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Re: Religion

An Akron friend of mine put down her thoughts on Christianity and religion in general.

I’ve got a few things to say about it too, but I’ve never really shared my view on religion with the world. Just bits and pieces. Its 10:45PM here at my CA desk in a building with less than 40 residents, so I’ve got some time. Grab a chair, it’ll be a good read.

Lets start with retelling my religious upbringing.

My parents were Christians when I was born. I got baptised after adoption and everything. I seem to remember going to church once or twice. Towards my first elementary school years, my best friend and myself went to Vocational Bible School. Not sure what provoked this. Maybe our moms wanted us to have a better understanding of the popular religion. I remember learning a lot about Jesus, God, Satan, and their eternal battle. And a few things about St. Valentine. Oh, and we sang in the choir.

I can’t remember ever going to church for a very long time after all that. There were quite a few other kids in elementary school who praised Jesus and his gospel though. I thought they were a bit nutty for that. Religion never played an important part in my life. By the time we started getting up towards junior high, I had already decided that Christianity wasn’t right for me. I justified this decision based on the crazy kind of Christians I’d seen in the world already, both at-large and around me. The kind who think you’re going to hell if you don’t go to church. The old school kind. A few close friends of mine agreed (including my best friend who went to bible school with me), and we generally came to an agnostic consensus.

Then in 2006, my mother passed away.

I haven’t said this publicly ’till now for various reasons. I wanted to tell people, but the one thing my mom didn’t want was people feeling sorry for me because of her. I’d like to go on, but I’d think it’d be disrespectful to her if I tried telling her story online. She’s more to me than what can be said through text. If you meet me in person sometime, go ahead and ask. I’d love to tell.

But still, this was the absolute biggest event in my life. I started thinking back to Christianity. Going to heaven, your sins being weighed, the whole nine yards. I considered going to church for the first time in over 12 years. Not sure why I wanted to go, but there were people out there who did it in these times and it seemed to help them. I wanted to know what they saw..

I didn’t go though. I eventually came to my own conclusions after further thinking about my agnostic views of the world. Some of this was actually influenced by the anime series Neon Genesis Evangeleon. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it. If you have, skip this next paragraph.

Neon Genesis Evangeleon starts out as a classic giant robot anime. It quickly delves into a discussion of religion and psycoanalysis. Specifically, Freud’s theory of identity. Towards the end of the series, the characters begin to question reality and perception. They asks deep questions such as “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, or “Do I see me as what others see me as?”.

My explanation of death starts out as this: When you die, you still live on. My father and I watched my mother pass away before our eyes. I still think she’s around though. Take an open mind and consider this: When a loved one leaves the room, how do you know they’re still alive? It doesn’t matter what answer you give, you can’t really give evidence they’re still alive. It is possible reality is all just a figment of our imagination. You’re just a brain in a tank with two entities describing a reality for you. Conversely, If there isn’t a single person in the multiverse who knows you exist, how do you prove to yourself that you exist?

This all leads to my understanding of life after death. As long as someone in the world remembers you and acknowledges you made an impact on the world, you haven’t really gone away. I still miss my mom when I go home and sit alone for a few hours, waiting for my dad to come home. But I never feel like I’ve really lost her. I always think about her.

Kat says religion is good for explaining the unknown. I agree. Thats how I believe religion started. Nobody could really explain how this big hot orb in the sky moves across in regular intervals, so thats why the Norse made things like the Trundholm Sun Chariot. However, science has proven that there is no big horse in the sky. Its only natural then that they tried to explain what happens to you after you die.

When you die, your body will rot away (or be cremated). You’ve now been reduced to the basic elements of organic chemistry. What religion tries to explain is what happens to your soul. This raises the question of what a soul is, which is another hotly debated one. I’m defining it as your personality and mental identity. Biologically, thats a side effect of our brain. All the religions tell stories about some kind of afterlife to help make sense of death. It is the great unknown. Once you die, you can’t come back and tell the world what it was like. Even if you did, it wouldn’t be interesting. You wouldn’t even notice dying. You might notice your perception of the world fading away but once you get to some point you simply cease to perceve.

The problem with Christianity is that they try to make death seem like a deadline. If you haven’t turned into their definition of Good, you’re screwed. Their definition of good is to accept that Jesus died for your sins. If you don’t, you’re a selfish bastard and deserve to burn in hell for eternity. Yet the very god they worship doesn’t show a lick of concern for his creation. Even more so if you don’t help propagate the religion. Taking God’s name in vain is an unforgivable sin. Badmouth the religion and you’re no longer eligible for heaven. It doesn’t matter how good of a person you are, one mistake and your soul is deemed “obviously evil”.

This is the flawed part of organized Christianity. No chance to repent for your mistakes. You’re either constantly worried about doing the right thing lest the one you worship screws you over. Thats not something I’m interested in worshipping. I’d rather believe there is a wholly neutral entity that can’t be swayed by how much praying you do. Karma is a big component of my beliefs. If you do something bad, do something good or something bad will happen to you.

Organized religion discourages open-mindedness and encourages groupthink. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. I’ll believe what I want to believe. Perhaps Christians are right, and there is a god out there who is petty and vain. Or maybe pastafarianism is right and we’ll all be presented with a hooker factory and beer volcano upon death. Devout believers of a religion lack open mindedness. Every experience I’ve had with a devout Christian trying to explain their reasoning behind something has usually ended with “because of god!”.

Earlier this week I found this brilliant video explaining open-mindedness. Watch it, and maybe you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

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