Religion is the opium of the masses

There was a day I was walking in town , then a woman stopped me . I did recognize her as one of the church elders, she scrutinized me and then she told me that I am conforming to the standard of the world because of my nose piercing and that I will fail to enter the kingdom of God.She already made a conclusion about me by the way she was looking at me with disdain then finally she told me that she loves me ,that’s why she had to tell me , really! how sic* is that , she just expected me to see the love of God with all the patronizing look all over her face , it is sad that they misrepresent God because I did not feel love , I just dismissed her as judgmental religious fanatic because if she really knew me she would know that I value my spiritual life .Then there was this other day we were in office, we were discussing politics and then out the blues some guy uttered a very cynical statement ,he stated that women should not be given leadership position because according to his understanding of the good book, women are just meant to be helpers . That statement made me wonder which planet is he living in ,because this century we don’t expect people to still have such a backward thinking. Religion can be so blinding , because if you listen to religious fanatic you cannot help but either laugh at their statement or feel pity on them.The atrocities people commit in the name of religion is baffling . There are people who kill in the name of God ,others molest wife and children in the name of God and use religion as an excuse .Logic stands no chance in a society that is held bent to their religious ideologies . Religious fanaticism started way back , when Emperor Constantine I, came to power and introduced Christianity as the main religion in Rome and he repressed all non christians and all christians who did not line up with official Othordox ideology, policy or practice ,he basically used religion to suppress the people.In the middle ages with the emergence of crusades sanctioned by pope to reclaim the Holy Land from the Muslims , they ended up killing Muslims ,Jews and native Christians indiscriminately when crusaders captured Jerusalem 1099.Islam extremist dates back to 7th century to the Kharijites , from their political position they developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from mainstream Sunni and Shi’a Muslims.The Kharijites adopted a radical approach to Takfir, whereby they declared other Muslims to be unbelievers and therefore deemed worthy of death .Jihad is just a sequel of Kharijites ideology , Jihadists movement did seek to overthrow secular government which was it main purpose but in 1998 Osama bin Laden radicalized jihad and it gained popularity internationally but his concept is totally different from what it previously meant .Jihad means working urgently for a godly objective.People also commit suicide in the name of religion, absurd as it is there very many documented history of people commiting heinous acts in the name of religion . In India 1303 or 1568 there was a case of mass suicide ,also known as Jauhar, which was carried out by women and men of the defeated community, when their fallen city was taken captive by Muslim invaders. Also during the great schism of the Russian Church, a village of old believers burned themselves to death in an act of “fire baptism.“The above are some of the few cases of religious craziness, if I may say s. Religion can be intoxicating that’s why we need sobriety to curb skewed religious ideologies. So have you ever encountered religious fanaticism? if so share your story in the comment section.The recent story about Paul Makenzie is just a tip of the Ice burg , tell me more…