A
conversation I've had before. Random Christian: 'So why don't you
have a religion?' Me: 'I just don't.' Random Christian: 'Poor
you, I don't see how someone could even admit that.'
To begin,
I know not every religious person is like this. There are people with
a faith perfectly happy to accept that there are people who don't.
Unfortunately there's an awful lot who aren't. My background with
religion is pretty simple. Both my parents are atheists and I was
brought up to respect that some people did and some people didn't.
Primary school would make us sing hymns and pray, but I wasn't
particularly concerned, at the ages of five to ten I was never
concerned about what other people thought on the topic. I personally
thought it a bit silly to think there was a man who we couldn't see
but created everything. We learnt all the basic stories, again which
I thought silly but enjoyed simply because any young kid likes
stories. When secondary school started I understood a little more
about how people saw belief systems, and grew more defensive,
particularly in RE in which we had a Christian teacher. But the area
where I grew up in (and still live in) has never been very religious,
and there was never much discussion about it. Now I'm older and know
a lot more, I see religion differently. I find I'm now considered old
enough to be spoken to by Mormons, and have Jehovah's Witnesses
handing leaflets to me. I know a lot more, I understand a lot more,
and my opinions are plentiful.
I'm not ashamed to not have a
religion. I try not to use the term 'atheist' because I'm very open
to the concept. I'm not a fan of agnostic either, because in all
honesty I don't believe a God exists. I'll accept that there's some
possibility, but I personally don't think so. For whatever reason,
some people think it's a shameful thing to not have a faith. I really
don't know why, these people can surely understand the concept of
personal choices. I personally see living your life doing everything
possible to please your Lord a bit shameful. I'm far too arrogant to
accept a God and live my life according to 'their' rules. But
alright, I accept that's how people want to live, if it makes them
happy I'm not going to disagree with them. Relating to this, a few
weeks ago I was chatting to a woman from Amnesty International. She
was an atheist, and me and her were talking a bit on religious views
of helping people. She told me that the Muslim men from the next tent
(this was a peace festival) had asked her why she went out of her way
to help people if she didn't think she would be rewarded after death.
These men were only educating people about Islam and were talking
about it just because they thought they would be rewarded in the
afterlife. Whether this was the full story or the woman was leaving
some out I don't know, but it seems strange to me to have a religion
and only follow it because you think you'll live forever, or however
your particular belief system goes. I didn't get a chance to talk to
the men, but they had taken time out to sit outside on a muddy field
in the rain and talk to people about their faith. Even if they did do
it just because they thought it would get them a good afterlife it
was still a good thing to do and I don't think they genuinely only
did it for selfish reasons. The idea of doing a good deed just to get
an afterlife applies to many religions, and I find the idea rather
selfish, even if it is only part of the motive. I'm sure a better
concept is to help people and try to convert them, if you'll allow me
to use the term, to your religion because you really believe they'll
be happier, not to score points with your deity. That last
statement may seem pretty ignorant to some people. And I'll be
truthful, the middle of England isn't nearly as full as religious
fanatics as other places and I haven't nearly enough experience with
different faiths to have full opinions and knowledge on them. But
from what I have experienced you get a lot of bad people following a
faith. Being religious doesn't automatically stop you being selfish,
or arrogant or indeed make you a good person. I know assholes who
will hide behind their faith and accuse me of being prejudiced if I
don't like them. In reality, I don't like them because they're twats,
regardless of their belief system.
I've had some contact with,
I'll say, over-zealous religious people. As most people will know
college is a very diverse place, and I had my first real talk with
someone my age with a very strong faith. She happily told an entire
class they were wrong in their beliefs, and that hers were correct.
She knew they were correct because she'd been to a 'camp' where she
'had vision and witnessed miracles'. I didn't say anything, though I
personally thought it was nonsense. But then she started telling us
how gay people should have no right...
Originally it was 1,687 words long, and after posting this and not being aware of the word limit I've lost everything past what you see here. It took me a long time to write, so I probably won't post another part tonight or tomorrow. I might rewrite it again at some point, but right now I'm feeling so pissed off at losing it all I don't know.
For such a small town that I live in, it's FULL of religious people. There must be at least 5 churches in this little community. So I've grown up around religion. Personally I can't really say I have any religion either, because to me it doesn't benefit me in any way to have one. But I suppose I can respect the fact that other people have religion. It still bothers me that it exists, though. But whatever. I wholeheartedly agree with all of this blog (sucks that there's a word limit for it, though), and I look forward to the next part. Provided you're not too pissed off to not rewrite the rest of it (which I could totally understand).
I've gotten a new blog subscription out of this, and, hopefully, a new friend. 2 kudos, Daisy!
I wish I lived in the middle of England, my town is overly religious, and theres around 7 churches, 1 or 2 christian/catholic schools, and a cinagog. Very annoying, and I like your views.
