Subject:  to Rachel (and Gina, of course) Re: The spirit of religion and faith... |
Author:
Mystie
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Date Posted: 16:23:10 08/18/09 Tue
In reply to:
Rachel
's message, "Re: The spirit of religion and faith..." on 15:01:53 08/17/09 Mon
Hi Rachel!
So good to hear from you! I wish you stop by more often, and not just to talk about religion :)) You're always welcome on here, you know that :)
Ok, so let me respond to your question. I actually have sort of a double-edged answer for you because on one hand, as i explained from the very beginnig, i dont identify as an atheist, i DO believe in a higher being and like you said, someone watching over us and making us want to live a good honorable life. What i dont believe is the organized religion part, i simply dont think you need it if you have faith deep within your heart. And by faith, i mean your own understanding of a higher power and belief that we should all just be good....not because we'll get to Heaven that way or because we dont want to go to Hell, but because it's just the right thing to do and it will make our world NOW a better place. It's a hard thing to grasp at first, but it's also very liberating, if you think about it. Why do we need the restrictions and rules of organized religion, why not just strive to live the best life you can live and let THAT be your religion? You're right that faith helps us understand death but the truth is, no one knows what happens after we die and unless the mysteries of science evolve past what they are, nobody will ever know that... Living your life to the fullest and being a good person and letting others do the same is all that will carry us through this life. Unfortunately, when you start getting into all the many organized religions that are out there, it gets complicated because people lose focus of that one core important thing- they get too caught up in "let's tell people how to live their lives" or "this is wrong and you can't do a, b and c" (for example, in Jewish religion you have to keep kosher, and you can't eat meat and dairy together and so on and so forth...are those rules really necessary??) and from there things just escalate and get worse, because once people get going, where's the limit?
Islamic fundementalists believe everything about the western way of living is wrong and guess what, they have faith and they believe in God. And should there only be room for Christianity on this planet? I dont think so. So wouldn't it be so much easier to just not have any religion, just have faith and spirituality and believe that when you die, even if you don't go to Heaven, even if you just cease to exist the same way as before you were born, that you lived a good, honorable life and achieved everything you tried to accomplish and let the world carry on after you?
Food for thought isn't it? :)
My next point: I have been brought up with wonderful core values from my parents, i had an amazing childhood and would like to think i live my life with kindness and compassion and all the same things that you honor. But I'll be totally honest with you- religion didn't factor into it one bit. I know it's hard for you to believe but it's 100% true, i didnt even know the difference between Judaism and Christianity till i was 10 years old, i'm not making it up :) And it was a blissful, wonderful upbringing nonetheless and i'd like to think i came out of it a pretty decent person also :)
So yes, you're fortunate indeed, and I'm extremely happy for you because you do have an amazing mother that did a fantastic job with you, your friend definitely has reason to be envious :))) But from where i stand, people can have that kind of upbringing without religion, all they need to have is the right parents and the right environment. And as i told Gina, it also works the opposite way: there are tons of very religious people that just haven't been brought up right and religion doesn't help them, it hinders them. I wish everyone had your situation, in your case your faith for you truly makes you blossom...but i dont think it's necessarily a credit towards religion because for every person like you out there, there are also those that not brought up in the right environment, to whom that same religion is not helping. Environment and family values is everything.
Sorry if my post got too long, but i really just wanted to be thorough in my response to you.
I also hope you visit me again soon, please do let me know if you're ever in NYC, i would love to catch up, we will have a lot of fun :)
all the best and big hugs!!
Mystie
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