I said that to someone just this morning. Sort of a knee-jerk reaction. They asked about what’s going on in Egypt and out it came – “Religion makes people stupid.” I said it. I stand by it.

I typically prefer more nuance. Maybe saying something like “Being overly religious makes people do stupid things sometimes.” Or how about, “The religiosity of the Pharisees is what Jesus spoke so clearly against.” But I’m sick of it. Religion. Okay, I know there’s ONE time in the Scriptures that the word “religion” is used positively. James says that “the true religion the Father accepts is looking after orphans and widows.” So we all know THAT religion is a good one. But what actual earthly religion honestly promotes that as its main theme? Exactly.

So I hate religion. The religion that makes some Muslim Brotherhood go to the Mosque on Friday and come out in a total rage and go burn a church.

The religion that makes Christians come out of church on a Sunday in Nigeria and go burn a mosque.

The religion that makes a half a million Shi’ites in south Lebanon say they will do whatever it takes to fight the “evil Sunnis.” (And vice versa in Syria).

The religion that makes the Ku Klux Klan quote the Bible in support of it’s racist bigotry.

The religion that makes all of us at times condemn and judge the outsider – the other. The one that makes whole nations and ethnic populations think that God has given them (and only them) some sort of special mandate to subjugate another people. Whether Catholic “explorers” killing New World natives in the name of God 400 years ago, or Protestant missionaries bringing democracy and small pox to those same native Americans 200 years ago, or Jews expelling hundreds of thousands from their home in Palestine last century, or Muslims blowing up innocent men, women and children in a crowded market in Baghdad, Beirut or Tel Aviv – it’s all stupid.

Religion makes people stupid. Maybe the New Atheists are right. We are stupid when we blindly follow our religions.

Thankfully many are waking up and choosing to follow Jesus instead. Jesus brings life and Freedom. Healing and Peace. When we follow him, we get our brains back – in humility, we stop being stupid.

Fight Stupidity. Follow Jesus! 🙂