I grew up an atheist. When my parents converted to Christianity, I became a Catholic scientist, and for a while, I believed in His power and His love and His Word. But soon I began to wonder why I even bothered to go to Church every Sunday, then I began to attend less, and I began to deviate from the Catholic way, and I learned in history class about indulgences and witch hunts and other belief systems.
But before that, I discovered a video by Koi Fresco (Vishuddha Das) about astral projection (the first one on the previous chapter), then while browsing through his videos, I discovered a video describing his conversion from Christianity to atheism to Buddhism and his reasons for doing so and something about his story rang a bell in me, and that was how I discovered Buddhism.
No, I am not a Buddhist monk, no I did not shave my hair, no I do not wear orange and yellow robes and live a secluded life, and my family still thinks I am Catholic. I still go to Church whenever my parents make me, but while I listen to the priest's homage for the moral lesson, I don't pray, and even though I go through the motions, I don't believe.
Why, you may ask, did I leave Christianity? Why Buddhism, of all religions?
Christianity focuses on the worship of God and Jesus as his Son, but while science didn't directly clash with my Christian faith, as most people might think, history did. The Old Testament was an adaptation from the Holy Scriptures of Judaism and Islam (I think), and the New Testament was a long story, similar to an epic poem, written by followers of Jesus Christ (a real person and a spiritual leader). The New Testament was a story of Jesus's life, but only the "good" parts that agreed with his so-called status as the Son of God. Was he really such a pure person? Was he really born through a virgin birth? And then, there were things that the Catholic Church did in the past, namely indulgences (forgiveness of sins and a shortcut to heaven through "good deeds" like donating to the Church) and witch-hunts (killing of thousands of accused witch by both the Catholic and Protestant Churches, mostly widows and young, unmarried women). Indulgences are a sign of greedy clergymen, while witch-hunts are contradictory. Witches were believed to gain power from the devil, but if Christians believe that only God is the one true God, then shouldn't the devil be powerless, nullifying the power of witches?
And finally, there's the worship of a deity (see the video links at the end of the chapter). God is supposedly omnipotent, right? Then why can't he just make perfect humans from the start, that are actually in "God's image?" Is God's image flawed? Is he actually not omnipotent? And if he's so loving, then why does He condemn so many people to hell, and why did He kill almost the entire human population in a flood because of their sins (which he created in the first place)? Buddhism, in contrast doesn't focus on the worship of a deity. The Buddha is seen as a spiritual teacher and the first enlightened person, not a god. He was a real-life person name Siddhartha Gautama, and unlike Jesus or Mohammad, he is not viewed as holy in any way. While Christians and Muslims can never reach the same level of holiness as Jesus or Mohammad, Buddhists can become enlightened, just like the Buddha, by following his teachings, or Dharma. If you watched the videos I linked below, you know that Koi described Buddhism as more of a philosophical belief system, not a religious one.
There few other philosophical belief systems that I can think of: Confucianism, Daoism, and Greek philosophy. Confucianism focuses on some people being superior to others, which highly clashes with my personal beliefs. Daoism was a very likely candidate for my new religion because it focuses on balance between dark and light, yin and yang, suggesting that there is a divide between dark and light, even though there isn't. It's all very gray. Also, the five elements theory didn't really make sense to me. (https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/Chinese_Customs/taoism.htm)
Buddhism is great because it doesn't expect you to give up everything (an extreme example would be Jainism), yet it demonstrates how wealth doesn't give happiness. Instead, it focuses on moderation in everything: the avoidance of materialistic desires to avoid emotional suffering, yet at the same time not depriving your body of what it needs to avoid physical suffering.
Sun Worshipper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn4n7x9a29c&list=PLz8YVuTBh4m1pi0fG6ls4QKOHnGOuTTHC
Koi Fresco - Why I Left Christianity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORaLP_nN3Pg
Koi Fresco - Buddhism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_oP4nyj6zQ
More: Why I Left Religion
Alright! Here's an addition! I have officially become an atheist once more!
Why?
1. You already know why I left Christianity, but here are some more reasons:
The Bible was written by Christian followers.
Think about the first passages (is that the right word?) in the Book of Genesis. God creates the world (which totally contradicts science), and then he creates the Garden of Eden and puts Adam in there, then Eve, they eat the apple, get banished, so on. Wait. What exactly was that apple? The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. He said something like, "If you eat from the Tree of Knowledge, you will surely die." Does that mean we're not allowed to seek knowledge? Or is that just a way for the Bible writers to make sure the Church gets to stay in power, so that followers don't doubt God?
Lilith. Now, you probably don't know this because it's not in Christian bibles, but Eve was NOT the first woman. Lilith was. Originally, (I think according to Jewish bibles, which I'm pretty came before Christian bibles) Adam and Lilith were made as equals, man and woman, both from dust. However, her status as an equal caused Lilith to be upset at how Adam wanted to be the superior person (both were a bit arrogant). Lilith personally wanted to be superior 100% of the time but was willing to accept 50%. However, Adam treating her as an inferior 100% of the time greatly upsetted her. Lilith wanting to be superior upset Adam, and he asked God to do something about it. God banished Lilith and turned her into a demon of lust and sexuality, and instead created Eve out of Adam's rib, thus making her subservient to Adam. Doesn't this just show Bible writers' sexist and anti-feminist beliefs?
If He is so Almighty and loving, why couldn't he just make perfect humans from the beginning? And why can't he forgive all sin, including Original Sin? Why can't he just remove Original Sin, if He's really omnipotent?
2. Now you're probably asking, then what the heck's wrong with Buddhism? Well, I read "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse. You should read it too. It's mind-blowing.
(Don't read the next part unless you want a semi-spoiler of the book.)
I believe that you should experience (or at least read about) the teachings of many religions, pick out the ones you like/connect with the best, and focus on them. However, in the end, you should follow in Siddhartha(the fictional character)'s footsteps, abandoning religion altogether and finding what works best for you. If what works best for you is religion, great! Stick with it! But before you cling to religion, give thought and personal philosophy a try first. Like Siddhartha, I find that while religion is a good starting point to guide your spiritual practices, in the end, the most learning comes from personal experience and delving into your own heart to, as Siddhartha calls it, "master the SELF."
YOU ARE READING
My Spiritual Journey
SpiritualThis was originally meant to be a record of my path to astral projection, but that didn't work out for a variety of reasons, so I changed it to a book about spirituality, my path to it, and how to be spiritual. If you want to learn cool stuff like a...
