A relative called me today to ask what sort of bible i wanted for my birthday. We settled on a revised King James. (I'm rather a fan of the archaic language.) I found it all too uncomfortable to point out that any reading i do of the Bible will be as a work of fiction. I don't consider myself a christian anymore and haven't really for a long time. What clinched it was my mother's bible, in its notes on homosexuality, advising that i seek counselling. But i hadn't really believed in any of it for a while before that. My favourite bit was always the hymns. I do really like church music. And surely everyone, really, loves carols, whether they believe them or not.

However, i refuse to believe, as certain of my friends do, that religion is evil. P once claimed to have had some part in 'freeing S from the shackles of religion'. I don't believe in 'the shackles of religion'. It's wrong to just make such sweeping statements about such an abstract thing. The shackles of the Catholic church perhaps (Although i wouldn't ever think like that.) but the idea of 'the shackles of religion' is just ridiculous. It's just people wanting to feel superior to others because of their beliefs. Which is frankly just as bad as when that happens between religious people.

I have nothing against Christianity. I only vaguely don't believe in it. I seem to want to believe in something, but i've no idea what yet. There's nothing wrong with religion. It's just that a lot of people use religion to their own ends. Back in the crusades, religion was our excuse. It was the excuse we used for the empire and slavery. Bush is still using it today, claiming that certain types of love are 'unconstitutional'. It's preposterous, trying to run the most powerful country on Earth using a set of rules meant for a small desert tribe who needed something to believe in.

But, that said, i have nothing against people who believe in these things, as long as they don't start taking over and applying ridiculous rules. Which, fortunately, most people don't. My friend C, for instance, has never once tried to tell me that the way i live my life is wrong. Far more intolerant is W, who believes that religion, all of it and every single one, is evil.