During lunch today I decided to write, I just read a piece on religion from my best friends Tara’s Blog. http://thesunsgonnarise.wordpress.com/ She is currently doing a 30 day challenge but I will let her tell you all about that. The point is just the other night I was thinking about God, religion and The Faiths. And here are my thoughts.
I went to Catholic school for seven years, saying that, no, I actually spent my entire pre university education in a Roman Catholic school. And an all boy one for those all important pubescent years; I know, lucky me. But basically I was raised to believe that if you didn’t follow certain rules or believed certain things you were going to go to hell. Hold up for a sec; is “hell” a small ‘h’ or a capital ‘H’? Not sure. I guess I will just mix it up. Anyhow, when I realised I like boys instead of girls (even when I was eventually around girls) and in essence jumped on that fast train heading to Hell, I soon had to re-evaluate my belief in God. There was no way that someone who sweated as much as me could go to somewhere as hot as hell. It just didn’t seem right.
On a more serious note, people that were close to me who were good people were apparently going to go to Hell simply for not believing or practicing the same religion as I did. Then Daniel died and due to his atheists nature he was apparently in hell. And that was the last straw. I refused to believe he went to hell. So God then become dead to me.
And that’s where I guess, enter The Faiths. The Faiths I am referring to are not the ones from Hercules. Those ugly three, which seemed a little evil and way too easily seduced. No, not them. The Faiths to me are … they’re guides. I don’t even know how many there are in my head. But they’re like a council of “people”. They know where everyone’s meant to be and they guide you to that place. And no matter what you get to where you’re going. Something you take a little longer because of your choices. But you always end up where you are meant to be, eventually. And they do do some horrible things to you sometimes but that’s where you own faith comes in.
I “pray” to The Faiths. I ask for Them to guide me, to send me in the right direction and that soon made me be more positive about life. It made me believe that if I missed the bus there was a reason why I missed it. And that reason maybe because I got to pick up 20p from the floor or saw a cute guy. A guy I would never talk to, but hey The Faiths gave me the option to stare – I mean see him. Or maybe that bus was going crush and I didn’t get hurt or die. Or maybe it’s was reason I just wouldn’t see or notice. But I just had faith in The Faiths.
Then I went to university, and although I had study Theology for a year at AS, I really saw that there were so many different religions out there while I was at university. A lot of my acquaintances, some who became really good friends, practice different religions (some more keen than others) and this led to many religious debates. I was friends with a lot of sciences as well and they really believed in evolution. Basically, Darwin was their God.
This made things really interesting, it gave me a new perspective and made me realise and strengthened my own belief that you know what this whole thing is not God’s fault. The Faiths that I believe in is God. It’s was just a different definition that I or should I say “man” has taken. It’s our fault. Man, Humans, Woman, whatever you want to call us, people, we have decided to worship God, and in some (most) cases we have decided to worship him in some foolish and retarded ways.
I will not go into some of the issues I have with certain religions as I know every religion is different and everyone has a right believe and worship in their own way. But in my opinion it just seems so foolish. We all seem to be worshiping the same thing, the same deity. And yet people are getting angry at each other for worshipping Him / Her in a different way from what their neighbour. Is this sensible? Simples answer. No. But I know, I know. It’s not that simple. But it is sad.
Whenever anyone ask me “Are you religious?” I always say “No.” I am not religious, I don’t believe in religion, I really don’t. I think religion is what really crushes some people and really gives others some warped delusion of purpose. But I get it. It does bring people comfort. And I am all for doing what you need to do to get you through the day. Life is hard. And if religion makes life easier for you then get that arse of yours to church, or wherever.
That’s what The Faiths are to me. I am on this earth with six billion other people and it bring me comfort to believe that I have some kind of non-warped purpose no matter how big or how small (preferably big). That idea is my comfort blanket. Is it true? Maybe, uh probably not. But it brings me comfort that, The Faiths, a council of all knowing deities; God; have a plan for me. It’s what gets me through the day. It brings me comfort.
So I get it. I get religion. I get it but I just wish people would have less arguments and less disputes and wars over this thing. Lets call it “difference in worship”. Because God didn’t write the rules. We did. Which really means we can change them when we grow out of them. I feel like religion was written for a baby, the Bible or the Quran are the parents rule book for a child. But the thing is, when that child grows up the rules change. I mean curfews get later, suddenly lying isn’t exactly lying because guess what life is complicated. As you grow older, you realise life isn’t black and white, there is a hell of a lot of grey and when you grow older you are allowed to make those choices to decide and say “I know what you saying and that made sense when I was twelve but now that I am 24, it doesn’t.”
We are in a new position now and I don’t mean in terms of age but a position with regards to time. As a society we have grown since these religious books have been written. And being perfectly frank, its time are a rewrite. Seriously, how many version of the English Dictionary are there? I don’t know, so I will make that question rhetorical. But the point is yes they’ve been edited and translated but what they’ve need is a complete reworking.
Obviously this is just my opinion and I apologies to anyone that may be offended. But I just think it’s really sad. It makes me sad. I have seen so many fights, not major fights, disputes over religion. I seen people so torn up by a decision they have to make due to religion. I have seen people deny who they are or what they want, sacrificing part of their lives, deciding not to go through with something they really want to do because of a book written by a dude who thought he knows best has told them to.
All of that just seems sad to me. Sometimes your parents do know their best, when you’re three and six but when you become a teenager and even more so when your become an adult, its time to start making your own decisions and choices and take some time to step back. Think and say
“No I don’t agree, I think you’re wrong. I love you and you did give me life. I know you did create me. I understand that you do have plans for me and I hope to fulfil those plans but just because you have those plans for me doesn’t mean I have to do everything you say. It doesn’t mean you can control every aspect of my life. You gave me life and now you have to let me live it the way I want to live it and I will accept the consequences of those choices.”
God is a parent to all of us. A parents love is unconditional just like Gods and I don’t see any parent pushing their kid into fire for making a mistake, big or small, which is why I just think its not God’s fault. Just some of His children made some mistakes when they were passing His lessons down to His grandchildren. And hey, things get lost in translation, even in families wait what am I saying, especially in families.
Dedicated to my best friend Tara, you climbed your Everest, you’re a Graduate.
