I am not a very religious person. Does this make me a bad person? I don’t think so. I was raised Catholic but had no real idea of what that meant. I only knew that Heaven was good and Hell was bad – if you were good you would go to Heaven and if you were bad, you would go to Hell. There were various degrees of goodness and various degrees of being bad. My parents really didn’t enforce going to church or praying – we didn’t really do anything religious until we became practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses.
My parents decided to practice the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witness faith and things briefly changed in our house for a few years. I really can’t remember the extent of that change but do know that we began at home bible study groups and were all of a sudden going to church every week. Being a teenager at the time, I was not happy about these study groups or going to church regularly. I can’t remember how strict our family was in terms of birthday/holiday celebrations – as Jehovah’s Witnesses, we were not allowed to partake in these festivities. This phase lasted a few years and as we become older we were given the opportunity to continue these studies or not, most of us didn’t.
So, to recap….I grew up knowing little about the religious denomination my parents instilled onto their children – which was Catholic. We then began practicing the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses – during this time, I attended a school that had a huge Jewish student body. In any event – religion didn’t really become something I took seriously. I came to the conclusion that religion was the cause of much bloodshed and was invented to keep society under tight control. Do I believe the same thing today?
Today – religious ideologies have reinforced my beliefs that religion is a means of control. Much of the negative news stories on television or in the news revolve around wars, death and destruction based on different religious views. In North America, many people vote based on the religious beliefs of their members of parliament, which in turn can dictate policy based on those religious beliefs. I believe that religious beliefs should not intervene with government/political policies. I also believe that religion isn’t all bad – the only time I have a problem with religion is when it is used to incite hate and persecute those who don’t fit to the specifications of the various religious denominations. Religion has enforced that we are all sinners but that some sins are much more serious than others. To me, ostracizing women for wanting to preach the word of God is not really inclusive. Eating shellfish shouldn’t be grounds for putting someone to death (even though I don’t support eating any meat what-so-ever). The rules in the bible don’t give any clear definition as to why those rules exist – in my mind, they were written by men who wanted to have complete control of those who may have thought differently.
How can I function without any faith in a higher power? I truly don’t know. Whenever I think of giving myself a label in reference to whether or not I believe in God, I can only think of Agnostic. I don’t really believe that there has been substantial evidence the supports the existence of God – the stories were fantastic and inspiring but very sensationalistic and meant to instill fear in people. In the same breath – I am uncomfortable in saying that a God-like energy doesn’t exist. There is much that is unexplained that leads me to believe that there is definitely something much bigger than all of us. Call it God, call it Allah, call it Jehovah, the Divine, Energy, Ra, Universe, etc., whatever it is, it is all-loving, supportive, non-judgemental, compassion, kind and caring which is definitely not what most of today’s modern preacher’s are telling their parishioner’s.
My religion is based out of the simple teaching that we should treat others how we want to be treated, with LOVE. LOVE is my religion and with love, we can definitely become beacons of positive change.
COALITION OF POSITIVE ENERGY 
Certainly, one does NOT need religion to be a good person.
a lot of youngsters do not take religion something to be looked at seriously. Only in later years, mostly when children arrive, perhaps the situation changes and more value is given to the quest for life and the search to know the reasons of us being here and use of our life.
If you would read the Bible (Old and New Testament) you will find enough reasons why there are certain rules in life. The Bible gives many reasons or definitions as to why those rules or commandments exist. It also tells us why we have received those many Books from God.
You say “Call it God, call it Allah” but is twice the same: god is a tittle and allah also means god or a higher being. Next to the many gods the world has (and the Bible also speaks of) there is the Most High Allah, The God of gods, the Elohim, whose Name is Jehovah., Call Jehovah, the Divine, Energy, Ra, Universe, etc., is simply indicating character elements of this eternal Spirit The “I Am Who Is” .
You continue your writing with saying”My religion is based out of the simple teaching that we should treat others how we want to be treated, with Love” and shouts again “Love” But what is than your religion of love. We do agree with love, we can definitely become beacons of positive change. This is also what many preachers like Abraham, Isaac, Iasaiah, Joshua, Jeremiah, Zeccharia, Jeshua (Jesus Christ), Ghandi, a.o tried to convince the world of.
But a religion is more than trying to be good, atheists do that as well. So who or what do you worship?
Thanks for your comments….I believe that goodness/kindness/love/compassion are traits we all have and are able to give to others. We don’t necessarily need religion. I don’t believe in God as portrayed by Christians…for me God is me, you, the planet, nature, the universe…we are all connected through energy…I don’t really worship anything or anyone. I have deep and profound love for our planet, the earth, nature and animals. For me, that is my universe – that is my “God”, that is what I worship and will do anything I can do protect. I don’t condemn anyone who believes otherwise and I hope they don’t condemn me because of what they believe.
It is true we should not need any religion to do good. Religion may be a help to get the aims right and to get to the right goal.
Everybody in the world should also be allowed to have their own thoughts as long as they respect the thoughts of others and do no harm to the community or humanity.
Worshipping the self is always a possibility people have, and most of them choose that, because it is the closest to them, but does not place them in the reality of others and the total universe. When young the person hopes to believe everything turns around him or her, but by getting older he or she shall come to see that the world evolves not around the individual and that the “I” is not the centre of the world.
According to the Bible the God, the “I am who I Am” is in each of the creatures in the universe (man, animal, plant). Without the personal ‘I am” it is impossible to be so impossible to live. If you do not love yourself first you shall not be able to love others.
You say you do not like the God as portrayed by Christians, but than we wonder which portrayal you consider those Christians do have? First of all we also should have to ask at what sort of Christians are you then looking and who is the God of those Christians you are looking at. There are Christians who worship only one God, the True Divine Supreme Creator Deity, and others who worship three gods of which Jesus is their main god. The God of Jesus is the God of Abraham and is the only one God we should worship. Jesus, the son of God, and not God, taught about his heavenly Father and he wanted to make it clear to mankind Who his heavenly Father is and how we have to relate to Him, but also how we have to relate to other creatures in the universe. He also showed how God not wants us to condemn any body, believer or non-believer, so a Christian should certainly not condemn any body else than himself.