Quote.

‎"A great number of people live quite easily without a coherent rational philosophy of life at all. They prefer to accept a great deal of mystery and even absurdity. Yet people have values and frequently choose to treat each other with more respect than the religious zealots."

~ Marlene Winell

Tell me the truth, what do you think about this?

The other day...
(side note: for a mom "The other day" can mean anywhere from two days ago to two years ago..)

I was saying.. the other day I was talking with my friend C. and somehow we got to a point in the conversation in which we were talking about religion (go figure!) She said something to the effect of, "I guess in a way I am still religious. I still want what religion is looking for: peace, love, acceptance, unity"
To that, my immediate thought and answer was, "Isn't it interesting how the very things that religion seeks become unattainable inside of it?"

Let me expand just a bit.

Like I've said before here, I've shed many things from my "previous life", and I've found a peace I didn't have then.
Peace and religion have become and are mutually exclusive.
The search for Truth and the experiencing of Peace cannot coexist.
Actually it's not the search for Truth as much as the perceived notion to have found it.
At least in christian circles, having found (absolute) Truth, means having found what God wants, what pleases him. Therefore anything outside of that is automatically "wrong", and you either correct wrong or you avoid it.
Division ensues.
We see it all the time.
In the christian Macroworld we see it in all the various denominations that exist. Or in church splits inside a denomination/congregation. All because someone thinks they have a better truth.
In its Microworld, we see it in how people treat each other (I bet you all had some example of this  pop into your mind as soon as I wrote this) and we see it in all the guilt that constantly accompanies most Christians, some more evident than others (think of all those who re-commit their lives to Christ, over and over and over again)
And Truth, instead of setting people free, imprisons. And where there is a prison, there is a wall separating.

Truth in this case tramples Love.


Even telling truth often in Christianity is thought of as more important than Love, in every case.
You don't think so?
Let's use an example. Hypothetical, but not so much.
Years ago I was attending a conference and the topic did revolve around the topic of lying as being a sin. Always.
Someone asked a hypothetical question that sounded something like this:
"World War II, you're hiding some Jews in your basement. Nazis knock on your door and ask you if there are any Jews in your home. What do you do? do you tell the truth?"
The speaker's answer (a prominent Christian in our community),
"God will not put me in that situation".
Seriously?
There hasn't been such a situation ever? Or is that a situation reserved for non-believers? Otherwise a Christian would have to tell the truth, right..?
And again, truth tramples love and respect for life. Whether it's big T truth or small t truth, it doesn't really matter, in the end.
(I hate to admit that at the time I believed that answer)

Well, maybe this truth thing, as important as it may be, is overrated.

I'm starting to believe that *my* truth is love.
And I'm ok if you disagree. I can live with that.

Can you?

The usual ramblings.

As I've said before, my beliefs have dramatically changed in the last few years. Sometimes it's easier to define what I don't believe (anymore) than what I do believe.

Warning: Opening a Can of Worms.

I don't believe anymore that the Bible is "inspired" (in the sense of divinely "dictated") nor infallible. Fallible people chose the books that were supposed to be part of the Bible (with some disagreement there, too, among different denominations!) and the fallible defined them as infallible and inspired. How does that work?

The next point would be, do I however still consider it a good book?

Define "good". Some parts to me, are beyond boring and utterly useless. A waste of time. They have no impact whatsoever on my life. They are n/a (non-applicable). Some other parts are absolutely beautiful and even helpful. So (as I said in my previous post) I pick and choose what can touch me in some way. I think that's true with many other books too, though.

Everybody picks and chooses. And most of the time a double standard is applied. For example those "christians" who strongly oppose Islam on the basis that the Koran is a violent book (therefore the religion is violent) ignore, or rationalize, the extreme violence found in the Bible. "But, we don't follow those teachings anymore!" Good for you. But, why don't you allow the muslims to say the same when they say they are peaceful? And please don't bring up terrorism and such, because christians have had their fair share of that! (although, I would agree that the islamic extremism is still more widespread that the christian extremism, but that's not the point here)

Or what about homosexuality? The Bible defines it as an "abomination", which is really what most anti-gay christians hang on to. The Bible also says that eating shrimp is an "abomination".. but I don't see groups of christians doing sit-ins in front of seafood restaurants.

Should we jump to the New Testament? How about 1 Corinthians? Women should not cut their hair. That's a cultural thing of their time. Women should be silent in church. That's across the board applicable to all time. ...Seriously??

I used to be able to do some pretty awesome mental gymnastics to justify, explain away, believe some of this stuff and now I'm just.. How in the world did I do that??????

As Walt Whitman said:

Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul.

Q: Do you place your soul above everything else (=God)?

A: Don't you?

Here's another good one: I don't believe in hell. Definitely not in an eternal hell as punishment for what we've done in this world. If there is a God and if he is just like christians claim him to be, how can ETERNAL be a fair and just punishment for VERY SHORT LIFE in view of eternity? We have no chance. I'm not gonna get deep into this. I understand a very good book that explains all this is Hope Beyond Hell. There is also an online free version if you're inclined to read it, but you don't want to buy it.

Another - to me - mental exercise has been about Free Will. Everybody says that it was the love of God that gave us free will, because he didn't want robots. And we don't want to be robots, right? Well.. first of all, we would have never known. So that last question is just not applicable. But, let's say he wanted to show his love by giving us free will. How is it though, that he punishes for exercising it? (and the punishment, see previous point, is eternal) How is that better or more loving than creating robots? And, really, do some people have a choice? If I were born in a communist dictatorship or in an islamic country there is a good chance I wouldn't even have the option of exercising my free will to "accept Christ" because indoctrinated into another belief. That's fair?

All this said, I can't shake the fact that in the end I believe there is something/someone bigger than us. I can't explain otherwise why we are capable of thinking beyond us. I can't explain why we would even consider a God. It seems to me that would go against evolution. From an evolutionary standpoint, it doesn't make sense that we'd delve into matters that ultimately don't contribute to the survival. We could be animals and not being aware of any of this, trying to just survive and help the species survive (our offspring) and our life would be much easier and smoother.

However, this "God" (not even sure how to define it, for fear of having some labels that don't belong to me anymore applied to my thought) I just don't think resembles the God I've been spoon fed and I've self-brainwashed myself into believing all these years.

I think God is "hidden" in life and love, at every level, more than we ever realized.

Life is my religion. :)

Created or creator?

I used to say that "they" (which basically meant anybody who didn't have the same idea of God as me) created God in their own image.

Now, I do not understand that statement anymore.

I mean, we all create God in our own image. Every time someone uses a Scripture to describe God, he creates God in his own image. And that is because he uses his own MIND, INTERPRETATION, CULTURAL BACKGROUND, EDUCATION, EXPOSURE TO EXTERNAL INFLUENCE, PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND HISTORY, UPBRINGING to create in his head an idea of who or what God is, was, and wants. Often discarding other passages that might contradict such idea (christians are really good at mental gymnastics and/or picking and choosing)

Yes. I do create God in my own image. And so do you. I have no problem with that anymore.
And if He's God, He'll understand and tolerate.
Even love, maybe. :)


(because if I'm destined to pick and choose, I'll choose a God who loves, over anything else, every time)