The quote in my bottom signature pretty much sums up my ... views ... of religion.
But now I've been getting more people stopping me to peddle their "new" cult religion - this thing they call GREEN or Environmental awareness! Yes, I said "religion", and it operates much more like a "cult". It has all the trappings of a religion - it's high priests, it's prophets, it's oracles (the Gore-ical), it's holiday's, it's cerimony's and "worship" services, and it's DOGMA (believes based mostly on "faith" instead of fact). Some of these zealot jihadi's are more fanatical than those linked with the big mainstream religions! And now they are out there in public pounding the streets confronting people walking by. I've even had several stop by my place out here in the country to "educate" me on the proper/approved/correct ways to live - according to them.
Notice I used that word "educate". They INSTRUCT you in the proper/approved/correct way to think/believe/act. And if you don't agree with that, then it is just because you have not heard/read enough about it. It can't be because you just ... disagree ... with their position - the one and only TRUE path. So you just need to "educate" yourself some more, and then you will come to think/believe/act just as they do. To them, a genuine difference of opinion just doesn't exist - it's only a lack of a proper "education" like they have received.
Unfortunately with so many of these people, contradictory information is automatically dismissed as flawed disinformation, and they will only be swayed by "emotional" issues. And they have committed their "emotions" to follow their "faith" in their new "religion".
Yeah, the "unwanted visitors" have started to change. But I give them the same treatment as I give the other religious fanatics.
Mikey - that ... alleged ... grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
p.s. Ooops, sorry. Probably shifted too far over into a political/religious rant. It was a bit too present in my thoughts at the moment because I just had a visit from a fisherman along the trout stream in the pasture below the house who was ... concerned ... about some things I was or was not doing to preserve that trout stream for HIM to come out of the big city on the weekend to fish along. And he doesn't like fishing in the State owned land because of all the ... yahoo's and bozo's ... out there, so prefers to fish on private land. Rah rah blah blah ... same old s**t from a clueless idiot who thinks he has a RIGHT to tell everybody else how to live - because the world revolves around him! D*mned narcissists!