I DONT HATE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE but THEY MAY HATE ME.

Many believe me to be very harsh against people who have Christian beliefs and values.  I don’t.  What I am against is what some religions teach.

Many of us have been told that God is always watching and that we should fear him.  Why fear a God that apparently loves and ALL of His children?  Is God a voyeur?  If he is always watching, how come he hasn’t interfered in helping the homeless or punishing the greedy?  Many people have claimed that God caused many of the environmental catastrophe’s today because of gay marriage.  To them, I say:  “Why is God only interested in causing devastation in order to drive YOUR point?” These “rule’s” weren’t God’s rules, they were the rules of men who felt uncomfortable or threatened by things they didn’t understand or fear.

In my world, women can practice religion, they can vote, they can decide not to be with their spouses without any recourse of death, they can drive cars, they can voice their opinions if they disagree with their spouses and they can do whatever they want with their bodies without feeling shamed or ridiculed.

In my world, people who are struggling to buy food, eat healthy, get an education and have access to health care should not be told that it is their own fault they are in this predicament.  They should be supported and given a chance to create a better life for themselves and their children.

In my world, people should not be denied to love someone of the same-sex.  Shouldn’t we be encouraging love to flourish and grow so that society can flourish and grow.

In my world, wars would not be a means of showing my disagreement with policies of another country.  I would engage in conversation and dialogue not wave my military might around in order to instil my own countries beliefs.

So what has religion taught me?  It has taught me that there are many people who are puppets and who are afraid to ask questions.  Religion has taught me that there are many followers.  Religion has taught me that there are those who use it to secure their place in the world through politics.  Religion has taught me that you only win through violence and obedience.  Religion has taught me that there is much hate in the world.  Religion has taught me that there is much ignorance in the world.  Religion has taught me that there is much divide and separation in the world.  Where is the love?  Where is the compassion?  Where is the tolerance?

All of the above sounds very anti-love and anti-religion, doesn’t it?  To that I say, “Why is it that what you believe outweigh what I believe?”  I may not believe in what is written in a ‘holy book’.  I certainly do not believe what religious doctrine has preached as the word of whatever God or prophet or idol others believe in but this doesn’t make me any better than those who believe this.

What if there was a religion that made no judgements on others?  It’s okay to be a woman and have a voice.  It’s okay to help others.  It’s okay to be different.  It’s okay that you have a tattoo.  It’s okay that you are Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Christian, Rastafarian, pagan, atheist or whatever.  What is not okay is to judge, oppress, divide, conquer and hate.

So I ask, which world would you rather live in?  A world that dictates everything you should believe or a world that allows you to ask questions and not be a follower?

Together, we can make the world a more positive one!

MY RELIGION

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.

Together, we can make the world a more positive one! 

SPIRITUALITY and RELIGION

Before we look at spirituality and religion, let us define the words spiritual and religious.

Spiritual – adj. 1  of or concerning the spirit as opposed to matter.  2  concerned with sacred or religious things; holy, divine; inspired 3  (of the mind etc.) refined, sensitive; not concerned with the material.  4  (of a relationship etc.) concerned with the soul or spirit etc., not with external reality (his spiritual home). 

Religious – adj. & n.  adj. 1  devoted to religion; pious, devout.  2  of or concerned with religion.  3  of or belonging to a monastic order.  4  scrupulous, conscientious (a religious attention to detail).

Religion – n. 1  the belief in a superhuman controlling power, esp. in a personal God or gods entitled to obedience and worship.  2  the expression of this in worship.  3  a particular system of faith and worship.  4  life under monastic vows (the way of religion).  5  a thing the one is devoted to (football is their religion).

