Ranting About Religion

I’m trying to really think about what it is I believe and I think when it call comes down to it I don’t really belong to any single religion. I was very much inspired by a quote by Buddha that said not to believe a single thing someone tells you to believe unless it feels right to you. I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do: Pick up bits and pieces of everything around me and find what feels right. That’s why I have so much trouble with specific religions. To fit in with these religions, you have to believe everything they tell you and I don’t and I’m not okay with laying all my faith on something that just isn’t at all comfortable or just makes sense to me. I think to sum up everything I believe, I can say that I don’t know. No one knows and that’s alright. There is no possible way that me or anyone can know and the best thing that we can do is search for what feels right instead of following each other for what the masses says is right. You have to find it yourself.1

I believe that there is a God. I have no proof to support that other than I find it easier to believe than to believe that everything just happened. There is a cause of everything. There is an all-powerful nonhuman force out there that has had influence on what has happened and what is to happen. It’s a sort of scary thing and really makes you feel so small and insignificant. There is a reason why everything is the way it is that that is this being who we call God but I don’t even like to refer to it as that because the God I have been raised to know is not at all how I believe it truly is.2

God has been made into a person and God isn’t that way at all. They call God “He” and tell of about it “Speaking”, “Loving”, “Smiting”, talk about “his face” and “his hands” and all these things. God is not a person. It makes me sick how these little things reduce it to a person. It is vaster, so much more intangible. No, you can’t relate with it because it’s bigger than you. It’s not a person, it just is. In my head, God is the cause of everything.3

I can’t feel like there’s anything I can do to worship or show respect to God. I find it useless to pray because I feel like God can see my thoughts anyways. Ceremonies are just ridiculous. I can’t understand loving God. I can understand respect for God because he is the reason for it all.4

I don’t agree with the Bible. I believe it is a collection of legends with moral properties. Yes, perhaps these things actually happened and some things have been proven to have happened but I don’t believe they happened as literally as the Bible describes them.5

I don’t believe in the holiness of Jesus. I believe he existed but I don’t see how he is considered any more important than, say, Moses. He was a prophet of that period. I even believe his whole supposed purpose was bogus because that just brings us back to pointless ceremonies.6

I believe in the worth of each individual person on this earth despite their actions, appearances, or beliefs and that no person can rightfully be discriminate of another without reasonable cause of a wrong action. Even then, it should not cross the line into violence and unkindness. I believe every person should truly attempt to be good to each other at all times, no matter what. Violence is only okay when a person’s life is in jeopardy and it is in self-defense or in defense of another who’s life is in jeopardy. It is everyone’s responsibility to care for one another.7

I don’t believe in abortion because the reality of it is that it is murder of a person although I find it very understandable why a person would do it because I believe it is best to have children when one is properly prepared. However, I do believe the best decision a person can make morally is to go through with the birth and give the child to a couple who cannot have one on their own.8

I believe that it is okay to be homosexual as long as it is truly out of love. I believe that some people are born gay and absolutely cannot find the opposite sex sexually attractive enough to procreate. I believe it is more wrong for a person to lie and be with a person of the opposite sex who they do not love or just be by themselves and be sad and alone for the rest of their life. Homosexuals are exactly the same as heterosexuals. Not all homosexuals are promiscuous just as not all heterosexuals are promiscuous. If more are it’s just a culture and a stereotype that some have been dragged into. Anyone can be dragged into trends and lifestyles.9

To kill another man is only alright out of necessity which is to save the life of yourself or another. It can’t be right to say you should have sat still while the murderer ran loose, killing and inflicting more pain on others.10

I do not believe in a literal heaven or hell. They are simply an eternal state of being after death which is either peace or torment. People only invented heaven and hell to feel that everything will be justified in the end. I do not believe a person’s placement in either heaven or hell is determined by their beliefs but rather by their morality. If a person lives in a totally opposite end of the world and is never once introduced to the “right” religion but lives a moral life, I don’t believe it is right to believe that they went to hell for never worshipping correctly. Part of me does not believe in an afterlife at all. Just nothingness.11

The devil, angels, demons, and ghosts do not exist. They are simply made up, legendary beings to represent an ancient interpretation of life and death. Their functions are the same as the many gods of the ancient Greeks.12

God does not act as obviously and immediately as people pretend he does. I believe that he is simply there. Everything that will happen to us all falls into place but I can’t believe that God just sits there like, “Hmm, well she seems to have prayed hard enough; I think I’ll let her dad live…” or “WHAT’S THIS?! BLASPHEMY?!!” and throws lightening bolts from the heavens on some unaware victim below. You can’t alter fate. I don’t care what you say.13

Because God is not human, I don’t think he feels. He just is. He’s the force behind things, that is all. Thus, you can’t offend him.14

That’s bullshit to say that certain words are frowned upon by God. Words are words. There’s nothing personal behind that. Fuck means sex. Shit means poop. Cunt means vagina. Hell is a nonexistant place. Damn it just means curse it. So, technically, are sex, poop, vagina, and curse it all bad to say? NO. They’re taboo. They deal with private matters and make people feel uncomfortable. That’s just downright stupid to say that it’s a sin to say any of those words.15

It’s not right for religion to preach that those who are weak question the word of God (i.e. the Bible or whatever…). That right there is brainwashing. What sets human beings apart from other animals is that we are more adept to reason. It is naïve to take the word of a stranger as truth without investigation, is it not? Once you begin to question, however, people panic. It gets uncomfortable. A religious institution that has thrived for hundreds of years gets unsteady. Its foundations have been strung together weakly. The only thing keeping it together is fear – fear of being weak, fear of being wrong.16

I believe that the biggest reason people are involved in religion is because they don’t want to be left out.17

I believe it is selfish for a human to believe that it is any better than a dog or a cow. We are all the same. Just because humans are the dominant species doesn’t make them any more important than another animal.18

On the same note, I do not believe that it is necessarily wrong for humans to eat meat. Lions eat meat, as do bears. They are not bad; that’s how they survive. If we are all the same, we would still be the same as a lion. Vegans and vegetarians aren’t necessarily wrong. If a person is uncomfortable eating meat, that’s fine.19

The meaning of life is to actively spread love and happiness.20

I seriously considered Buddhism for a little while. Firstly, I found that Buddhism is not necessarily a religion. It has been made one by those who have thrown in gods and whatnot into the mix but I believe in its pure form it was simply a philosophy, or a way of looking at life. After investigating this philosophy I decided that I did agree with it but I found myself unable to follow it. I cannot decide if it is because I am selfish or not, but I felt like it would steal my soul, if that makes sense. The purpose of Buddhism is the elimination of pain. To eliminate pain, one must eliminate wanting. To eliminate wanting, one must eliminate attachments. This includes of people and, what I interpreted to be, also my art and all my most beloved and valued forms of self-expression. It’s not saying I can’t do them but I have to take my feelings out of them. I am practicing, in other words, to remove my soul from everything I do. I’m not ready to do that, nor do I think I ever will be.21

Buddhism is not that different from Christianity.22

I have lost my faith in religion.23