Imagine A World Without Religion

SFcam: 2012: Part Twenty One
(May 10, 2012)

After we had successfully drained out any excitement to be obtained in the tourist realms of Washington DC, it was time to move on to the second portion of the trip: New York City, which would offer surprisingly more in terms of sightseeing than what it had intended (it was, after all, a DC trip).

Our first primary stops were the beautiful cathedrals of St. Patrick and St. John Divine, to name just a few. These locations wouldn't take up the majority of our day, but I certainly spent enough time photographing them that it seemed fit to devote an entire post to my experience.

I remember walking these halls and seeing a particular gentleman wearing a t-shirt. In the dim light, I could make out the words "Imagine A World Without Religion" and a mural of the two World Trade Centers in the foreground. I remember thinking what nerve a man like that could have to tread here, to put the blame of millions dead on the shoulders of an idea. Someone like that who thinks that they're doing themselves justice by wearing that. Someone who blames the fragility of mentally unstable people on what provoked them. And then thinks it's okay to walk right into a building like this where hundreds may have prayed for the very people he's "defending" and accuse it of driving a group of radicals over the edge.