Time for a little more religious idiot bashing, but in a nice way.

You may have seen the many versions of this inspiration message before. And while I can appreciate the "don't sweat the small stuff" advice, I just can't swallow the "God wants me to be here" message. It's always nice to think God is looking out for you, but if you follow the logic to its reasonable conclusion, you must assume that God wanted all the people who died on 9/11 to have been where they were, too. That's not so nice, is it? Here's a much more cynical view of the whole thing. Don't read if you can't handle profanity.

First, let me say that I am a religious person and that I do believe in a God who created the entire universe. I believe that almost all religions have the right idea, but that people need to be careful not to lose themselves to their beliefs and remember to think for themselves. I believe that God's greatest gifts to us are our individuality and the power of free will. If you lose those things to any belief system then you lost yourself. Everyone must find their own truth, not the truth that other people tell them. It's good to listen, but make up your own mind.

The point of this post is that once you start thinking of God in an exclusionary way, you're heading for trouble. Any type of "my God" vs "your god" thinking is at the root of all conflicts. I cringe at phrases like "we are the chosen people" and "God is with us" because it implys that God has a bias.

BTW, I laugh at athletes who "Praise the Lord" that they won a game. For once I'd like to see the losing team say something like "We would have won, but God didn't do his part!" :)

I think once we all start realizing that "my God is your God" then we'll have to start rethinking how we look at each other and how we must deal with each other to stay true to ourselves, our beliefs, and our God. We'll have to start looking at what we have in common rather that what makes us different. And then, hopefully, we'll all really be where God wants us to be.