Punching Bag on Pages

My Views on Religion

My interest in religion began about two years ago when I realized that I wasn't sure if I believed in God or not. Thankfully, I was able to develop my opinion pretty easily... I am agnostic. I told my mother, but she was upset. I then got frustrated because I was not going to apologize for having my own thoughts. Being expected to practice a religion that I don't believe in seems quite dreadful. I tried defending myself, and I was by no means disrespectful. I don't believe that religion itself is stupid; I just don't adhere to one. I would love to believe in Him, but there is a big difference between believing that He exists and knowing it.

When it comes to knowing or believing, people get facts mixed up with concepts. Knowing is having fact, whether scientific or historical, to support that thought. Believing is based on an idea. Someone thinks and believes in the truth of that idea, but believing means that some people do not believe in it. The idea is therefore not a fact, it's merely a concept that we truly don't know much about. Many believe that there is a God, whereas I do not believe. Nobody knows whether or not He exists. However, I know that Jesus was real. Jesus of Nazareth was a person who believed he was the prophet or son of God. You can twist that historical fact as much as you want, but that is about as concrete as religion could ever get. People followed his ideals and resonated with him as a martyr when he was crucified.

I know that religion is incredibly powerful. Religion gives people hope, leads them to act on compassion but also act on mostly impulsive hatred. It causes humans to help one another but also to kill. We wipe souls from this planet because of religious differences, and other farfetched beliefs. Again, I am not going to apologize, because it is pretty extreme how humans have interpreted and acted on their beliefs. Honestly, I respect the influence of religion on the lives of humans, but it's beautiful and terrifying to realize how influential something or someone could be. So many people put this unbreakable yet otherwise indescribable faith in one being. They want to be happy (in this life and afterwards) so badly that they'll follow whatever "religious propaganda" is out there (I think I created a new term that fits the rant nicely). Some agnostics do not have the mental or emotional capacity to admit the power of religion because they are impulsive. This is similar to pious people; because some are impulsive when they flat out state that an agnostic's or atheist's opinion is wrong. Others even pity my beliefs as if I am a sadist, but I prefer the term realist.

The news is always overwhelmed with stories of people, their religion, and how it negatively translates into their opinions on society. For example, many people are racist and homophobic due to their religion. It is quite extreme to judge people. Now, I'm not overly familiar with Christianity, but I thought God was all loving? We are all humans with a capacity to be horrible or pleasant; we are equal under God. If there is a God, how can He just sit idly by while we destroy each other and the Earth? Why do hate, destruction, and violence still exist if He supposedly has control? Why does He let innocent and truly nice people die? Why do horrible people live while the good suffer? If He supposedly controls all, why does He not make peace?

I'd love to believe that he created a Heaven and Hell too; where the righteous souls find peace and then the wicked will get what they deserve. Better yet, I'd love to believe that we all find peace and become "better" souls after we die. But what exactly are we? What are our roles in the grand Universe? What is the significance of humans in everything that the Universe is? The biggest concern that I have with concepts like God, Heaven, Hell, reincarnation, etcetera is that we, as miniscule humans, don't know anything. We don't know what we're "destined" for. I personally think we are screwing it all up by destroying the planet that gave us the sustainable conditions to actually live. We envision what the after life will be, but we don't know. We should focus our efforts right here and right now, so that our children and their children, and other generations can actually survive on this planet. Why put faith in something that can not be proven? We are wasting our time, thinking about the unknown is compelling but time consuming. We need to think about how to better the environment and change our corrupt, selfish, and inconsiderate selves. We are killing the planet, we are losing art forms to new technology, we are changing so quickly that it is practically impossible to stop. But if we do not change for the better of the planet, then we are only changing for the bettering of ourselves. This is not okay.

I do not believe that one being- this "God"- created all of the complex things on Earth. How does a spiritual figure go about creating the Universe? I mean, if He created measly Earth and what's inside, He must have created everything: the surrounding planets, the sun, all of the endless space in space, and all concepts of time, space, and relevancy. How could that be possible? How can we possibly determine the beginning of the Universe, the creation of actual matter to exist?

Based on science, matter/energy can not be created nor destroyed. Hello? Isn't that disproving the supposed power of God to create all and control all? And on that statement, does that prove that we (our souls) go somewhere? Perhaps to this Heaven or Hell? Or maybe our souls are reincarnated into a new form of life.

I surely want to believe that my mind, my thoughts, everything that I am will not just obliterate. I want to exist forever. I fear the moment when I won't exist, when Earth won't exist. This "life" we're living is quite beautiful, depending on what people perceive "life" and "living" to be about. The Earth is absolutely beautiful. I wish I could look upon nature, people, and everything... forever. What will happen when we die? Will we be suffering in this limbo state where there is endless nothing? Will we be aware of our death, stuck with our own thoughts, or hallucinating that we are still alive? Technically, we can neither prove or disprove this. I want to believe that my being will not be gone forever when my heart stops... but we don't know.

Perfect (in my opinion) and somewhat logical situation? That when I die, my soul is reincarnated into another form. I will be reborn as something else (or another human), will have the same thoughts/mind, but "live" under different circumstances (obviously it wouldn't be the same life).

I just avoid believing things like God, Heaven, reincarnation, etcetera when I know that these concepts are not factual. WE DONT FREAKING KNOW.