If your journey has brought you to a place where you believe in “nothing” then just live in the reality of, what is for you, Truth. You are young and have a long way to journey yet. Just be the best person you can be and try not to impose your non-belief on others. Don’t mock, don’t judge. Because if Atheism is what you’ profess to believe in, then that is your religion…..it’s a belief system that professes a non-belief, but it’s a belief system none the less.
My own personal opinion about the labels of belief and unbelief is that they inflict a sort of unkind and arrogant behavior onto those who don’t believe as you do. There is a huge difference between religion and faith…..and don’t get me started on “I’m spiritual but not religious.”
My faith has brought me to a certain branch of Christianity that is accepting of the way people have been created. And not for the world would I ever say “my way is the only way”, because I believe God/Creator – whatever (if you believe in such a thing ) – is waaaay too big for such labels. I believe there is validity in all faith traditions that allow for the human condition and which are steeped in respect, dignity and kindness. Of course, not all, perhaps not many, even, faith traditions are big enough to act in these ways.
To my way of thinking, “religion” limits its followers to specific beliefs and to jam those beliefs and themselves into a box…..and that “faith” allows you get out of the box and play with the toys….to enjoy them….and if asked, to share them. St. Francis once told his Brothers “Never pass up an opportunity to preach a sermon. But only when necessary should you use words.”
So, when interacting with people who do not believe as you do, please do not mock or judge, inflicting arrogance and unkindness….you wouldn’t want them to do that to you.
4 comments
Books such as the Holy Bible are full of stories meant to persuade people to believe some pretty specific things, and rules to follow. So it kind of makes it seem like the god, or whatever, wants people to know what the truth is regarding things like death and immortal souls and eternity. So it wants that, and it evidently tried to accomplish that, but it knows everything and can do anything, then why not just do a better job of convincing everyone of something that could have just as easily been made a matter of fact instead of a matter of faith, with no room for doubt about anything at all? I feel inclined to believe that most of the humans with functioning brains on this planet would prefer to believe the truth, so they can hardly be blamed for the incompetence of the god being for not believing it exists or for not really agreeing if they do think it exists.
“…a certain branch of Christianity,” you say. See, even you are just one of who knows how many people who think they know something most everyone else does not or some such unnecessary rubbish. The whole thing is a joke, and so are you, so why should I not be allowed to notice that or say so?
If there is a god, it, too, is a joke. I would probably make a better god than it would. I would vote for most of the people who come in here to replace the god anytime. I bet they would do a lot better job and make this world a lot better place. And this forum would then be as unnecessary as you are.
I have not, and never will, try to convince people I “know” something they don’t. I only know, after 60 years on this planet, what I “believe.” You can make all of the assumptions (and that is all they are) about me that you want to. You don’t know me and your opinion of me is none of my business. You can judge your own value and worth. But not mine in any way that affects anyone but yourself.
All I have tried to do over the years I have posted on this forum is seek a way to deal with a crippling depression. I would hazard a guess that most of us have suffered from a lack of love, compassion and kindness. I have tried, through this post, to encourage our members to not react that way in return. You seem to have missed that entirely, as well as what I said about the validity of everyone’s truth, stressing I have no right to insist my way, or faith, is the only valid way/faith.
Respect the dignity of all people….that’s my message. And it makes me a little sad that you refuse to see that.
Still………..I wish you well and hope the pain that has driven you (and me and the rest of us) finds some measure of relief. We all deserve it.
very true.
+1. Being understanding of other peoples beliefs is the best thing to do (and hopefully they’ll respect yours as well). And in the end, is there really a faith (or lack of) that holds a serious base? religion can’t be really proven and the bigbang theory can’t be proven either (i mean, it just happened out of nowhere?), so yeah… in the end believe in what you want to believe.