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| Religion, According to Me | ||||||||
| As far as I'm concerned, organized religion is out to thwart individualism, at least most of the western religions are. I would never go so far as to create my own religion, but being that I don't follow any existing religion, I do have a sort of "religion." In reality, I follow my own philosophy of life which is made up of my personal values and beliefs. I am unsure and quite doubtful of the existence of a god, deity, or higher being, but I do believe that there is something that ties all people together; our common humanity. This isn't attributed to any higher power, just something that we all share, something that connects us all to our fellow man. Some people would categorize me as an atheist with leanings towards secular humanism, but I chose not to categorize myself. It just gives other people a way to stereotype me and I think they already have enough stereotypes to fit me into. | ||||||||
| I had several years of personal experience with Christianity, and I believe that those years encouraged me more than anything else to find my own beliefs and follow them. After several months of self-discovery, I found that my philosophy on life was so difficult to find because it was so simple and easily missed amidst all of the complex teachings out there. I simply believe that one should live their lives according to what they feel is right and wrong, it's the only way a person can every truly be happy. Of course, there's a limit to that philosophy since laws and societal norms don't allow us to do whatever we want, but for the most part, I believe one should seek personal fulfillment whichever way one desires to as long as it does not stray outside the constraints of the law. | ||||||||
| Throughout high school, I spent a lot of time studying a variety of world religions. Within each religion I found things which I agreed with, things which I found disturbing, and things which were blatantly false. I don't claim that my philosophy is right, but I know it works for me and I think that's what really matters. What bothers me most about organized religions is that they're patently man made theologies created to further the purpose of a few deceitful and power hungry men who sought to control those whose minds were weaker than theirs. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and most monotheistic religions are inherently sexist. They all treat women as inferior or at least they did when the religion originated. This is proof that they were man made, they reflected the values and beliefs of the men who created them. As society has evolved and grown to accept women as equals, some of these religions have begun to allow women to be active members of the church, something that was never allowed in Christianity before the turn of the century. If these religions were truly inspired by a divine entity, is it likely that he all of a sudden changed his mind about women? I think not. These are accommodations that men in high positions within the religion allowed so that the religion would not crumble under social evolution. | ||||||||
| On top of being sexists, most religions seek to impede individuality. My honest belief is that people created gods and religions as a way to explain what they did not understand. It was easier to say that a god caused the rain to fall than it was to find out what it was that really made the water fall from the skies. All gods evolved from the human need to understand and point to an explanation. For thousands of years, people have been afraid of the unknown, perhaps most of all death. By creating these gods and inventing the idea of a soul that never dies, people were able to cope with the idea of death more easily. If you ask me what happens when someone dies, I honestly wouldn't be able to tell you, but I also wouldn't accept the idea that some god far away is watching my every move and will decide upon my death whether I've earned eternal life or eternal damnation. Perhaps my intelligence prevents me from being able to believe in a god and perhaps I will pay the price for that upon my death, but until than I chose not to buy into blind faith. | ||||||||
| Blind faith is something I strongly oppose. Faith, by definition, is believing in what there is no concrete proof of. There's something illogical about believing in something that you can't see. This doesn't apply to air because we have proof that exists, or our heart, because we can feel it beating in our chest, or our uncle who lives in another state because we can pick up the phone and call him, this applies to that of which we have no definite evidence. Most religions preach against cults, yet they require the same kind of blind faith and unquestioning commitment that cults do. Many religions claim that they have holy scriptures, historical evidence, and other forms of proof that prove their god is real, but so does every other religion out there. What makes one more believable than the other? My reasoning is this, if there's a god out there, he can come reveal himself to me personally, but even than I would have my doubts. | ||||||||
| The mind is a powerful tool and is easily affected by persuasion. I don't think that those people who claim to hear the voice of god are lying, I simply believe that it is a manifestation of what they want to hear, see, or experience. I simply choose to live in this realm of reality, I chose to live this life and not as a way to achieve eternal life or some sort of reward from a divine entity that is probably sitting in heaven laughing at us trying to figure them out, but as a way to achieve my goals and make something meaningful of the time that we have here. After all, this world and this life is the only thing we can prove is real, even though some would argue that this isn't reality at all. Like I said, whatever philosophy works for each individual is what they should base their lives on. | ||||||||
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