Choose to give up your right to choose...

I don't like religion. Sorry, I just don't buy into fantasies and then call them realities. If I want that, I'll watch TV. But, in this country you have religious freedom. That also includes the freedom to not have a religion. I'm an atheist. You know why? Cause I believe in logic, reason and common sense above FAITH. It's is about thinking, not feeling. It's about knowing, not believing. It's about this life, not the next. I may have no use for religion or the church, but everyone has the RIGHT to think whatever the hell they want. That is a good thing. But religion should have no place in government, in politics. It shocks me and saddens me that in the 21st century the majority who voted Bush back into office were guided more by their religious beliefs than their common sense. They'd rather lose health care than have two men married down the block. I thought we'd progressed. Real, tangible problems exist and yet people boast about their moral values. As if non religious people are devoid of them. And I find that terribly insulting, that just because I don't believe in a higher being that I am somehow not moral.

Now, to my point: freedom and life here in our Republic is about choice, it's about free will. You have the power to believe in the almighty or not, yet when you have the religious right with so much influence over the rest of us, there are problems. They dictate courses of actions and views that effectively take away choice from the people.

Take abortion:
pro-choice or
pro-life
The two terms insult me, as if those who support choice hate life. It is blatently not true. But the religious right would seek to revoke your right to choose what is best for you, your family and your unbonr child simply because they won'te LIKE your choice. How can they do that? It is not their life, yet they want to run it. They want to tell you what you can't do. Abortion is a big damn choice for those who do it, not a whim or a flight of fancy, but it should always be an option.

Gay marriage:
This is simply selfish, they want to keep marriage to themselves, but deny it to others based on their religion telling them that it is wrong to be gay. They believe it wrong, but those who are that way do not.

When does the one whose life is affected by the issue take back the right to choose what is best for them? Why do we turn over these decisions to others? Why must I be forced out of an option because a southern Christian woman doesn't like it?

It's about selfishness and free will. You may not have to like something, but in this country we have the right to choose how to live our lives, no one has the right to tell you how to live. We came here because of religious persecution, yet it's the non religious and different religious who are no persecuted.

Choice is the most important thing we have. It is the single most important value this country needs to hold on to. Your neighbor should never have the ability to dictate your life. That's not being very moral.