“Like a parachute, the mind is useless unless it is open.” We’ve all heard that before — probably read it on a Garfield poster in the fifth grade, but it’s true. And my experiences with religion are that some people use it as an excuse to be closed-minded and to take others’ opinions as their own because it’s easier than exploring for themselves.
I do not understand why it is more important to people to love their religion than to love themselves. Let me digress: Why is it that people use religion as a way to keep from getting to know themselves and what works for them?
People do this because it’s easier to love Jesus (or whomever they choose) than to learn to love themselves. It’s easier to love said religious figure than to let their fear of love go and love another person. It’s easier to think that premarital sex is wrong than to explore themselves and figure out what is right for them. It’s easier for people to say that marriage is only for a man and woman than to open their minds and keep their nose out of other people’s business, or to show hate than love — even though their religion most likely preaches the opposite, or even to hide behind the pages of a book than to form their own opinions. And, furthermore, it’s easier to absorb everything their parents feed them than to look out onto the world with their own two eyes. These things have all become the easy way out because people have learned how to use, and twist and manipulate their faith into something that it was never intended for.
Does anyone else see how this is just a huge slap in the face to one’s beliefs? I was baptized Catholic, I grew up as a Christian, and I attended an evangelical bible camp for eight years of my life, until I realized that as the years went by the people that were telling me about this awesome God were the same ones that were trying to tell me what to think about other issues.
I don’t do well being told what to think and no one should let someone hold that power over them.
Nowadays, I consider myself agnostic. I appreciate everybody’s religion, I truly find learning about religion fascinating, and I know that there is something out there bigger than myself. But I also know myself well enough to know that to put a name, face and story to that being would go against everything that I stand for.
Why isn’t the Bible’s message of acceptance more important than that of who should be able to marry whom? Why aren’t the peaceful messages of the Quran more important than the violent acts that people use the Quran to justify? Why isn’t the “everything is the property of God” passage in the Torah more important than the lives being taken in Israel over physical property? I know these are radical examples, but they are legitimate and they are real in our world.
Religion is supposed to give people a purpose; it is supposed to make one be a better person. When did being a better person start meaning to ostracize, judge and force one’s beliefs on other people? Keep an open mind; don’t use your religion as an excuse to be judgmental and hateful toward people whom are different than you — I’m almost positive that’s not what Jesus would do.