I’m not a particularly religous person. Hell, I’m not religious at all. but that doesn’t mean that I’m godless or that I don’t at least have thoughts on God.
It is something I have been thinking of a lot more lately which is interesting. Maybe now that I’m a mother? Or perhaps now that I have some peace within myself? Hmmmm maybe not the second one. God seems to get more of a run in times of crisis from what I hear. So I’m not sure what’s prompted the thinking.
Usually I’m the type to tick the “spiritual but not religous box” because I have the belief that there is something more to life than I can understand, that science can identify or that logic can tell us. I usually call it “the universe” which is pretty common for people who identify with this sort of idea.
When you think about it though what we really are, are non religous believers.
You can take almost any divine statement and put “the universe” in it and it will work.
He will provide.
I trust that He will tell me what is next.
I did not fail. He needed me to learn this lesson.
He will show me the way.
And so on and so forth. The universe can be substituted into any of these.
Despite this I do find myself substituting “the universe” with God in my mind a lot more these days but I don’t see much in that. It’s just a label that more clearly identifies that there is more out there. More going on.
So why am I eschewing religion?
To me religion seems to alienate where it is supposed to accept. Within ranks, sure, it is kind, loving and accepting provided you live by the rules. As soon as you step outside those rules it judges. And correct me if I’m wrong (I’m no authority on the bible) but wasn’t the point of Jesus being born to a virgin to show that we shouldn’t judge? That sometimes there are circumstances that we don’t know or understand that bring certain outcomes? That seems the point of that story to me. But like I said, I’m no authority on religion. Beside that isn’t “Thou shall not judge” a commandment? It seems an awful lot of Christians I know don’t live by that commandment. Hell, most humans don’t life by it. So are they all going to hell?
If they are good people then I don’t think so. I don’t think the point of God is to pass judgment and deny you entry into a pleasant afterlife. The point of God is to teach love and kindness and acceptance and to look further than the self in life. But it seems so many people seem to miss that. Personally, I think I can do all these things without aligning myself with a particular faith. So rather than choosing the Bible over the Koran or the Torah or any other religious text, I choose not to choose them altogether.
I choose basic principles to live my life by. I pray to the unknown. I accept guidance where it is provided by whatever it is that is out there. And that is that. THIS is my “God”.
Just because I do not choose the traditional methods of faith doesn’t mean I judge you if you do. And to me, that’s really the point of it all. Remove the judgment. Accept all beliefs. Be kind about it. STOP killing in the name of it for crying out loud. That would be a start. And then we might have half a chance of getting there.
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PS I had to write this post twice before I got it right. Super complex topic with soooo much more to it but I tried to keep it short. PLEASE know, that it certainly wasn’t meant to offend so I hope it does not.
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