I consider myself knowledgeable, cultured and very open minded and accepting when it comes to views and opinions opposing my own. Though I feel very strongly about my own personal views and am not afraid to share them. Based on our discussion on Tuesday I felt like there are more people who share the same views as I do than I thought. So I am struggling with coming up with a view of my own that is completely my own. I could talk about how I am completely pro-choice, or how I believe anyone is free to wed anyone they want. But I think I’ll talk about religion. I (like many of you according to our discussion) am part of the “I don’t believe in God club”. Okay, its not that I don’t’ believe in him, its that I don’t really know what to believe. Is there a Christian God or a Jewish God, or a something else? It is really frustrating to me so I choose to accept them all but not believe in one in particular. I know I may be offending some but the idea of religion is just ridiculous to me.
I don’t like the idea of a “God”. I don't like that I can't see or have any evidence of a higher power. I don’t like the idea of dying and not knowing if you’ll end up in heaven or hell. I don’t like the idea of believing in something that is the reason for all the wars and loss in the world. Every single religion is based on the exact same philosophy; "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". It is the essential basis of life. Yet there is still so much hate even though there is only one true belief. Isn't that crazy?! Society believes in religion because they are told too. Religion has become so socially constructed that it has become not a thing of love but of hate. The truths we believe in and our values are relative to one's culture paradigm
s. My cultural paradigm has become against religion. I consider religion to be sort of like a game. One makes their decision on what they're going to believe in based off their personal experience. Everyone in this world (believers or atheists) has some sort of idea what will happen after they die whether it is heaven or nothing. When they are on their deathbed, they are calm about the end of the game that is life because in a way they want it. But for me, I don't think about the end. I go day by day playing the game of life not wanting to get to the end. I love who I am and what my worldview is. I don't think it really matters whether or not I believe in some high almighty in the sky just as much as I don't care what you believe. But I do accept it and for me that is all that really matters.
I really enjoyed how you went along with this blog post. I think I fall in the same category of belief. While I think I may not have a sort of believing in all aspects and am more rooted to science, and a need of proof, I do believe in the golden rule. For a long time I have wondered why people aren't following this, rather the spending time on the insignificant differences between one manifestation of God and another. I have done many research papers in the past with a thesis based around how religion has been used for the destruction and benefit of one society over another throughout history. So I think you are right. Why can't people just follow the golden rule? We are all taught it growing up. While it may seem silly to some, the roots of the indicted behavior are cornerstones for living a satisfactory life intertwined with meaningful relationships. Without the rule our lives would be in turmoil; full of greed and ruthlessness; more than it already is at least. I believe you put this post into a perspective we can all follow, regardless of what our beliefs are. We just have to ask the question, "Can't we all just get along?" Oh, and great pictures as well. They really get your message across!
ReplyDeleteYour last couple sentences are really what hooked me into commenting on this post. Mainly because I completely agree. It's pointless to obsess over what's going to happen after life is over, because there is literally no way to find out or prove what actually does happen. I, for one, don't care if people want to worship a god, or four gods, or a cow, or whatever but a lot of people have a problem with what others believe. It just doesn't make sense to as why they can't just mind their own business. The concept of power trips comes to mind when it comes to religious beliefs. One person gets this crazy idea that their religion should be universally accepted and if anyone disagrees they are instantly an enemy.
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