For the past few years, I've been quite unhappy with religion and I have to say, I usually have problems with those who call themselves religious people. Why? Because it's all about religion to them, everything in life is because of God and nothing happens to them because they wanted it and worked for it. Or if they did, it's because God gave them the strength to keep fighting and working for it. Sorry, but God just isn't that powerful. If God was, then why wouldn't God save kids with cancer? They're not put here on Earth just to be God's pawns in a game with the devil, are they?
So I've been trying to figure out where I really stand about the Bible and whether it's God's word, as most Christian religions say. And while my thoughts are still evolving, I've come up with what I feel is logical reasoning about it all.
Way back in time, before the Bible was put down in written form, man needed guidance. Rules to live by, some might say. And so man began with the basics. Don't kill, don't steal, don't be envious. But there are always those who need to question authority. You know the type, the ones who look at you and say "Who died and left you in charge?" So man used God. The concept of God isn't unusual, after all. Every age has had their own idea of God or Gods. Even the oldest religions out there have some form of a Deity. "Let's let God be that authority. How are you going to complain about God?" And so began the idea for the Bible.
If you look at virtually every age of man, they have the same basic set of stories. The flood, the rules, the talks with their Deity in one way or another. But if you look at it even more basically, it's like parents who tell their kids to behave or else the monster under the bed will get them. You know there's no real monster but it definitely serves to keep little kids from getting into trouble, at least for a time. Until they realize that no monster is going to sneak out and take them away. Do I really think that God spoke to anyone via a burning bush? Nope, but it sure sounds good. Do YOU really think that our time period is so in control that we don't need God to talk to us? Nope but when was the last time we heard about God speaking to someone who didn't turn out to either use God's supposed talks in a way to directly benefit from it or else the person turned out to be a bit on the mental side? I won't buy it that God feels no need to try and get us all back on the right path when God spoke so often way back in the time period of the Bible's creation.
Ok, so we get all the punishment stories in the early (Old Testament) book. And then, they thought, we have to give them something to look forward to, something really wonderful. So along comes Jesus. Now, I'm strange. I believe that Jesus did live on Earth and that he was an incredible man. I even believe that he might be the son of God. The stories are wonderfully full of lessons for all of us to learn. The overwhelming lesson is love. Love for your neighbors, compassion and love for your enemies. His life as we know it was full of teaching people lessons that help them help others. It wasn't all "Don't do this and don't do that." It was full of how to be a better, bigger person by helping others, not hindering them. Don't hate someone else. Be the shining example of love. If you don't get that from those stories, then you're blind. The ones he admonished the most were the ones who cheated others, were hypocrites. He spent most of his time with the ones no one wanted to be with. Those were the ones he sought out. And yet, those lessons are the very lessons that most religious people bypass. And funnily enough, the ones who Jesus chose to walk and learn the most from him were the people who he felt were just average everyday people.
Did those followers learn? Some did. And the ones who learned the most, never wrote letters to others telling them how to live and what to expect. Because the ones who did that are the ones who kept alive what they'd listened to all their lives: the stories that make up the Old Testament. Even they didn't always get the lessons that Jesus taught. Because sometimes, what you've heard all your life outweighs what you learned for 3 short years. Take a look at the New Testament after the Gospels. All the letters and such. Weigh them against what Jesus taught and you'll see the greater influence is from the Old Testament, not Christ. Even Revelations, which sounds like one heck of a drug-induced dream, is filled with the punishments from the Old Testament. Not much love and compassion in Revelations.
So, my beliefs don't totally rely on what the Bible says. I try not to judge others, because I sure don't want them judging me. I pretty much live and let live, unless it's something that you can see is harmful to another human being. I turn the other cheek most of the time, until I feel that turning my cheek is just letting the other person continue to abuse me, and then I'm going to defend myself, usually with words. I've tried to help others as best I can, when I can. I work hard to try and better myself when I've really failed and I know I've failed even at that at times. I believe in the messages of the Bible stories but not that they are to be taken literally. I believe that the Bible was meant to be a guideline but not the end all, be all of our lives. I think God is greater than we think and much less vengeful as so many religions make God out to be. I don't think God hates anyone. I think it takes man to bring hate into it.
My bottom line: Religion is supposed to lift you up, to help you become a better human being. It's not meant to push you into fear or hate, like it has done now for ages. We can do better. We must.
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