Why am I so mad?

How often is that the title of my entry? Crap.

But seriously, so my brother sent this video of some monks doing their throat singing, which is pretty cool, at least interesting. I don't know if I could listen for longer than the 4 or 5 minutes of video time, but that's OK. The singing is some sort of prayer, and I don't get it; I'm not Buddhist, but that's OK, too. Tomas noted that his chest burns when he listens to these guys singing. Mine doesn't. Oh well.

Then I noticed that my brother's tag was listed in the comments, and that he had been involved in a conversation about the video. Now, I don't know if it's that I am protective of my little bro and didn't like the patently aggressive response of someone to his comment about faith, or whether I am just sick and tired of people being able to rail against the Ten Commandments being placed in the public arena via courthouses and such, but those people are permitted to spout their venomous hatred of all concepts even remotely mysterious, as though their nonreligion is the only real and true one and the rest of us had better start sucking it up and not believing in anything, just like them, or we're destined for hell on earth..?

Don't get me wrong; be an atheist. That doesn't bother me, and it's your choice, anyway, and I can honestly say that as someone who calls herself a Christian, that's my ethical philosophy, as the FFM so eloquently labeled my own "faith" rather than a religion or a belief in deity, some human-looking guy wearing long hair and a fresh white robe and walking around in the clouds. (Though I do find comfort at times in yapping with the Big Guy Upstairs, just to get my head or my heart straight, or simply to be thankful for all the cool stuff that makes up my life, regardless of how it or I got here.)

You can be Christian- of any number of denominations because, let's admit it, many denominations exist, thanks to the ability of The Bible to provide many opportunities for interpretation. Just don't proselytize at me about how your denomination is the "right" one. Are you sure the Big Guy really made you and not the rest of us in his own image?

You can be Jewish, but don't get me started on Israel.

You can be Muslim, sunni, shia, doesn't matter, Sufi peace-loving, Rumi reading, but if you're one of those intolerant religious buffs- like Christians who preach meeting people where they are at but then tell them how they have to live- and strive to hurt people who don't do what you want them to do, don't talk to me.

You can be Buddhist. Or Wiccan. Even the kind that feel the need for something but buck against the white man's western religion, so that's your reason for your leanings.

You can be Hindu, though I totally don't get the whole thing about that, and frankly, have little interest in finding out more, when there are other topics out there to explore and only so much time.

If you practice religion, or "spirituality," or simply humanity, or none of that, no big deal. But when people run around busting on those who have some belief system and then push their own proposed nonbelief in others' faces, it pisses me off. I just don't know quite why, but when you yell "screw faith" at my brother as he is engaging in a thoughtful conversation about people's tendencies toward belief in something, whatever it is, outside of themselves- out of your own fear, I'd challenge- and equate faith with "believing blindly"- I am just so glad you're not my neighbor on a dark Saturday night... You would not get donuts from me on Sunday as a make-up present.

(The picture here is of the frequency of the throat singing. Does it look like anything else to you?)