...and I go to church every Sunday.
My entire family is Catholic, and they’re all very, very conservative. They’re narrow minded, and they lack respect. However, I respect other religions enough to humor them and attend, even if it makes me REALLY uncomfortable. Especially when they start preaching against gays....that’s just awkward.
I respect other religions because everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even if I think the idea is completely absurd. Because although the things they teach seem completely improbable, they are not impossible. The fact that no one knows for sure keeps me agnostic instead of being atheist. I’m not so arrogant to think that my beliefs are concrete and absolute, because that would make me as bad as any religious extremist. Even if I get carried away when people try and tell me that God is the only way, because that’s just insulting. If I’m respecting you I expect equal treatment.
The most annoying thing to me is when people try and tell me that depression and suicide occurs because people don’t believe in Jesus. They say that people need God/Jesus in order to have hope in their lives. I’m sorry, but if you think I can’t provide my own hope, then you think I’m a lot less strong of a person than I am. I had to learn to hope on my own because whatever God you think is out there wasn’t here to protect me when I needed it most. My lack of faith didn’t cause me to be depressed, it was quite the other way around.
I’m sorry to say that no matter how much I used to hope and pray for some kind of salvation from the hell I was going through, nothing changed. Nothing ever changes unless you take your own initiative and drive yourself and give yourself hope. God isn’t going to do that for you.
And now I’m on a tangent.........
Anyway. I go to church out of respect, and yet my family refuses to administer equal respect. Any time I ever even hint at the fact that I don’t share their faith, there are extreme consequences. They forced my non Catholic aunt to have her son baptized, because no grandchild of theirs was going to be brought up in anything besides Catholicism. SO NARROW MINDED I WANT TO PUNCH SOMEONE.
Also, my grandfather constantly talks about how all gays are going to hell. Okay.....I’m going to be a doctor so I can volunteer overseas and save lives and treat people that can’t afford it, instead of being a doctor in America where I can make millions on bureaucrats....and I’m going to hell. SWEET thanks guys for showing so much compassion. Isn’t that what your religion teaches?
ALSO, today in church our priest kept talking about how “we will not stop until God is brought to all countries, and all countries worship him in faith, and follow us in his teachings”.......if that’s not evidence that religion is just a way to control the masses, then I don’t know what is.
I feel as if this could have been said in a few sentences, but it’s not often that I can just rant about religion. And I wouldn’t even have to if I was allowed to just practice my own beliefs instead of being denied that liberty. Or if religion wasn’t so...weird.
On that note, I’ll leave you with this. I thought it was funny.
vvv
TOTALLY AGREE.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's a generational thing? I feel like even though we have peers who are equally dedicated to one religion, they're still more open-minded and welcoming to others beliefs in contrast to people like your grandparents or say, my mom. She's really conservative too, except not as extreme. Perhaps proof that narrow mindedness wears off more and more for each generation? The best was when she was being all THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE AND IT'S RIGHT, and I said, "But mom, you love astrology/horoscopes and totally agree with things like that. You know that Christianity condemns that?"
Like I said, it's definitely a wearing-off process.
Wow. I should write my own blog in response to this.
I THINK I WILL!