Day Four - Your Views on Religion

Otherwise known as "the one that winds everyone up". I thought it may be best to, you know, side step this one, pretend to go over it, but then...why should I? Despite religion, spirituality, theology etc being one of my greatest interests, and many a drunk conversation has been had over such things, I don't actually think I've expressed in a very coherent way what it is I think of it all, other than trying to reassure people I'm not a bonkers religious nutter who thinks you're all going to hell for not, I dunno, whipping yourself over every "bad" thing it is you've done.

But before I wind you all up, speaking of religion and all, if you are the type who prays, pray for me for Monday because I have the first of a set of interviews for a job that could really really do me some good, on a number of levels. Including getting me out of this here flat and into college. So, ya know. I'll be praying away between now and then, and any intervention from anyone else can only help :D

Ok now onto the meat of it. My views on religion. Well. Where to begin?

First off, I don't think what your religion is is of huge importance, and I can imagine that in some people this will cause some huge gasps of shock and horror. I know not all my friends think this. I think that as much as we insignificant beings would love to think we know the will of God "because He deigned to show us through his works" we actually know sweet shag all. We can barely understand each other, let alone this magnificent big dude in the sky. Heck, aside from texts scrawled down out of a desert tradition that bloomed and grew and evolved into the current stock of Abrahamic religions and all the different sects therein, there is no conclusive theological evidence to suggest there is a big magical dude in the sky. Until the dawn of Christianity, which was may I remind you once just another small Jewish tradition borne out of a time of immense political turmoil, and Islam following the same footsteps, polytheistic religion was the norm and monotheism, whilst undeniably having had raised its head from time to time, was actually something quite perculiar.

So religion as we know it today is quite terrifically far fetched from that of our ancestors. There are other examples of how this can be expressed in more than just "hey, where did all this 'one almighty creator God' shit come from?" but for now, this serves as an adequate enough example of why I'm not predisposed to necissarily take up the "The Bible tells us everything we need to know about God without fault" flag.

Now, I'm not trying to paint Christians as the bad guys here for coming along and smashing up the peaceful harmonious polytheistic religions that existed and replacing it with their dogma. Of course, I would be in my right to do so. We Christians have done this in the most brutal and horrific ways imaginable. And, you know, frankly it's not as if the Pagan religions of the time were exactly the all loving hippies that some Neo Pagans today like to make us think they were. Druids today may not practise human sacrifice, but, you know, times change. And my view on religion is that just as times change, society changes, people change, the world changes. The very Universe around us changes, all of the time. Nothing remains the same. Why should religion remain stuck in the past?

Religion has become so dogmatic today and a vocal few are afraid of change, for fear that it will invoke the wrath of God. But if Gods own creation is changing every day, I'm pretty sure God, in whatever form this God truly is or isn't, isn't going to piss all over you because you are more "liberal". Look accross the vast majority of the faithful people of the world. Where God is present, so is the wish to do good, to please God, to nurture and protect His creation, to take care of one another. If God truly is this one, unique being known only to, for example, Christians, whose message was revealed only to them, then isn't it amazing that his message of love and compassion and nurturing has not only translated to the faiths of those who may barely even recognise the sign of the cross but apparently has been passed to them by their own Gods who are so otherwise far fetched from Yaweh of the Jews that they are barely recognisable to western eyes.

Is it not possible, in that we know so little of the being(s) we call "God" that actually we have overlooked the similarities, the core of love and compassion that resonates throughout humanity through faith and without, and instead the greedy few have grasped to the differences that give them an excuse to march upon another people and take what is theirs by force. What if, all along, we were all worshiping the same thing? The same creative force that sparks the life force within our souls? What if all of our dogma and rules and "them vs us" attitudes are all just the outward cultural expressions, tainted by our animalistic instincts for conquest and territorial expansion, of the lighter, spiritual spark within each and every one of us?

I'm happy to say that today I live in a country where, despite what the popularist tabloids would have you believe, we are surrounded by tolerance and understanding. Not every man woman or child on our beautiful planet has the benefit of this. Living in such a society, I see more and more the similarities between cultures than differences. The differences that do exist are superficial at best. Often, the greatest differences in culture are more to do with geographical implications than divine will, but at the core of our beings, I truly believe we are fundamentally the same. We all feel our loyalties to our own and strength and unity of the family. We become upset when we are betrayed and when the family breaks down. It is the desire to prevent such things that wrote the rules of contemporary religion, but as we grow as a society and are better able to look after each other we find these rules have less and less signficiance. Divorce, for example, whilst techinically still frowned upon by the religious community at large, is accepted more and more as we grow to understand that the world is not black and white and love and lust are two powerful forces quite seperate and unique to each other, both to be respected for the powers they play on the human psyche.

We need to accept that given the small ammount of time we each inhabit our world, we will never be able to experience all there is, as sad and as frustrating as this is. If we cannot hope to understand even our own planet, then what hope is there to understand the universe and its great conductor(s)? All we can do is follow that spiritual urge within to whatever end it brings us. Some will reject the notion of Spirituality altogether, and I find it laughable that anyone could feel that God would be offended by such people. Others will find that spiritual urge to lead them not to God but to an understanding of the harmonious clockwork of the universe. Some find truth in the knowlege and wisdom passed from generations gone before, taking the thought that if it aint broke why fix it. Some fumble along trying to find new and seemingly strange ways to connect with God that can seem alien and frightening to, well, just about everyone else! Others find simple succor in quiet contemplative prayer whilst down the road, bretheren of the same faith find that same comfort from a mass outpouring of collective thanks and praise in such a way as would alarm anyone who is not initiated to these practises of worship.

But do any of us really understand what it is we are worshipping? Uncertainty abounds in each of us on some level or another, and resentment when fellow humans break bonds of trust to take advantage of our vulnerability, the vulnerability which comes from the very fact that we don't know for sure, however sure we may be that we're "onto something".

To conclude. Come on people, we all just want the same thing at the end of the day. Lets stop being dick heads about it and get on with what it is we have to do. We don't have to subjugate anyone else or torture or starve them. We have to be nice, and kind and loving, and set a good example for the kids, so that they don't have to live in a world of fear. Does anyone want that for their kids? I don't! Religion can be the perfect framework for instilling this sense of morality. It is not, however, the only way. Each man and woman needs to find their way. The world is not black and white, there is no absoloute good nor absoloute evil. Give a man a fishing trawler and his family need not starve nor go without, but at what cost to the world? A horrible, horrible cost. We have to just do our best with the tools we've been given, the intellects that we supposedly posses, and when we pass away and go on to the next stage of our existence we have to hope we can look God in the eye and say yeah...I really did do my best...

Or maybe not. I hear if a man should look upon the face of God, they will pretty much be fucked, but hey.

Should anyone be wondering yes I am religious. I'm Catholic. I just, ya know, like to think God isn't as big a douchebag as some fellow Christians would have you believe. All loving God? Yes but by whose standards?

xxx