Religion has always been a fascination of mine. An expert, though, I am not. There is no way I can quote from the bible or tell you all of he books contained therein. However, I do know the moral of the story.
Another thing I know is that Christians are incredibly defensive of their belief. Sometimes it seems that just by debating, they are in fear of their faith melting away. But the one topic that is constant in my religious debates is that believers feel that us non-believers are lost, or that we are missing something. They feel that we are not complete without god in our lives. Really? To me that is the same as saying someone is not complete because they don't have kids. For the most part, people live their lives based on what THEY need, not what everyone else thinks they need. I know that is how I live. So, why do I have to listen to people try to belittle me by telling me I am incomplete or lost. What gives anyone that right?
What makes a person turn to god instead of their family or friends? Why is that not enough? I will never understand that aspect of life. When Chris and I started dating his mom told me she was worried about me not believing in god. What would I do, she worried, when something terrible happened and I had no one to lean on because god was not in my life. My answer was my family. We all have terrible things happen, we all deal with them differently. I was lucky enough to have an extremely supportive family core. I never felt the need to turn to someone, or something, that could not talk to me, hold me, make everything ok. My parents could do that. Turning to god was never a thought for me.
I grew up going to church some, even visiting several different churches and temples just to play the field. Wow, you guys, there are so many religions and versions of religions out there. How can anyone seriously think they are right? Anyway, we went so I could learn. Learn, I did. I learned that there are so many people that are sheep out there. Sunday school classes were a joke. These kids were way too young to actually believe any of this religious stuff. They were simply regurgitating what they parents and their church gave them. It is plain and simple nature vs. nurture. If a child is raised with an abusive parent constantly drilling into their head negative things, that child will turn into an adult that believes those things. The same can be said for putting a child in church. There are those few that believe because they actually think on their own and decide to believe and there are those other few that don't believe because of the same reason.
Even as an adult, I see this. As Chris can attest, there is a person close to us that swears he is atheist. Yet, he goes to church every Sunday, performs communion, and goes through all the motions of being a Christian. If you are a Christian, then be a Christian. If you are an atheist, then do that. Don't try to be someone you are not for the sake of others. Yes, now and then I go to church. However, I do not go through all the motions. The entire reason I am there is to support my husband in HIS beliefs or his family. The songs don't get sung, the crackers and wine do not get partaken, and to be quite veracious, I dread being there. It is long, fiercely boring, and I spend almost the entire time wondering why people believe the stuff we are listening to.
Right from the get go, I don't understand taking the stories in the bible as fact. God created Earth and man. Great - that is the lengths to which my brain will possibly go. I do not believe that happened, but I can understand how people do. After that, though, it gets a bit shady to me. How the hell are there still people that believe man has one less rib than woman? How is that even possible to believe in today's world?
I absolutely believe that someone wrote these stories. I can even believe that their names are the books of the Bible. I cannot, in any capacity, believe most of these stories are true. I believe they may be, like a Lifetime TV movie, based on a true story. Jesus was probably a great man who did many great things. He did not come back from the dead though. Sorry, that does not happen. It is not possible. Why would you want him to, didn't you read Pet Sematary?
Prayer is something that makes people feel better, although, I am not sure how. Logically, it makes no sense. Ok
Think of it this way, my example of the "power" of prayer is this; September 11, 2001. There is a plane flying towards the World Trade Center in NYC. Americans on board are praying. Muslims on board are praying. Guess what, THEY won. Their prayers won out, they got what they prayed for while we did not. So, does that mean our prayers mean nothing? Oh, wait, no, it was God's will. Both teams pray before a football game. One has to lose. Did the losing team just not pray hard enough?
It is God's will to make people suffer, to make animals suffer? Is it God's will to have a child abused and murdered by her parents? What is the fracking point of a tiny premature baby being born if her entire 4 weeks on Earth is filled with pain and misery, both for her and her parents? Abby may have died but her parents and brother will be affected for the rest of their lives. Where is God in that? Nowhere. I, along with hundreds of other people, even prayed for Abby, I prayed often. I begged, even, for her to make it through this. She died anyway. There is no way in this world anyone can convince me there is a God after that. None. If God would do that to a baby and a family, it is not a God I want anyway.
Faith and religion, from my viewpoint, is many things for people. It is a scapegoat, a crutch, a backup, a comfort, a need to get through life, a hope there is something afterwards. If those are things you need, then by all means, believe. However, do not push it on others OR fault others for not needing any of those things. I live my life being a good and decent person. I do that because I feel it is the right thing to do. I try to be nice to others. I do not do it because I read it in a story and felt that God told me to live a good and decent life. I really did not need anyone to tell me that, other than my parents. They did a great job of teaching me how to live. I did not need a story to teach me that.
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