Let me take a step back here and let you have a moment to really take that in.
Many other comments say that we should just let God be in control, because he will take care of it all.
Let me start by saying that although I do not believe in God or an afterlife (sure I believe that at one point in time a guy named Jesus existed, and he surely could have been a good guy who did a lot of good for a lot of people), however with that being said I'm not here to bash religion or say that you have no right to it. You have a right to believe whatever you want to believe, and so do I.
Now, back to letting God take control. Jihadi John (the ISIS member suspected to be the killer in the beheading videos) also thinks that God is taking control. He believes everything about his God that you believe about yours. But surely his God can't be right can it? A real God would never allow for the beheading of his people, right?
"The name of Christ has caused more persecutions, wars, and miseries than any other name has caused."
- John E. Remsburg
Since the beginning of man, the poor use of Christianity has been estimated to have caused between 6-17 million deaths. These deaths come from the combination of historical wars and events ranging from Native Americans to Jews to Heretics to Ancient Pagans to Rwanda Massacres and many in between.
Back to the point, religion should never be used as an excuse for what happened to these innocent Americans. The two murdered men, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, were photojournalists whose mission was to capture the oppression and wars occurring in Syria, Iran, Iraq, etc. Never should anyone force their religious quotes from their religious texts onto anyone. It doesn't matter the situation or what you believe. In my opinion, why would any God let this happen? We also should not use out of context Bible quotes to excuse the actions of the executioners. Really, we shouldn't hold Jihadi John accountable for beheading Americans because he doesn't know any better? The same people using these bullshit quotes to excuse the actions of terrorists didn't have a problem blaming Obama for the murder of 4 Americans at Benghazi, but I'll leave that one for another day.
This is where it gets personal for me. This is also where my OPINION strongly kicks in.
If Heaven really does exist, I never want to go there. So many times religion has been used to take away the rights of others, and excuse some from treacherous crimes and actions. If Heaven is a place where is is okay to behead people because "they don't know any better", or deny people rights because they are gay or black or female or Jewish or Muslim or anything, I never want to go. Whether you believe in religion or science or nothing, realize this. Energy is never created and it never dies. I'm at peace with knowing that when I die, I will return to the Earth from which I came. Think about how beautiful life already is. You were conceived from a microscopic zygote which then gave you lungs and life and limbs and senses and genes. Think about all the planets and stars and heat and light and species that surround you. When I die, I hope I become one with the Earth. I hope whatever life I give back into the Earth turns into something beautiful. Some people find peace in Religion. I think this is mainly because we have such a fear of death. Think about it, we are one of the only species that is conscious of our own demise. Therefore we fear it everyday. Any move we make could prove to be fatal. We instead use this graceful idea of a beautiful place surrounded by God and Angels and our loved ones who passed on before us. And from the outside, that sounds amazing. But it doesn't appeal to me because if someone from Westboro Baptist Church thinks they are going there for spreading the word of God, then I definitely don't want to be there. Some might say "Well they aren't spreading the true word of God, they'll never end up in heaven". Well how do you know? They are dead set in their ways and are willing to die peacefully knowing the hate and intolerance that they spread, because they think it's right. So does ISIS. They think that by beheading Americans, they are spreading the word of their God by creating an Islamic caliphate across the Middle East. With that being said, isn't Religion just whatever we want it to be? If heaven is real, there would have to be several different ones, because you can't categorize all religions and believers into one group. This is why I'll share this with you: My heaven is mother nature. The ocean, the trees, the sunset, wildlife, flowers, energy, memories. I want nothing more in life than to live it to the fullest and then be returned to the place from which I came, where ever that may be.
