Religion

9/6/10 This is actually an essay prompt given in one of my friends college lectures, "Your view on religion". Very open ended and opinionated. Title image by TheFool432 Deviantart.com check it out

I would not consider myself a person of faith.  I was born into a Christian family; I was baptized and raised as a faithful Presbyterian/Methodist.  I was never one to question, I took the information they spoon-fed me and swallowed down all of the ‘Jesus Loves You’s and ‘Praise God’s that I could.  I, like so many other young children, was brainwashed at a young age to accept what we were told and to unquestioningly follow our preacher, our Pope, our bishop, without hesitation; like sheep following a shepherd.  I had no say in my upbringing, and even if I had, I was too young to know anything other then what I was told.  When I reached young adulthood I was forced into the blinding reality of a cold harsh world far outside the bounds of my cushy Christian upbringing.  I was abruptly faced with the atrocities of which man was truly capable and was confronted with an inescapable question; How could an omnipotent being exist, such as this Christian God, that would, that could, allow creatures capable of such hatred, such destruction, exist; and not only to allow them to exist, but to have created them?  How could such an awe-inspiring being subsist in parallel with the horrors of mankind?

We have destroyed our planet; yet no intervention.  We have slaughtered our brothers and sisters in the quest for His enlightenment; yet, still not intervention.  No second coming; no apocalypse.   How is one to have faith with no proof?  How is it logical that it is expected of us to have blind belief in something that we cannot truly be sure of?  This world is based on facts, cruel, hard, and calculated; we no longer have room for the pointless mystery of religion.  We are those of a fast paced world; God has no place here.  He is outdated and found lacking in this new age where Science is God, where proof is God, where the common man can bring another back from the brink of death.  Man is God; we have no room left for anything less the 100% certainty, and that is something religion cannot give us.

Man has always questioned his existence.  Why are we here?  That is the million dollar question, yet, we still have no question.  Even with our science and math, our reason and logical intellect, with the greatest minds this world has ever lain witness to pondering this very question, we still lack an answer.  Yet are we any closer to finding an answer through God?   Does He offer an indisputable answer?  Is there any true benefit of having this blind, mindless faith in a “greater being”?  He is no greater than man.  He is the product of mans curious mind begging to find answers, and since found lacking, God was created.  In the beginning there was nothing, from nothing came life, from life came man; science can explain this, theories are being tested every day to support this.  Now I tell you, prove to me your God!  Show me he is real!  I want to see you grasp something tangible in your hand and declare, “This is proof!  Here is my God!  He is real, He is present!  Here touch this, hold this, feel the reality of his existence!”  Until there is proof, count me out.

Author's Note

It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I personally am a deist/atheist. If you think "my soul is damned" please refrain from commenting, this is my personal opinion, not a full on frontal attack on your beliefs. I would love to hear what you have to say; good or bad, all criticism is constructive criticism! Happy reading!