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Faith not reliant on
one's religion
I've never really considered
myself a religious person. But after a year of intense soul searching,
I have found I do have faith in God.
I was raised in a
family of seven children, and I am the youngest. My parents were the best
I could have ever wanted. They raised their children in the Roman Catholic
religion. I went through the paces -- catechism classes (study of the Catholicism),
First Communion and even made my confirmation (a ceremony in which a person
publicly declares his faith) in 10th grade.
After that, I fell
away from the church and the religion. I never lost my faith in God, though.
For a few years I never really thought about my relationship with the Lord.
When I came to Cal State Long Beach, I had more opportunities to question
my faith.
I decided that I
needed to learn about other religions. I had a brief stint as an agnostic
(one not knowing whether God exists) and even tried to learn something
about Islam. What stuck with me the most were the teachings of the Buddhists
and Hindus, both of which promote compassion, humility and "the middle
way" (balance in life).
I found that most
of these religions' principles are basically the same. They call on disciples
to practice love and compassion for fellow humans, humility and enlightenment
of the soul.
If you are Judeo-Christian,
your soul can be saved by God and invited into heaven. The Hindus are not
invited into heaven, however. Once they achieve spiritual enlightenment,
they enter into Nirvana. These are two different ideas about the same concept.
By now you're probably
asking what the heck I am rambling about.
Well, my point
is quite simple. Religion is a man-made concept, subject to the whims,
desires and biases of human nature.
Many people who disagree
with me would say God is also a human concept. Tom Leykis, a radio talk
show host, is a devout atheist.
"If God is so good,
why does he let bad things happen to innocent people?" Leykis has asked
repeatedly on his show. He claims that if a person has blind faith, he
must be a moron. He has even tried to get callers to call into his show
to defend their faith or religion. It's really a great bit because callers
can never defend their religion or faith to the master debater.
No matter what religion
you practice, no matter which deity you worship, you have to have faith.
So many people say that you need to turn to the Bible to learn to celebrate
God and accept him into your life.
That is an incredible
misconception. The Bible may have been divinely inspired, but the fact
remains that mere mortals wrote it. The same goes for any other holy book:
the Koran and the Bhagavad-Gita. Those are perfect examples of how man
creates religion to create societal cohesion.
Despite the wishy-washiness
of religions, I do have continued faith in God. Though I follow no certain
religious doctrine, my relationship with the Lord will continue to grow
as long as I keep the faith.
Those who don't have
the faith could call my experiences a culmination of fortunate circumstances.
This could very well be, but I have faith that it is something more than
that. It can all be summed up in one nice little phrase -- Got faith? |
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