Just about everyone is familiar with this horrific story. It is just one of hundreds of horrific events in our recent history that includes violence, bloodshed, and death. No one deserves this kind of treatment, we all can agree on that. However, as sickening as it may be, our society still argues over "what" or "who" is to blame for these things. It comes as a complete shock to me -- deep down it was to be expected -- that people are in fact able to -- with their brainwashed minds -- manage to blame "God" for instances such as the Columbine massacre. They aren't saying "God" is to blame -- of course not, can't say its God's fault despite the enormous amount of hatred and bloodshed that is depicted in the Bible -- they claim that the lack of religion, God, and The Bible in the school system is to blame.
The Bible teaches us -- among many things -- "thou shall not kill" "thou shall not steal" and "thou shall not take the Lord's name in vain" just to name a few. So, by taking religion, God, and The Bible out of our school systems, clearly children will never learn these lessons and therefore turn into brutal killing machines. Allow me to quote Mr. Ben Stein and we can see closely how ridiculous it sounds.
In light of recent events, terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. I think it started when Madalyn Murray O'Hair (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school... The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK...Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Over on the right you will see a picture of Mrs. O'Hair. She was an Atheist activist and the founder and president of "American Atheists". As Mr. Ben Stein felt obligated to state, Mrs. O'Hair was in fact murdered, alongside she atheist son and granddaughter. Not only were they murdered, but they were utterly butchered and mutilated. And for what? In the name of the Lord. Mrs. O'Hair was a pioneer in our society however she was considered the "most hated woman in America".
This is only one example of people killed by the hands of devout Christians. When the presence of God and the authenticity of The Bible are questioned, people die.
Now, how can Christians (or Jews, or Muslims) sit down and say -- with complete faith and little doubt -- that the removal of Christ and The Bible from the school system is to blame for the worlds problems? More blood has been shed because of religion than has ever been shed where no religion is present.
Kids today are not "evil" because they aren't being taught the "values" that The Bible teaches them. Kids today are evil because of many other reasons. I remember seeing the movie Saw II in theaters years ago. I also clearly remember seeing numerous children in the audience as well. The Saw movies depict some of the mos gruesome murders I have ever seen in movie. The main suspect, Jigsaw, captures his victims and gives them an ultimatum. I won't get into the entire flick, but his reasoning for doing this is simple. His victims take something in their lives for granted. Either they cheat on their spouses, they are workaholics and never see their families,or they are obsessed with material items. Jigsaw's plan is to teach them a lesson, if they fail, they die. Well now, that is definitely something I would want my children to see and learn, wouldn't you?
So, we let our children watch movies such as that, we have governments allowing meth addicted people to have babies and attempt to raise kids, and we have bullies. People are also not teaching their children coping abilities. How to cope when you are bullied, how to cope when your mother dies from a drug overdose.
Mental Illness. For some unbelievable reason, people tend to shrug off mental illness because you cannot physically see the issue. One may not appear to be sick, when in reality, they are as sick as it gets. Mental illness is not something we can control, it all comes down to different forms of chemical imbalances -- among other things that would take too long to explain. I remember being in eighth grade and being so disturbingly depressed that I actually wished death upon other people -- mostly bullies. I would never have done anything about those thoughts, but they were there. This depression was not something I could control. I was lucky, my parents knew there was something wrong and got me help.
Kids that shoot up schools, are not doing so because they have no religion in their lives, they shoot up schools because they are mentally ill and need help. So many parents assume that when their kids are always locked up in a dark bedroom that it is just a "phase". The boys who shot up Columbine had plans of attack in their bedrooms. It could have been prevented if parents weren't so lazy these days. My mother would snoop in my room all the time -- at least I think she did -- I know she did if she felt something wasn't quite right. Parents today take so little notice of what is going on in their children's lives that things like this are overlooked.
I'd like to make a statement here and now that I hope everyone remembers and holds onto forever -- God does not cure mental illness -- plain and simple. If you're sick, you need counselling and normally, some kind of medication to restore the chemical imbalances.
I feel as though this post is all over the place, and for that I apologize. I so strongly feel as though there are hundreds of reasons we have so many of these horrific events happening, and none of them involve God.
I am going to end here, for now. I need to gather my thoughts and attempt to put them in a neat little timeline and I will hopefully be able to clean up this post a little.
I leave you with one more thing. It is NOT the responsibility of the education system to teach YOUR child the values that YOU deem necessary for a happy death free existence.
-Drea
