Trigger warning: I talk shit about religion here
I know this entire post will be controversial, so just to be clear, these are my beliefs and you don’t have to agree. I’m not a religious person. I tried once, in my early twenties to do the whole church thing, even went on a retreat and no, it wasn’t for me. I believe there’s a higher power protecting us, for the most part. Someone is up there making sure I go when it’s my time to go and that i’m okay until then. I don’t believe there is one god, I don’t believe you’re wrong for believing that their is. My problem with religion is the ignorance that sometimes follows. The beliefs that your religion is the best and only religion. Who you decide is your god is on you and nobody should ever make your god inferior to theirs. The judgement from people are hardcore into their religion is so rude and hurtful, it doesn’t sound like anything someone who believes god loves all should be doing. I have family and friends who are religious and will probably get mad at me for this post, but I wouldn’t be me if I kept my feelings in so people wouldn’t get upset with me. I can give you five reasons why I think you can believe in a god and not have to claim any religion to do so.
Its important to believe in something– Whatever it is that you want to believe in whether it’s Jesus Christ himself or Kanye West, believing that there is a higher power that can take care of you allows you to find hope even in the darkest times. No belief is better than other. No God is stronger than other. It is about having enough belief to be able to find faith and hope to get thru bad days. Christians aren’t better than Muslims, one God isn’t better than the other. If I want to believe that god is a mere cartoon character than let my belief create that and allow me to find my faith.
Religious people are judgmental as fuck– Have you ever tried to tell a christian about your problems? Everything that’s wrong with you is wrong because you don’t have their god in your heart. I went to church once and they preached the “god loves all” bullshit and then hardcore judged me about the pictures I posted on instagram. People will be religious and then still be racist. They’ll say god loves all but will think you’re inferior for not believing what they do. Im not ashamed of my past until I tell it to a Christian. They’ll forgive rapists, but will forever burn you for having an abortion. You can believe in whatever you want as long as it helps you find the answers you need. Some people believe that the sun and the moon and even the stars have energies beyond our understandings, people look for crystals to give them hope. Some believe Santeros and people who do witchcraft are demonic and others believe that they have helped them in their darkest times. It’s not up to anybody to tell you who to believe in, but it is on everybody to not judge you for it.
Nobody is Perfect, Nobody can be- Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone fucks up. There is no way to live life without doing anything wrong. As much as you try, you’re gonna sin. You have to believe that making a mistake, isn’t the worst thing in the world. Whether you believe in a heaven or a hell, you can be a good person and do a fucked up thing. Religion makes you feel bad for messing up. That’s how we learn, by messing up. From birth, we’re taught that if you make a mistake, you can get up and try again. Gluttony is a “deadly sin” however to those who don’t follow religion, gluttony is simply another word for binge eating disorder. I refuse to ever make someone feel bad about that. Sloth is a sin too. To me, sloth, is depression. I’m not lazy, i’m depressed and I can’t get up from bed no matter how hard I try. Should someone be punished for that? Pride to you, might be the self love that someone worked years to be able to find. You cannot live in a religion where anything that goes against their word is wrong.
Ignorance is not Bliss, it’s ignorance- Okay so, my biggest problem with religion is the belief that only God is right. We don’t take into account science or anything else, just God. However, when we question god, like, why did you give my mom cancer? they never have an answer. “That’s just what god wanted” shut up, that stupid. Bad things happen no matter what religion you are. We have to embrace it, we can’t blame the devil every time we don’t agree with something. Shit happens. It’s not god, or the devil, things just happen that we have to accept. Science is facts. That’s what it is. You cannot convince me of all the pros in religion and try to force me there are no cons. You can believe what you believe but you can’t force others to ignore scientific facts, especially when your belief tries to force me to believe that everything bad got nothing to do with your god.
It’s okay to be open minded- there are so many different cultural beliefs, so many different gods. There is no right and wrong in who, or how many you believe in. What may seem evil and demonic to you, can be lucky to another culture. That culture isn’t wrong, they just believe in something else that’s different than you. How the fuck is that a problem. I believe that we can all learn from all religions and all cultures. We can be better people if you allow ourselves to accept other beliefs. Halloween is probably evil to you but to others its cute to see your kids dress up as superheros and even more fun to eat all their candy when they go to bed. It’s about having respect for others and educating ourselves so that no matter what our beliefs we don’t hurt people who are different from us.
I believe that there is something protecting me. It may be a God, it may be the sun, whoever my higher power is, is who I want it to be. I can decide that the thing that gives me hope and faith is Bing Bong from Inside Out (watch it if you haven’t) He believes in you, he guides you, he helps you, he gives his life up to make sure you’re okay, why can’t that be my god? I have friends who are Muslim, i have family who is christian, I love them all equally. I don’t care who you believe in, don’t be an asshole. That’s my problem, people who are assholes because you have a different belief. There are those who don’t believe in anything. That’s okay too. You are who you are. I went on a church retreat that told me everything I had done in my life up until that point was wrong and the only way for me to get rid of my sins was to tell god i was sorry. My biggest sin was lying about being sorry. I wasn’t sorry for the things I did in my life, they made me who I was even if they were “wrong”. I don’t know if there is a heaven or hell. I don’t know if there’s a way to behave to determine where you end up. I don’t think many of us have time to decide where we’re going in the afterlife, most of us are trying to just make it to tomorrow. Be who you are, believe in you who you believe, but don’t be a dick to people who don’t believe that your god and what you believe is right. Learn to be someone who can listen without making someone who clearly needs a therapist feel like all their problems are simply because they don’t have the same belief as you.