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If I was born in a Israel I would probably be Jewish, OR |
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If I was born in Utah I would probably be a Mormon, OR |
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If I was born in the Middle East I would probably be a Muslim. |
For the majority of us, religion is not a choice, it is a birthright. I
apologize to that small percentage of you who have actively chosen your religion
because it fits your beliefs. You've obviously searched until you found a
religion that, as closely as possible, fits your spiritual needs. That works for
me too, but unfortunately, we are in the minority and as of this point in my
life, I have not found that religion.
Please don't get the wrong idea. I respect all non-fanatical religions and those
people who believe in them. I truly believe that all religions have something
worthwhile to teach, but each of us ultimately decides what we will believe in
and what we will not. It doesn't matter what religion you are a part of, I
guarantee that there are certain tenets of your religion that you disagree with.
That's because YOUR beliefs are subjective and are actually only between you and
God, and no one else. The religion you are a part of simply fore fills MOST of
your spiritual needs, but not all. It is just comforting being in an organized
religion where we know that everyone who honestly adheres to most of our
religion's beliefs will be blessed and allowed into heaven. In the end though,
you will answer to God, not your religion, for your beliefs.
I have been to services in many places of worship. In each, I try to come away
with the same thing: some new thought or idea that will help me understand God
better and be a better person toward others. I understand that I do not have all
the answers and never will, but I also understand that neither does anyone else.
And while I may disagree with various religions on a number of points they
adamantly believe in, they may have an answer to just one of the questions that
I have been searching for, or either raise a question that I have never thought
of . That makes every religion relevant. But regardless of what is said, it is
ME who internalizes what is being taught during a sermon. I will subjectively
believe what is taught and add that knowledge to MY belief system, use it to
reinforce beliefs that I already have, or I will reject it. Even if you are a
member of a particular religion, you do the same thing. All of us only accept
those teachings that fit within our own personal belief system. We discard the
rest. Therefore your religion is ultimately between you and God and concerns no
one else. The answers I find are only relevant to me and help me along the path
to a better understanding of God.
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To limit oneself to a set of answers that a single religion can offer is to
limit the available answers. The answers to all our questions are out there.
They will be found by fitting the pieces of the puzzle together. No one religion
has all the answers and as long as we refuse to look for answers anywhere except
in our own religion we will never find them.
I personally believe that religion has nothing to do with books, or prophets, or
religious leaders, or houses of worship. Those were ALL created by men according
to their own beliefs, not by God. We believe in these things because they
ultimately match our own personal, subjective, beliefs. Each religion has
followers because of each individuals ability to look within themselves and
match their own beliefs against the religion they follow. Therefore, my beliefs
are just between me and God. The religion I choose to follow is secondary. In
the end, I will answer to him, not because of which church I went to, but
because of the type of person I was during my life and how I treated others
while I was here. It is what resides within me and makes me who I am that will
determine whether God will look at me favorably or not. It is the search for
answers to the moral questions I have, and how I use the answers that I add to
MY belief system that is important. I refuse to limit myself to the answers that
only one religion can supply. I am the owner of my own beliefs and God will be
the judge of whether I am right or wrong, as he will with us all.
Organized religions do not unite us, they divide us. They segregate one group
from another. You can argue the truthfulness of your religion all you want to,
but you'll only alienate others who honestly believe in the truthfulness of
theirs. Organized religions, regardless of their good intentions, have caused
hate, mistrust and in extreme cases death and destruction. "Believe in what I
believe in, because if you don't God will not love you and you will go straight
to Hell". Think about it, God can not want that. That can not be God's plan for
us to worship him. I can not believe that a loving God would not tell us which
religion is the "true" religion, but then condemn us to eternal damnation if we
guess wrong. No one religion or person has ever had an absolute control over
right and wrong or absolute knowledge of the REAL truth.
In most Blogs and articles on religion, many people will argue religious points
of view by quoting scripture from their own religion as absolute proof of a
point, or will quote history as defined by their particular religious texts.
These arguments are absolute truisms to those who believe in them, but are
meaningless to those whose religion teaches a different, or even opposing, point
of view. Teachings of any religion, that are specific to that religion, will
never settle an issue or unite anyone. Therefore, the only test that can be
applied to a religion to determine whether it is "the true religion" is whether
its tenets resonate as the truth to everyone. It will be one that's inclusive to
all.
The good news is that there is a religion that we are all already apart of. We
just don't accept it and use it as a tool to unite us spiritually. It doesn?t
have a name. It shouldn?t. To give it a name would just throw it into the pot
with all the others. If it was ever formalized and put into that pot, I wouldn't
join it. It is personal and concerns no one else but me and God. It is a
religion of actions and not just words. It demands no place of worship,
religious texts, or men who claim to know more about it than I do. It is within
me. I know more about it than anyone else ever could. I alone am responsible for
finding the answers to the questions I have about it. The answers I do find may
be relevant to me, and no one else.
If we pray to God, we don?t pray for Baptist things, or Jewish things, or Muslin
things, or Catholic things. We ALL pray to our God for the exact same things
regardless of our organized religious differences. We pray for God to protect
our families, our friends, our neighbors, our country, peace on earth, an end to
the pain and suffering of others, for food to feed the starving, that God may
grant us peace within ourselves, and to give us an understanding of exactly what
kind of person he wants us to be. Among many others, these are the important
things and the things we have in common that should unite us. These things can
not be made into an organized religion but, none-the-less, unite us. It is OUR
conversations with God that unite us ALL. Even though it is a personal
conversation between each of us and God, it is the same conversation. We leave
religion behind when we pray to God.
Each of us has within ourselves the ultimate religion, and it is the same. It
should unite us, but doesn?t because we?d rather give it a name, write books
about it, build places to go to worship it, and create deities of those men who
say they know more about it than we do. How can anyone say that the very things
that keep us apart will ever unite us. Organized religion does just that and
always will. The goal of a true religion should be to work toward peace within
ourselves and harmony with others. It should consist of the things that bind us
all together, not tear us apart. Only when we recognize this, will there ever be
a true religion.
It is my belief that there is only one God. He is called by many names and
worshiped in many ways by different religions, BUT he will judge each of us
using the exact same criteria that will not be based upon any particular
religion's beliefs. It will be based upon our relationships with each other and
the type of lives we lived. Until everyone recognizes that each of us contains
the true religion within ourselves, because it unites us all as one with God, we
will never have peace within ourselves or with each other. These are the things
that God will ultimately judge us by. So worship God as your heart tells you to
and search for the answers you need to satisfy the questions you have, but
please "Do not blame God for man's mistakes".
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