I don’t share it very often, but with posting my YouTube videos, Religion and perspectives on it, against it, and for it have occupied a significant portion of my energy – and it seems more and more that people aren’t interested in a dialogue, but more into just spouting off what they think. Today, my friend, who I have not discussed this with but who is often in my thoughts on this topic, posted her own blog post. I would like to share her words with everyone:
I am going to start this off with a simple statement: I do not believe in God.
I got into a bit of an argument earlier today with someone on a Facebook post. My friend was mocking the people who go door to door with the crazy religious pamphlets about how the world is evil and it’s ending and why we’re all going to hell. I had said that those things are funny and I mentioned that I lost my faith when I was a teenager when “God started murdering all of my friends”. This was a bit of a hyperbole and not quite correct, it was more like God let my friends die, and it was only two, but when you’re 13-14, that’s a lot to loose to violent murder. Never mind that I lost 3 family members around the same time. To a kid, who had no real other form of support, I had felt betrayed. I had prayed and done my devotions and gone to church camp and really did believe. I used to walk down my street when I was a little girl and pretend that Jesus was walking beside me and I would talk to Him and tell him my hopes and fears. I was a child. I did not understand why horrible things would happen to me and when Jenny and Jake were killed, it mostly ended my relationship with God. The real clincher was when the church and youth group that I was apart of decided to ostracize me for not converting my friends to Christianity and basically saying it was okay for them to go to Hell. I had decided, when I was little, that there was no one true way, because I couldn’t figure out why God would let people who had never heard of Him die and go to Hell when they had no chance to ever choose to follow Him. I figured that the people who had other religions were just seeing another part of God.
The person who chose to argue the point with me wanted to point out that if I believed in God, that I must believe in Satan. I will say that my Orthodox upbringing followed by random sundays at a different church every time lead to a mishmash of religious upbringing. I remember talking more about Mary than Satan. I can’t remember when Satan was ever mentioned and when these awful things happened, nobody mention Satan. All they could say to me was “God has another plan for them” or “It was God’s will” and other similar platitudes. I became bitter against God.
As I got older, I found that the Christians that I had lumped myself in with were really preaching Hate. Hate against people who were not the same. Hate against non-Christians, GLBT, and anybody who was a little different. Which I found so against what I thought were Christ’s teachings that I fell even more out of interest with the church.
The person I was talking with went on to say in previous comments and against mine that Christians have a hard life and that the world is a horrible place to live. I disagree. In modern society, it is easier to say that you’re a Christian to fit into mainstream society. I also find that the world holds many wonders. I find that I am inspired and awed by the world around me, and I feel joy that there are so many great people in my life and I try to appreciate them all for who they are. It is my opinion that we make the world what we want it to be, and if you want your life to be horrible, then it will be so by your own doing. I have had some fucked up shit happen to me and I let it get to me for a long time. I am turning my attitude around and trying to be more optimistic than pessimistic, which is difficult in the face of adversity.
A little bit later, I was on Facebook again, and a different friend had posted a video. I watched the video, it was mostly text and music. It told the story of a supposed USC professor of philosophy who had taught for 20 years, teaching that God did not exist and would scare everybody. As the story goes, at the end of the semester he always would say “Who believes in God? If you do, then stand up!” and nobody would, then he would drop a piece of chalk and say something like “If God existed, he could stop this chalk from breaking and prove that he exists. It wouldn’t be much!” and he would drop it and it would shatter. Until one day, a young Christian decided to stand up and the professor became so flustered that someone would stand up to him that he called the kid a fool and the chalk slipped from his hands, hit his arm and pants as it fell and rolled to the ground. Therefore proving God and the professor ran from the room and the kid who stood up stayed in the classroom and spent the next 3 hours talking about Jesus and how God loves 300 people who were in the class. It went on to say things like “faith is the most important thing” “how could you not question the newspaper but you do question the Bible” etc etc.
I would think that to have true faith, you must question and doubt and come to find yourself still believing. That is the proof of true faith- to show that you have thought it through and found that these answers fit your perceived reality. To question and still believe shows a stronger faith than to never really think about what you believe in.
I have friends of every religion under the sun: Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, Pagan, Athiest, Agnostic, Church of Satan, Pastafarian… and I respect all of their beliefs. I am fortunate to have so many world views in my friends.
Live. Learn. Love. Have Faith. Be open minded.
Nobody actually knows what happens when we die. This is the only life we have to live. Make the best of it.
