Everyone, I'm sure, at some point posts an article stating their opinions about religion. This is mine.
I was raised in a relatively strict Christian home. I went to church every Sunday. I went to church activities (other than sunday) at least once a week.I went to camps, meetings, and seasonal outings. I was happy. Things were simple. When I got into high school everything changed.
In high school I was introduced to things that I never knew existed. So many different religions and methods of worship blew my mind. Through out my life I had only really knew there was Christianity and everything else.But I never knew what the "everything else" was. I got to be friends with people of several different belief systems. That was the beginning of the end of what I was taught as a child. Some of the things I was learning didn't make any sense. I did research on them. Some of it felt right and some of it didn't. The more I learned, the less my childhood faith felt right to me. I began having questions that my family or other church members didn't have satisfactory answers to. There were more questions and more doubts.
I wanted to explore and be given the chance to find my own church. This made for many an angry night at home with my parents. I wanted to be able to go to any church I wanted. The reply: "You can go to any church you want, as long as you go to ours too." Go to church twice on Sunday? Not a chance. Going to church for three hours with my family and then at least another hour on my own was not my idea of fun. I was even willing to compromise. I promised to be in church every Sunday if I got to pick the church. No dice. I eventually phased myself out of regular church activity by working and was all but inactive when I moved out of my parents' house just before I turned 19.
Over the years I have come up with my own set of beliefs. Here they are.
*I do consider myself Christian. It may be the way that I was brought up, but I cannot imagine life without God.
*I can accept that I may be wrong. I am truly and honestly okay with the fact that my belief system may be wrong. If I die and find out that Hinduism was the right religion I can accept that and not be upset.
*I do not believe in organized religion. I feel that the relationship that I have with God is between Him and I. Telling me how to worship isn't going to change that.
*To each their own. If you live a good life, and are truly commited to yourself and your beliefs, then you will reach your "heaven" or enlightenment. Whatever you believe in. As long as your religous views don't bother me and mine don't bother you, there should be no problems. You are not going to hell for having different beliefs.
I know that plenty of people will disagree with me. I'm okay with that. I have my beliefs and they have theirs. This is what I go to sleep with at night and this is what I see in the mirror. I can look at myself with no doubts or shame for what I believe. My husband doesn't care that I am Christian. It is what makes me happy. I don't care that he is considering becoming Buddhist. That's his choice. I don't love him or my family any less for having different views. It is what it is. Things may change and then again they may not. At the end of the day some of us will be right and some of us won't. But for all we know we are all wrong and religion and god-like figures were all made up somewhere down the line so people can put a meaning to the chaos of life. As it is now, only the dead know....and they aren't telling.