What I Wish Everyone Could Know

My purpose of this post is not to persuade a person to alter their beliefs or to accept my own: my purpose of this blog is to help others recognize what I have learned. It is okay to believe what you believe- nobody should ever make you feel inferior for what that is. You are entitled to whatever you believe: but if you believe it, embrace it and live your life around that belief. Recognize that for right now, the only thing we have evidence of is that we are alive for this life-time. We never know when we are going to die and we must therefore decide what we will spend our lives dedicating our time to.

For centuries men and women have wondered why we are here, where we are going, and where we came from. There are various ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and evidences. I think that every person has a general outline of what they believe the answers to these questions to be, but as we well know: there is no tangible evidence as to the real reality.

The most global and common explanation is that of Christianity: of one God who created the earth and who sent his Son to earth to die for us. Though I will not claim to be an expert on religions, I have noticed from my limited study that all religions have some elements and beliefs in common. All religions have the purpose to promote personal improvement of their members so they can make the most of their time here on this earth for what will happen to them when they die.

There are other philosophers and scientists who believe that we do not need a God to exist and that we like to believe that our time lasts longer than this life, but religion is an illusion to gain control over members or to try and improve the quality of life of an individual.

Whatever it is, we all feel the need to be claimed to a belief- whatever we title it. We recognize that we did not create the world ourselves and we must therefore be held to something far more superior than ourselves.

Because we all have our own beliefs, we feel everyone else must hold these beliefs as well. There is nothing wrong with believing what we do as long as we have come to that conclusion for ourselves and we are able to articulate why we believe what we do. However, just because a person holds a belief does not mean that they are superior to someone of another belief. Because a person has received their own evidence of truth does not mean that there is not truth in another belief.

I myself am a Christian: I believe in Jesus Christ and I believe He is the Redeemer of the World. However, I have honestly learned a lot from atheists. Atheists work hard for everything they have: they never feel entitled to anything. The atheists I have met love to be happy just like myself and they are able to find explanations for things most people are afraid to even think about. Most Christians are protestant, or some alternative branch from the Catholic Church, but this happened because Martin Luther was willing to think about something that was not accepted in the Catholic Church. I feel it also works the other way too: atheists without changing their views can also learn a lot from the devout Christians. Some of the most incredible atheists I know have spent their time furthering their education and being able to help thousands of people because of their contributions. Because a lot of atheists are so logically-minded, however, a good number of the atheists I know are afraid of things pertaining to the heart. I recognize that some people experience an emotion and that controls their life, and I also recognize that sometimes the things we want clouds our vision of what actually happens. However, I know from my own experience there is a good balance between these two. Christians have the “Holy Spirit” which is basically the same thing as intuition. I have always loved the saying: “Work like an atheist, pray like a Saint.” While atheists do not have a need to pray, I think they can still recognize those moments of intuition and peace in their life and though not agree, appreciate the Christians and vice versa.

One of the things that have been bothering me lately, though, is that religions bash other religions. This seems extremely hypocritical to me because if we are working together to better ourselves, then a part of becoming better is to recognize that others may not share our beliefs, but we still love them. An example is Christianity vs. Muslims. There have been stereotypes about Muslims and  how they are a cult because they want to kill people. However, if you look into the religion a little bit, they also believe in Adam and Abraham and Moses. They too believe in prophets. They too believe in declaring their faith to be a member. I don’t know very much about Muslims, but I know that they probably are doing what they think is the best. By me only looking at the actions a couple of Muslims have done does not mean that I will become prejudice to Muslims as a whole. There is probably something about their belief and their way of living that I can incorporate in my own life to become better: I do not have to accommodate my belief or try to change their belief: but I can accept their belief and appreciate their dedication.

Even within Christianity, however, I have seen many sects take pieces of information they don’t know very much about and hold it over that religion’s head for why their version of Christianity is wrong.  It surprises me Catholicism is so looked down upon by so many Protestants when Catholicism is the only religion that is able to be traced all the way back to when Christianity was formed. While I myself am not Catholic, it amazes me at how many people look down upon these Christians who worship the same Jesus and from what I have seen: keep their traditions to keep the rituals sacred.

I have also seen many Protestants get very defensive over the Mormon religion, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and how they are not Christians. This also surprises me because Mormons also believe that the same Jesus came to earth to die for our Salvation. Just as many Lutherans followed Martin Luther when they broke away from the Catholic church, so did many of the Mormons follow Joseph Smith when they broke off from other protestant churches.  

When I hear about reincarnation, that just seems extremely odd to me because that does not fit my schemata. This seems like a science-fiction to me: however, I do not know any of the beliefs leading up to this one claim. Without studying deeper why this religion believes this area, it will seem strange to me. But I have no place expressing how ridiculous this is when they have more evidence and knowledge of how this idea is possible more than I could ever understand.

You may hear things either from members of a different religion or even rumors that may seem odd or repulsive to you. You don’t have to believe it, but the only thing I ask is that you either accept they believe what they do, or you look into it further with the perspective of: I wonder how they can believe this rather than: “Let me see how my knowledge of their belief can prove that what they believe is not as right as what I believe.” If we all have this attitude, we will not only resolve a lot of unnecessary issues and naïve comments, but we will also contribute to our own personal growth and knowledge. The more people we talk to, the more perspectives we have to become the best person we can be.