Now, before I begin, I know I am touching on what is one of the hottest and most tender subjects out there. I do not want to insult anyone, I merely want to express my opinions on the subject.
After providing that brief disclaimer, I am here to express my views on religion and its effect on our world, primarily on children. Religion has a massive sway on our world, and I think that sometimes it is interpreted the wrong way, which can send people down the wrong paths.
My own view on religion is a unique one. As a young child, I went to church every week. I was baptized as a Catholic, and still technically am one. Eventually, ’round age 10 or 11, the trips to church just kind of stopped. Now, these days I consider myself an agnostic. An agnostic is someone who doesn’t believe in god (atheist), but if proof came out, would believe in said god. Now, this was probably a result of the lack of church and me maturing.
It’s not like I felt my life wasn’t unfolding as I had planned and decided I need a source of blame, like some people. Rather, I began to see the flaws in religions. I found that religion caused more problems than it solved. For example, the Bible tells Christians to condemn gays, but why? The belief in supposedly true ancient documents lead to bigotry and crimes I found appalling. When I read about Fred Phelps and his church protesting the funerals of American soldiers almost made me vomit. And, yes, they may be extremists, but they are a product of the religion, too.
Also, there are many hypocrites in religion. Many people claim to be devout when they actually may only go to church occasionally and use it as an excuse. Others use the deity they worship as an excuse for hardships they suffer, many of which they themselves are to blame.
This will be part of a continuing series of articles on religion. This is my personal view, and it wasn’t meant to be offensive to anyone, but feel free to comment, because I am interested to know your opinion.
I wonder how many of these extremists were brought up in families and environments that didn’t ever let them think for themselves, as it seems you have been able to do.
Personal development is an important part of religion. Religion is, after all, supposed to be a relationship between you and a higher power. All the other stuff is just how that relationship affects our daily lives and our interactions with others.
If you are raised to blindly follow the religious beliefs of those around you then I think it is far more likely that you will have a perverted/distorted view of the world and of religion. It is extremely difficult — perhaps impossible — for one person to properly understand their own relationship with God and what our role is here on Earth. It’s complicated, and it gets even more complicated when people aren’t thinking for themselves and are just following someone else.