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I learned quite a bit about religion while I was younger both from college and my travels. all in all, I was trying to be knowledgeable and learn about all the different types of religion there were. I studied up on Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Judaism and a lot more. I came to believe that they all have their place in the world. I still do for that matter. In this knowledge I realized that I never needed to force my belief's down another's throat. I also never understood why some people so adamantly try to bully others into accepting their beliefs? I never for once thought that my own religion was the only right religion. I learned early on that, that sort of arrogance, is an act of man not God.

I always believed that God has a plan for all of us, I don't believe in destiny nor do I believe that this plan is set in stone but I do believe he and only he knows what the outcome will be and in the end how we get there will be God's will alone. All in all I think we as people are given the choice to get to the right place by God. He gives us the tools to make our lives a success or failure based on the basic principles of right and wrong all people know. These are the "rights and wrongs" that no matter what the religion, deep down inside we know the ethical and moral implications of them. Those alone allow us the knowledge to make the right decisions.

You can see this in all the religions of the world, they profess the base instincts of the human soul. These religious dogmas spoken so reverently all have the same basic principles to them. The pursuit of righteousness, the pursuit of wisdom, the pursuit of happiness and the chance to share our beliefs with others of the same mindset.

I've never been comfortable in saying that any religion is better than any other. I think we are all obligated to follow the religion we can place faith in. When people say that because one is of a different religion, they are automatically going to hell, it disturbs me. I for one don't believe that, I think god and god alone knows who is going to hell and who is not. In fact I think it's arrogant to assume to know this and get profoundly upset when people preach their religious diatribes espousing that they follow the "true religion" thus they are the only one's going to heaven.

I also never liked how people always say that any government was formed by god's will. In fact to me, religion and politics are diametrically opposed to one another, and I could never see the logic of people thinking that God would even want to commingle the two. There for it amazes me how people say that "God blessed this country" or "God is punishing us." I'm not saying that God doesn't do that, but let's face it, 99.99% of the time we do the punishing ourselves, it's just easier to place the blame on a higher power. I find it amusing how some governments are so afraid of religions that they will persecute those that follow them because they are afraid of what's being taught, even when that dogma is benign. I wonder a lot of times if they are afraid of the people or afraid of the entity behind their beliefs? After all, it's human nature to be afraid of that which we do not know.

I think a lot of those professing to be atheists fall into that category, they are afraid of what these religions entail in one way or another. As such they shy away from professing faith in anything but the abject apathy towards their being a higher power. Truly, anyone who looks in themselves will see that there is an element in them that needs something to believe in and deep down inside that need helps nourish their soul. How do you live a life with out believing that there is something afterwards? That is also human nature, every religion in the world expresses the belief in some type of afterlife. So it amazes me how people can try to logically approach religion when seriously, it's not about logic, it's about faith.

I actually told a man off today when he stated that Myanmar and China were being punished by God. I asked him if he lived in a place he knew was prone to earthquakes would he build his house of bricks or straw? He didn't want to answer but I think most would say straw? Why? Because it's logical and we know that these type of geological events happen and there for we have the knowledge of what happens. It's through the wisdom God has endowed us with that we are to take that knowledge and do something about it. So in the end if someone dies from an earthquake, it's people who are really to blame for not taking the right steps to protect themselves, not God. That people make mistakes is natural, to err is human to forgive devine, there for we should have empathy and compassion for those suffering. Why? Because we all make mistakes and god willing, we learn from them.

I guess that's about it. I wanted to right something about what I saw in people and how they approach religion but all in all I just wrote how I view the world and religion myself. Like a lot personal views it probably went blah, blah, blah after the first couple of lines. Anyway thanks for reading.

Sageman's Blog

Faith: The Common Denominator

Sageman

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