***Definitions from The Concise Oxford Dictionary – Ninth Edition***

Looking at the above definitions – in my past, I can’t say that we were devoted to religion.  I grew up Catholic but was rarely in church and never really studied ‘the bible’.  The extent of our religious practice was:  if you are bad or behave badly, you will be sent to Hell and if you were good, you would be accepted into Heaven.  We all have images of what the differences between Hell and Heaven are – think about them for a moment………..Did you envision Hell as a fiery pit were only damned souls are forever tortured and ruled over by a ghastly beast with horns, a tail and pitchfork?  Was Heaven a solace place with winged angels gently floating around and people happily walking around clouds smiling and reunited with their long deceased loved ones ?  That was the extent of my religious upbringing until my parents decided to try a new faith – Jehovah’s Witness.  

When our family studied to become Jehovah’s Witnesses it involved much more dedication to learning about God and all the stories of the bible.  We generally attended church on Sundays for about 2-3 hours and had bible study group on Thursday nights for a few hours.  We gave up birthday’s and Christmas and were told that blood transfusions were not accepted – but were not given specific reasons as to why we couldn’t do any of these things.

I didn’t necessarily see anything wrong with religion and was captivated by the stories of Adam and Eve and The Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, Noah, Moses, Sodom and Gomorrah, David and Goliath, Jesus and the horrors that await us as accounted in the final book of The New Testament, in Revelation.  What I understood about religion (at such a young age) was that it was a method used to control those who are or would become unruly.  Another thing I took away from my brief religious experience was how disconnected religion made me feel.  I felt religion instilled fear, anxiety and paranoia into people to make them believe all the stories the apparently were ‘the word of God’ through the interpretations of man.

Needless-to-say, our brief stint into the world of the Jehovah’s Witness faith ended and my parents returned to their devotion to the Catholic faith.  My siblings and I, on the other hand, were left in a religious abyss – how do we proceed, what do we believe, who do we follow, what is the truth?  We were left to find our religious beliefs to ourselves and most of us just slipped back to what was comfortable with us – our Catholic upbringing, which was not religious in any sense except that we believed in God, the devil, heaven and hell (or at least that is what I understood).

Today – I am not very religious.  That is to say, I don’t really believe the stories that captivated me as a younger individual, I see them as fantasy now.  I am amazed at how many wars and conflicts rage across the world based on religious beliefs.  How can you trust an institution that preaches words of acceptance, love and compassion when many of their preachers and parishioners believe homosexuality is a sin “it is right there in The Bible”.  I guess God really messed up when he created women, people of colour, and homosexuals (said very sarcastically).

People – especially those who are inclined to believe The Bible and the belief in a superhuman controlling power, esp. in a personal God or gods entitled to obedience and worship – become very offended when I tell them my religious views.  I am told, “I haven’t found my way” or that I am “lost” or “you are very unfortunate not to have God in your life”.  First thing – I haven’t found my way because I am not lost and God is in my life everyday – but not that “superhuman controlling power” that you believe in.  People are adamant that their beliefs are the right ones and those without any religious beliefs are lost and condemned but what makes their religious belief system ‘the end all and be all of religious beliefs’?

I live my life the best way I know how.  I don’t maliciously hurt people and I haven’t killed anyone.  I am generally a good person and try to contribute to society.  I pay my fair in taxes, I choose not to have children, I advocate for animals and our planet.  I do believe that there is something bigger than all of us – this doesn’t make me religious and it certainly doesn’t make me right.  What I have learned is that I can be an amalgamation of spirituality and religion and be really happy with that.  I believe in science and in a higher power – I don’t think one could exist without the other.  Is this a conundrum?  Is it contradicting?  I don’t know.  But what I do know is that my beliefs are not as right or as wrong as anyone else’s.  I am not perfect, but who is?  I try to live my life out of love, compassion and non-judgement everyday – but as I said, I am not perfect.

I do not dislike Christians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, or any person that associates themselves with a religious denomination – what I do dislike is those who use religion to hide behind their hate and prejudices.  Please do not quote your Bible references to me as I believe those words were written my men to keep society in check.  If you happen to be right about your religion and its stories, then I will either be condemned to Hell for eternity or God will forgive my sins and allow me into Heaven.  Until then – don’t judge me, don’t take my rights away, don’t demonize me, don’t justify violence against me and most of all don’t hate me because ultimately you are hating yourself.

Together we can make the world a more positive one.