Very interesting great blog again. I similarly agree however, if someone starts a rant about Atheism, and how we're so bad I'll put up my flame shield and dive in nail and tooth on why they're wrong. I do think that on the whole theism is bad, but if people keep it to themsleves and don't slam it down your throat then it's OK. The problem is I know I can sometime shave the reverse promblem of being a very vocal atheist.
i think its ok 4 ppl to be religious as long as they dont try to convert people unless the person wants to be converted. my parents are christan i went to sunday school untill last year technicly im still a member of a curch but i dont belive in any of it i belive there may possibly be some kind of greater force but just slightly o and btw good article ima read the rest now
Im christian. I dont try to force my religion on people as, in all truth, whats the point if they dont want it? I respect the fact that some people dont have a faith (such as yourself) and believe that if thats what they want then they are perfectly within their right to do so. In my opinion, if people wish to follow a different religion, its entirely up to them and i have no right to tell them they are wrong.
Also, the place in which the blog cut you off leaves it in a really suspenseful and cliff hangery place, which i guess was just good luck lol.
"Is", "is." "is" — the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.
Nice article , completely agree with it. Now on another side, what do you think about human souls? I truely believe there is no such thing as a soul and that it is created by religions to explain how humans could travel to heaven or hell. Scientifically speaking the soul would have to be inside the brain, and there it wouldn't have much use. Most people I know don't believe in a God, but still see the soul as a normal thing to be there.
it still seems the only logical explanation to life is that religions are on to something. i mean if you think of the big bang, what was there before it? what created all the matter? religion isn't something to be taken likely, believe in it or not.
I just want to say something about the concept of God! (I'm not English so I'll try to express my self the best i can...)
On your post you said that you don't believe in God. I'm not a religious person, but i don't consider myself atheist, I would name myself something like "areligious" because I do believe in God, but I don't believe in a God up there that listens to my prayers, that's silly and it works just as a friendly shoulder to us to blame when something in our life goes wrong.
I believe in a conscience that gave the basic instructions to create the universe, the blueprints. It may have written the way all will gonna be, and we aren't free of choose what to do, because it is already chosen... ok, now I'm touching other BIG theme... I hope you got my message.
I'm not a great communicator, even less with a foreign language.
I'm going to read the second part now!
i completely agree, I come from Italy where being a catholic christian is a must (damn the vatican).....if the world is where it is today, it is because of religious fanatiscm.
that sucks for you. Members of my family are against me because i am non-religious. My mum cowered at the fact that i wanted rid of the bibles which were on the bookshelf in my house.
My school is more understanding my RE teacher looked at my point of view and accepted it which is good.
I do agree with you i hate when people come up to me and go your not a christian your going to hell with which i respond i don't believe in hell.
Like who truly believes that there is an invisible man living in the sky
Some of the greatest minds in history were religious and contributed more to the world than you ever will. Being religious is not synonymous with being stupid. Though your one sided, exaggerated view is evidence enough of your own ignorance.
I'd be willing to bet that the biggest reason you (Kayfan) are an "atheist" is because you were following a trend along with most other teen rebels/shits.
Now, im a christian but i have nothing against anybody whether theyre atheists or jews. thats just me though. other christians may be arrogant and all, but i just keep quiet and do what i think is best. now, i found this a little offensive, but im not going to do anything about it, and im going to do anything about it.
whoops, there was a mistake on the last post, lol. let me rephrase that:
"Now, im a christian but i have nothing against anybody whether theyre atheists or jews. thats just me though. other christians may be arrogant and all, but i just keep quiet and do what i think is best. now, i found this a little offensive, but im not going to do anything about it".
[QUOTE=Madina Sky]whoops, there was a mistake on the last post, lol. let me rephrase that:
"Now, im a christian but i have nothing against anybody whether theyre atheists or jews. thats just me though. other christians may be arrogant and all, but i just keep quiet and do what i think is best. now, i found this a little offensive, but im not going to do anything about it".
There. notice the difference? lol.[/QUOTE]
Why did you take offence, out of curiosity? It wasn't my intention to offend anybody, and I did try to keep as passive as possible. I guess there's always going to be some things that slip through the net when discussing these things.
I love your writing, it's extremely insightful and mature. I also agreed with almost everything you said, however I love the views of Buddhism, I am not Buddhist but it's amazing they basically live their life not worshipping anyone just trying to make the world a better place. They model their lives on Buddha, but they don't worship him. My 2 cents
"'m not a fan of agnostic either, because in all honesty I don't believe a God exists. I'll accept that there's some possibility, but I personally don't think so."
That's what agnostic is. I say I'm agnostic, I am extremely skeptical about God, and think the bible is ridiculous, but there's no way of proving that, it could have happened, so could the Matrix... No way of disproving anything. No way of proving anything either, so I don't really follow a God/religion but accept the possibility.
"God is a concept by which we measure our pain" - John Lennon.
Don't get too wrapped up in all of this religious nonsense... We all need something to make us feel comfortable in this confusing life we're forced to live, right? I think your "believing is good"/"not believing is good" rationale is the best way to go... Don't put too much pressure on yourself to accept or not accept anything you're told... Believe what you feel is right and you'll probably get through it all right...
Luckily we're all pretty young and have plenty of time to figure all of this out... If you use your time right, I believe you'll find out what you need to know when you need to know it. Do you know what I mean?
...You have a good taste in music, by the way.
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Religion, and why I feel I don't need it Pt 1. blog
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