As a kid, still struggling putting together a simple
LEGO castle, my Mother underlined one of her rare social comments: “never discuss religion and/or faith with
anybody”. Even back then it sounded logically understandable, as both
issues are very personal – as in extremely sensitive. I have (religiously!)
followed my Mother’s advice; but when it comes to religions using some follower’s
faith and trust to do shaky things in
the name of, I do wonder, as in: I don’t
get it… (Sorry Mom).
We all live with a wide range of emotions. We can be
happy, sad, annoyed, ticked off, euphoric, angry, satisfied, pissed, in love, disappointed
and so forth. What I’m concerned, one of the strongest emotions we carry around
is faith, where trust is the dominating factor. When faith is being manipulated by
misusing the trust involved, in the name
of, my eyes start to roll, because I
don’t get it…
As a society we have always tip-toed around religion
and faith. Governments and politicians are careful not to insult anybody
associated with religion and faith, by negating being disrespectful,
derogatory (I nearly wrote: God forbid) and anything that could even slightly
be a talking down to. US currency even says:
In God We Trust; doesn’t
matter if you believe in God or any gods at all. But WE put our trust in God? No disrespect, but that is a wide
assumption, isn’t it? Or is it just political tip-toing and something nobody
dare remove, because what if…?
Before you get all flustered or upset, let me make
one thing very clear. I do not believe in God or any gods. I do not believe in
Hell or Heaven. I think the Bible has a lot of grand stuff and a lot that are
not so grand – I like most of the Ten Commandments (some good rules to live
by!) and so forth. But you see, I am not against religions and/or faith as a
rule, but I am against religions and/or faith when it is being blatantly
misused as a tool with lots of threats of punishment to misguide some believers
beyond what their religion’s origin was, what it was supposed to say and do for
you; something grand to trust,
something awesome to have true faith in.
Religion with faith involved is one thing; faith in any
religion is quite another. I have the deepest respect for individuals who has a
solid faith in God, any god, faith in a life after this, the guidance and
comfort received from believing, having trust in something they consider bigger
than what we are getting here on Earth. I have the greatest respect, and I have
never mixed that respect with ignorance by announcing my “beliefs” relative to.
Yes, my Mother was right, it is a huge personal thing and I have always and will
always respect that.
One of my concerns is when religions start to
control some believers, some of the members of the church as an institution. Or the members who
let themselves be controlled; I can only conclude, with the: you never know being a dominant (fear?)
factor. I was concerned when Tammy Baker’s make-up was running amok while
asking for millions from the viewers, in
the name of God. I’m concerned when so-called preachers are raking in the
almighty dollars in the name of Jesus
Christ, etc. You get the idea and “yes” I know that these are the bad
apples, praying with while preying on, to me, some naïve and ignorant “believers”. I
know this is the sleazy side of the issue, but I’m still amazed it happens
every single day.
True believers will call them fanatics, no doubt,
the ones who are encouraged to strap on explosives with promises of a serene
life after, in the name of. Consider
that most wars fought through the centuries, were/are initiated with in the name of – and so forth. That’s
what I don’t understand… Do you? If you do, please let me know what I’m not
getting.
When we believe and acknowledge that we find
comfort, hope, faith and guidance in anything, being a god, a religion, ourselves,
another person or whatever or whoever, we are seriously not bad off. But I also
truly believe that we need to be in control of these feelings and not let these
feelings control us. Follow guidance is all fine, but I think it is essential
that we always know and see where we
are going, where we want to go and never lose track of our goals. Faith is that personal…
Faith is such a personal emotion; that cannot be
argued to any extent. So I accept and respect. Of course I expect the same
acceptance and respect for my beliefs, my life-style and my thoughts; which
cannot be argued either. Sure you are welcome to roll your eyes and shake your
head – to some extent I would understand – I would not agree, but I would
understand, huh?
I want to finish with a piece I wrote many years ago; now be nice and remember my respect for individual faith. When I look back in history, acknowledge that so many wars fought, so many millions of
people killed, have to a high degree been fought and are still being fought, in the name of a god or a religion,
etc. I am very perplexed. So I wanted to get my thoughts cleared
up and wrote the following:
Religions,
as in plural, still initiate wars, slugging it out and killing each other, supposedly
with the blessings of their gods, imaginary or not, in their convictions to try
to persuade the other side, in the matter of life, faith or death, that their (imaginary?)
god is better or for other related reasons – in
the name of...
Where
do we find common sense or any form of logic in this? What is it that we cannot
understand? Making any sense of killing and destroying our fellow human beings in the name of, no matter how much of a
believer you are and no matter how seemingly communal the cause, doesn’t that fully
go against what faith and religion is? And what about the commandment: Thou shalt not kill? As far as I know, that
specific commandment did not come
with amendments.
If
religion (also) helps believers cope with the fear of death, which seems to be
one of the cores of intention in many religions, I am fine with that. But when
we look at the “unintended” consequences of embracing the irrational philosophy
of killing each other in the process of making you a believer or prove a
religious point, I do not understand. To me, it’s religion with confusion; damnation
in Hell is secured by ignoring Thou shalt
not kill – the scriptures, bibles and Koran’s and what have you, do not say anything contrary. So believers are judged
– no matter what imaginary leader is followed, no matter how much he (or she)
says: thou shall not follow any other
gods – (or something to that effect...) as this obviously catches some
believers between faith and an extremely
hard immoral place. Do you know something different?
A good friend, who used to live next door, would be
on her way to church Sunday mornings. I would kiddingly ask her to put in a few
good words for me to the Big Guy in the
Sky. Carole would always laugh and yet again tell me that she had tried several
times, but He had told her that He gave up on Peter a long time ago – perhaps
that explains a few things, huh?
PS. Next post will be a lot lighter – I believe…
No comments:
Post a Comment