So, if you are one of those people who have it clearly in your mind that God is Everything and All Powerful blah blah blah, maybe you want to skip this....
It's not that I am an Atheist per se. I just have a problem with organized religions. My oldest brother is a Christian, very devout, so he says. Goes to church a couple times a week and prays before each meal that whole thing. He believes in God, that he is the Father and all that stuff.
I see religion as a way to say....well I can be forgiven for anything I do wrong, and I am a better person because I believe in something you don't believe in...And if anything happens its all in God's plan. Well how the hell does anyone really know that? Because some old book says so? The same book that says some guy centuries ago turned plain old water into wine? Literally? Really? Come on. That same said guy rose from the dead too? What is he a zombie? I just don't believe these things.
Sure there are some good things in that old book, interesting stories and ideals. Like the idea of treating others as you would want to be treated. I go for that myself, but it seems like so many Christians I see now days don't have a clue what that really means. They treat you as a lesser person because you're not a follower of the same religion they are and its ok cause whatever they do wrong, God will forgive them and they get to go to Heaven, and I don't. But then, Heaven is a whole other thing anyway.
Heaven and Hell, places that organized religion uses to get people to behave in the way they want them to. If you're good you'll go to heaven and if you're bad you'll go to hell. All these images have been conjured up over the centuries of what heaven is like and what hell is like, about angels and demons, God and the Devil.
How does an intellectual person buy into all of that? And yet, I know so many people who do buy into it. But I can't.
I don't know if I could describe all the things I believe in a way that would make sense. But I don't believe there is a God or the Devil. I don't believe in Heaven or Hell. I do believe that the bible takes some of its "teachings" from our world's history. Yes, I believe in evolution. There is so much evidence to support it, how could I not? I don't know if the scientists have it all correct as to exactly how every species on earth, including man, evolved but there is so much more there that makes sense than a book that was put together centuries ago based on what some people were led to believe and stories that were told.
Hey, I don't knock religion, although it may sound like I do here. If you're Christian or a Buddist or whatever, that's fine by me. I just don't happen to agree with it being the way for me to go in my life.
It's not even so much the thing that I can't believe in what I can't see, because in my own inexplicable way I do believe in a higher power, watching over all we do each day. But I don't believe it has the power to judge us and I don't believe it created us..In the beginning....
So, I guess I think that what guides me is that I get satisfaction from how I am each and every day. Was I kind to someone who was having a bad day, was I helpful to someone? Have I done what I can to make a positive impact in my own little circle of the world? Small things, to be sure but to me, they are important. I'm right with my world if I've treated YOU with the respect you deserve, and that is regardless of how you treated me today. I don't think that gets me into a place called Heaven or anything like that. It just means I can sleep at night, comfortably, knowing I did what I felt was right. And what's so wrong with that?
I'm just about done with this rant, I can just see what people I know would say if they read this...but hey I have the right just like they do, to believe what I do. At least in this country I do. Pretty much.... I think that religious beliefs are something I like to avoid talking about because I know people don't like or approve of my views. I can say all I want that I support another person's right to believe what they want, but the moment I come out with what I believe, it makes me wrong. Why is that? It makes me different, to be sure, but why wrong? Just because they are so sure what they believe is right? Who says there is only ONE right? I sure don't.
Okay, enough blathering for tonight.
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