I sometimes get frustrated with my friends. Especially lately with regard to religion. (S, I swear this has nothing to do with your posts or your discussions around religion because you are open to discussion and respectful of others' beliefs).
I'm frustrated because I'm in a Catholic school and so there's days where we have celebrations and masses and things that relate to being Catholic. And I really don't care what your faith is if you have any, but don't judge me and mine. I am very open of others' beliefs. I honestly could care less what you believe in. I could care less if you belief in no sex before marriage or that unicorns are real. I just don't think it's okay to force your beliefs on other people no matter what.
I think some people have stupid beliefs. I think it's stupid that you believe homosexuality is wrong or abortion is wrong or that women are slaves to men because your book of worship tells you so. I think your beliefs are absolutely ridiculous if those are your beliefs. But they are yours. And as long as you don't put any of those beliefs into action, you can keep believing that garbage.
I don't believe in those things. I identify with the Catholic faith because that's the way I was raised. That doesn't mean I agree with everything that they promote and believe in. Overall I identify with the Catholic Church because I have faith. I have a belief in God even when I don't understand it. I believe in community, and treating others well, and making sacrifices for the good of others sometimes because I just believe in integrity. I believe in being a good person, in doing your absolute best to leave this earth with people who will miss you for who you are as a person.
Lately, lots of people have made some comments to me. Like tomorrow is Spiritual Development day for my school. And I got the comment, "sooo what do you do like yoga all day?" Well to me, that's ignorant. If you are genuinely interested in what that means, ask. Another girl made her facebook status something along the lines of "people's blind faith in an invisible man and a book makes me lose faith in humanity".
Lately, I've been going through some heavy things and God and my relationship with him is one of the only things keeping me going. And if you don't identify with any sort of faith (I say faith because there are spiritualities that in my opinion warrant just as much, or more regard than so-called religions) you cannot understand. And I don't mean that in an ignorant way, I mean that in a genuinely, honest way.
I don't think there's anything wrong with not believing. There's an old adage, "for those who believe, no proof is necessary. for those who don't believe, no proof is possible". And I think that's true. I am not going to try and convince you to believe that there's a God or some other being and you are stupid and ignorant for not believing. I don't think that. I think you just believe in science and logic and the tangible world and that's perfectly okay. I don't discount science but I think there are some things that science cannot explain and that I attribute to God. That's MY belief.
I guess what I'm saying is that I just think it's difficult because, I'm generalizing here but for the most part it's like people who are extremely religious are forcing their views on the non-religious saying they will go to a hell they don't even believe in etc. While on the other end, the non-religious are forcing their views on the religious saying they are stupid and out-dated etc.
I'm not an extremist. I have faith. I also respect science. I also respect if you don't have a faith. I think for me it's just so sad that we can't just have open conversation about our beliefs are find the benefits in diversity rather than trying to homogenize our entire world.
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