I am an reluctant atheist, but I am also a minister of the Universal Life Church. Though these two things may sound incongruous, they actually function quite well in my church, considering its tenets.
Just two sentences:
Every person has the natural right to peacefully determine what is right. We are advocates of religious freedom.
Simple, applicable, and most fitting for a non-believer. More importantly, there’s nothing forbidding me from wearing a cotton blend and attending a Patriots game on Sunday (two things strictly forbidden in Christian and Jewish law).
Not a bad deal, huh?
I guess I feel that if I’m going to affiliate myself in any way with a religious institution, I want to be able to follow all the rules handed down by its supreme being and not pick and choose the rules most convenient in the modern world.
