Faith and religion

posted by Jeff | Friday, August 29, 2008, 1:35 PM | comments: 3

Carrie made a good post about a religion that I can totally relate to. In fact, I'm surprised how many people find similar issues with religion.

I don't think very many people challenge their faith or ever make a conscious decision to choose it. I loosely believe in Christianity because it's what I was brought up on, not because I decided it was the "right" thing to believe. What I've learned about other religions is that most of them would likely suit me just as well.

The issue I have is the institutions built around religion. Most have injected so much human bullshit into them that they completely defeat the purpose of the basic belief system in place. What makes it worse is that some people who believe in the institutions more than the religion get so belligerent about why their religion is "right" that they take any dissent as an affront to "their" god. Those people are toxic.

At the end of the day, I choose to believe in a somewhat vague higher power because I think the universe is too amazing to be a sheer scientific accident. People in particular are too amazing, even though many can also be such assholes. You mileage may vary, but don't bother me with reasons that I'm wrong because I simply don't care.


Comments

CPLady

August 29, 2008, 6:52 PM #

I have contended for years that although I am a "spiritual" person, I don't believe in "religion" for the same reasons Carrie points out in her post. I find I can't stand the hypocrisy and political aspects associated with religion.

Beyond the divorce issue (which I also had to deal with), my brother, who had never been married before was refused his request to get married in the catholic church we grew up in because his future wife had been married before (not in a catholic faith). The priest insisted she had to file for an annulment for a marriage that lasted less than a year to a man she hadn't seen in years since her divorce.

Years later, in an attempt to "bring Ian up with religion" I joined the Lutheran church only to find myself totally disgusted a couple of years later when the pastor presented a sermon vilifying gay men and women. Not only do I have many friends who are gay, how can anyone call themselves "christian" if they single someone out for their sexual preferences. I never went back.

My father is now a member of the LDS (no, not the ones who still believe in polygamy), I've got cousins who are Jehovah's Witnesses, and friends of various other faiths, and every single one of them have their own hypocrisies.

I've decided I do not need to attend services to feed my spiritual self. I do believe in a higher power (at 15, I suggested to our priest that God created evolution). But I've yet to find a "religion" that satisfies me.

Carrie

August 31, 2008, 7:46 AM #

Yeah, not to call out the catholic church or anything, but I have a similar experience to the one you described above, Linda. My Dad wanted to get remarried in a catholic church and they required that he have his previous marriage annulled. I guess it didn't matter that it was a 32 year marriage that bore four children.

Jeff

August 31, 2008, 3:40 PM #

That's why the captain of the boat is marrying us. :)


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