• Denner Shermann - Masters of Evil

I Am Gambit 
with Mike Rapin

When the rantings and ravings of Mike Rapin fill up among his small group of listeners, he turns to the digital pen and paper. Expect nothing less than irrational cries about meaningless anythings and possibly a logical idea here or there, but nonetheless hilarious (for those with a real sense of humor).

Oh, where to start?

As I mentioned before, I decided to touch on religion*. But before I do so, I would like to explain my current social situation so you can understand where I am coming from:

1. I am a 17 year old college student in a "liberal arts" college.
2. I live in a severely Christian area.
3. I am American.
4. I am white.
5. I lean liberal.
6. I watch American television only.

There could be more to that list but who wants to know I was raised Catholic?

To continue, I must start with this: Religion is the cause of the vast majority of problems on Earth. Why I say that is simply due to the fact that I cannot think of one great war in this world that can't be broken down to religion**. On top of that, many terrorist groups in the world are simply religious based. I mean, come on. Name me one major problem in the world that isn't fueled religiously.

Then to add to that whole part, almost every religion in the world has some kind of scare tactic to draw you in and then keep you in line with whatever they want. Now, here I would like to see this scenario played out:

The Catholic/Christian churches decides that homosexuality/abortion isn't wrong. 

What then? Would the world revolt, or would they just go along? I think that some drastic change in Christian dogma would just be hilarious to see. I could see new religions forming out of something that insane. It's no different than Republicans and Democrats in the US. If some drastic change happens, then party in question would then split. It would just be hilarious to see all those "You're killing life you f**ktard" ass-holes' jaws drop knowing that by still believing what they do, they would be going against their church. Oh my.

This then leads to the question: is religion an actual belief system or just some political party that happens to be world-wide? I'll let you decide because, honestly, I see no difference.

Now, I would like to simply explain my beliefs, if you were wondering.

To me, this world, this consciousness that we call life, was created by something. Whether it be a freak chance at atoms colliding and forming something bent on survival or some deity throwing a hand down and saying "Now, this is me... but a little f**ked up... oops, well I guess that I should just be patient 'cause I guess I f**ked up with the whole 'mind' thing..." I still believe that something made life. I am a firm believer in evolution only because I have eyes and have  witnessed science and life. To see the human body adapt in everyday instances--such as the adjustment of the iris/pupil in the eye--leaves me no other conclusion that we, as humans and as animals, were created in a style where our previous versions weren't as good at living as we are. To understand the functionality of the immunity system, or the liver, or  the digestive system, or anything else in the body just goes to show that we are evolved from something because in a sense, any of the aforesaid things are small bits of adaptation (AKA evolution) in the works. Just because we do it daily doesn't mean we aren't evolving. If you get the chicken pox once, why don't you get it again? Because your body evolves and knows how to beat the disease before it affects your body again.

If you can't tell, I can't express myself enough.

So here is where I sit and wonder: how can people so blindly follow something they can't even prove? To this, some die-hard Christians have told me (and I'm paraphrasing), "Well, it's all about faith [in God]. If you have faith, there is no reason to not believe." Now, how can I "have faith" in something that is written in a book? I could believe that JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series as a religious book that happened a very long time ago and actually happened. Is that reason to believe? Ask Christian Scientists. For me, I say no. If you can't lay it down on a table and say, "Here, this is physical proof that so-and-so is true," then how can I believe you? Something as vague as "faith" just doesn't work for me. 

Are you offended yet?

*religion is defined as a major world religion

**If you can, e-mail me: MikeRapin [at] gmail [dot] com. Mind you, I said great war. 
 

Cover our ass part: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Thrashpit, Rocknworld, the Iconoclast Entertainment Group, the Pope, George W. Kennedy, soccer moms, pop-punk fans, etc. Note: this rant was slightly censored by the man... only one specific word was altered. You should still know what it is, even with the alteration. If you don't you, you are as bright as a f*cking blackout and should consider sterilization . Love, Big Brother