Hello all. So, I have been thinking a lot lately about religion. It is a slippery slope, I suppose. A slope that could lead to heated debate and anger, but, I am going to chime in with my opinion and what I believe to be true.
With that said, I am a "nature and science" type person. If I were going to put myself in a religion box, it would most likely be Wiccan. However, I am a deep believer in Science and Logic. On the religious side of things, I have none. I have never had a religion. I wasn't forced into a religion by my parents. I truly believe that they wanted me to believe whatever I wanted to believe. Even if, at the end of the day, that meant I was an Atheist that didn't believe in a God at all. They wanted it to be my choice. I have a son now and I too, want it to be his choice. I don't want him to be forced to make decisions about his soul until he has the potential to understand what religion is. I want him to believe what makes sense to him.
Having said this, I will now say that I am, in fact, a believer. However, that does not mean I have a blind faith, or that I follow scripture or even truly believe the Bible to be a good reference point for my life. I still believe that Science and Logic should be used when practicing your "faith." Science allows for ALL possibilities. In my experience, faith is not always so limitless. Perhaps, that is the wrong wording. Faith, itself, can be limitless, but, religion perhaps not. I know that not all religions are the same. I also know that not all practitioners are the same. However, History shows that there are a lot more people that believe religion to be a thing of absolutes than a fluid, liquid thing. I believe that, according to Science and Biology, there has to be a male, God, and a female, Goddess. That's just how it works. Men can't make people by themselves. IF the "Eve came from Adam's rib" story was true, it would, in fact be, Adam and Steve. If a person was made from Adam's rib, it would have to be another male. Scientifically speaking, you can clone people, well things, but, they are exact copies of the original. If I took a rib out to make a person, that person would be a copy of me in it's entirety. It would not be a male copy of me.
Now most of the reason the religious debate has been running rampant through my head is that the father of my child, the man I hope to marry, is Catholic. In order for me, an unbaptized heathen, to be able to marry him without him giving up his rights as a Catholic, our marriage has to receive the blessing of the Church. I felt like I should write my thoughts down a bit before I had to tell the Father about my stance. My beliefs are slightly less than traditional, especially where a Catholic priest would be involved. I believe in God, but I also in Goddess. I believe that there has to be both, because without one there can't be the other. I believe it is necessary to balance all things. Without Light, there can't be Dark. Without Famine, there can't be Feast. I believe that it is important to teach love. I believe it is important to teach acceptance. I believe it is important to do no harm. I believe it is important to have kindness. I believe it is important to be good and do good. I don't believe it matters what "team" you play for. I don't believe you have to be baptized to get into Heaven. I believe that if there is a Heaven and you are a kind, loving, decent person then, you're in. I will also say that the "being kind" bit is something that my Mamaw instilled in me. She had no active religion, but, she taught me to be kind to everyone because "you never know who could be Jesus." It's silly, but, it's true. I believe that if we are judged, it is by the actions that nobody else really sees. We are judged by the people we are "at home." Not the people we pretend to be at work, or in church. Let's face it, everyone is on their best behavior in church. The same guy that gambled away their child's college tuition is a saint in the church. The same woman that cheats on her husband while he's away...yeah...she's a saint at church. That person that cussed at homeless person....they're all there...gleaming in their holiness at church.
The true answer to my question of faith, for me, is no. Religion scares the shit out of me. There have so many terrible, awful, unspeakable things done in the name of religion. So, why would I want to be on the side of anyone or anything that has caused so much devastation? The truth is, I don't. I don't want to sign my soul away to an organization that perpetrated so much violence for their cause. The truth of the matter is that God and Goddess are ALL things. THEY are everywhere. They aren't just in church. They are in the cool air after a sweltering heat. They are in the rain after a drought. They are in the laugh of my son. They are in the light of his eyes. They are in me, so, I don't NEED to be on any one religion's "side." Religion, all religion, is based on a book(or a version of)written by Man thousands of years ago. That book doesn't have all the answers. That book was meant to be read by people that aren't as smart as we are now. We know SO much now, why does this book that was written all these years ago have to be the ONLY explanation for things? There are no dinosaurs in the Bible, and yet, we know they existed because we have their bones as proof. Thousands of years ago, we KNEW the Earth was flat. Today we KNOW that isn't true. Thousands of years ago we KNEW that God created Man. Today we know that might not be true, at least not Man as we are today. Our genetic code is so similar to everything else that Darwin's theory of Evolution makes sense. If we aren't evolved from the same source, then how can our code be so similar to everything else? The Big Bang theory makes sense to me. BOOM! And there was a speck of life. That life turned into more lives. Each of those lives because one version of something, and then another, and then another, all based on need. If evolution didn't exist....we would all be fish. There wouldn't be people because the Earth was mostly water for so much time. We evolved to things that crawled because we needed to. We evolved to things that walked because we needed to. Nature works in terms of need.
That may go against some of my other beliefs, but, I can accept that all my beliefs don't agree. I don't believe in Adam and Eve. I believe in God AND Goddess. I believe that Jesus existed and he was persecuted and he died because no one believed what he wanted to teach. I believe that he was a beautiful human being and that some of his "followers" could stand to be more like him. I believe that you can't have two faces. I don't believe that there HAS to be a Heaven for me to do good, be good, and put good into the Universe. I believe that it just the right thing to do. I believe that I can judge no one for their sins and transgressions because I have my own.
At the end of all this...I believe I have answered my own question. Not to be. Not all religious people are awful, hateful, judgmental people. Some of them are just religious. I don't think it is wrong to have a religion. I just don't want one. Religions are mostly awful. Most, in their own right, have done terrible things in the name of their specific religion. Just because someone doesn't believe exactly the way you do doesn't mean they are wrong. It means that their faith moves them in a different direction. Just the fact that there ARE so many religions would lead me to believe that there has always been at least a few folks that disagreed with one set of beliefs somewhere along the way. So, how can any one religion be better than another? This is especially true for all forms of the Christian religions. If there is, in fact, only God in the Christian religion, why are there so many different sects? Shouldn't there be just one church? One god. One church. But, there are hundreds of sects of Christianity, so, who's wrong? Who's right? None of them if their religion and their teachings are more important than being kind and good.
Be good. Be kind. Keep your soul for yourself until it's time for you to give it back. Because I also believe that maybe if you give your soul over to a religion....you soul inherits all the wrong-doing of that religion. Your soul becomes forever tainted by the actions and misdeeds of the people before you. Love everyone. Even the people you hate. Love them, just a little.
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