I don't believe that I should have to believe in God to go to a good place after I die. I know deep down I am a good person. I can account for my own actions. Whatever petty wrongs I have done can certainly not account for the good deeds done by me. Yet it is easy to point out my sins; my accomplishments and morality go unnoticed. I don't believe that I should have to praise the Lord every single day for letting me live. I understand he gave his life for us, but to give up his life just so we can give it back doesn't seem fair. It is as if we are living for him. On days such as Thanksgiving, I am more than obligated to take a moment to think about the things I appreciate I have in my life, and then I continue living. I also get offended a little when I hear "Ask God for help," for little things like trying to pass a test or figuring out something that takes more thinking than usual. I know it's not meant to be taken that way, but I want to know that sometimes I feel like I deserve a good grade because I know I studied or that I am smart enough on my own to determine difficult objects. Only of times of helplessness is when I whisper to myself "God please help me." But that to me is the same thing as saying "Oh my God." A phrase used in certain situations. What I'm trying to say is that I'm not actually asking or talking to God when I say those things, but it is simply a commonly used phrasing of words when those situations happen.
Here's another opinion assuming I'm not religious. I think some people use religion as a reason to do bad things so they get forgiven for however Hail Mary's or whatever chant must be said. You are supposed to learn from your mistakes and know what is right from wrong. If you think just saying sorry to God is going to some how magically erase the burdens you put on people or the crimes you have committed, then you really must take your God for a fool. I've only seen a couple people in my life who truly "practice what you preach," and for those honorable few I give much respect.
The reason I'm not considering myself religious is because I don't attend church often (either once or twice a year) and I don't pray to God or talk to him as a friend. And when I go to church I really do pray and give thanks for what I have in my life, but I also feel how I felt in part 1 of this topic about praying to a golden box and making a cross over my chest with "holy water", however sarcastically demeaning I make it sound. I already appreciate the things I have in my life. I try my hardest not to take things for granted, and I share when I am not in peril with my wealth or belongings. Does it make me a bad person when I say I feel like I am forced to attend church whenever asked?
The closest "religion" I'd say I relate to is Universalism, which means:
- The theological belief that all souls can attain salvation
Q: So even Hitler and all of those people go to Heaven too?
A: The way I see it, If God is truly a savior, and if he offers purgatory to all, that everyone may have a good chance to go to heaven. I'm sure at one point these horrible people weren't what everyone portrayed them as. I would see those Stories on T.V. about cases of murderers. The cases where I've seen them about to be put to death, there would be their parents or siblings there, PRAYING so hard to God to have mercy on their Child's soul. At the grave sight, the mom told stories of how nice of a kid their son or daughter was. And when the preacher says " May you rest in peace," I wonder if he really means it. But this story is my only back up of why everyone, including bad people, go to heaven.
And to clarify, this is a religion that I say I most relate to because to me if there is a God, there's too many wrongs and corruption in this world that it seems almost impossible to go to heaven the right way. But I'd rather not have a religion at all and still be able to go to a good place after I die and live in peace for eternity with loved ones I've met along my mortal journey.
Also, even though all these rules were written a long time ago, I am relieved to know that we can make our judgments and beliefs along the way, as long as God is the core to all of our questions and answers; our consequences for our rights and wrongs. Which leads to another concern:
I've always wanted to know why other religions are considered better than others. The biggest one obviously is Christians VS. Catholics. Now let's say I am religious again. Yes Catholicism is branched off Christianity. But isn't Christianity branched off Judaism? Having so many beliefs in common, and yet people decide they STILL want to separate? What difference does it make if I give a little more prayer to Mother Mary, or if I don't pray to her at all (Methodism)? I do not understand this hierarchy of religions, and it's one thing that I think is a waste of breath for argument-sake. Are we going to be separated into different sections in heaven, and God will come to each one letting us praise him? If we are one nation under God, we must start acting like one.
I think I have said all that is needed to be said. Feedback is appreciated! If someone can convince me that religion is needed for a reason I haven't yet brought up I would like to know. It may seem like I am bashing this whole topic, but all I want is to understand it better. Peace to all, and in case I don't have another post up soon, Merry Christmahanukwanzaakah to all :]
Tight hoops brah :)
ReplyDeleteNow Feedback...
I will start with the whole praising the lord and giving him thanks for your life thing. The way you are suppose to look at Jesus (who is God, in my faith) is the same way you look at your parents but on a much grander scale. The way I look at it personally is that my parents don't owe me anything. I don't always agree with them or the decisions that they make. In my most vulnerable time in my life my parents looked after me. They clothed me, they feed me, and they provided a warm safe place for me to lay my head at night. That alone is enough, they didn't have to do those things. So just the same way you should give thanks to your parents you should give thanks to Jesus. Because where did your parents come from ultimately? They nurture us, they gave us life. It is the same with God "the father" but what makes it a bit different is that we are all his children. He sees all of us as the baby who needs to be nurture. Without our parents we would not be here today.
Then you hit a bit on the whole Universalism thing. The way it works in my faith is that yes even Hitler could have obtain salvation. All he had to do before he died was to come before Jesus and repent of all his sins and ask Jesus to be his personal savior. But trust me that little fucker is in Hell. But what people would ask how can that be? Our salvation is not based on how much good or bad we do in this world. We are all sinners by nature, so it doesn't matter as long as you accepted Jesus and live as close as possible to how he lived. Another way to look at is that yes Hitler did a lot of bad things but a thing we don't realize or can't begin to comprehend is that God is all powerful. God can do far worse then any human being on this earth can do. He could end all life as we know it right now, he doesn't have anyone else to answer to. There isn't a single thing that happens to anyone good or bad that God doesn't intend to happen. There isn't anything that happens that God could not stop. Everything truly happens for a reason. We could never understand him and why the things of this world happen to people (partly our fault, Adam and Eve, Genesis) but God has the blueprint in his hands. He can see the big picture.
Then there is the whole Christians VS. Catholics. They are very similar and they did all branch from the same thing. But there are some huge differences that set them apart. It is true that all got their start with Judaism. The Jews where God's chosen people in the Old testament, which actually is their bible. But what cause the first split is the when Jesus came along he became the messiah that the Jews where suppose to be looking for. But what ended up happening was they said no Jesus is not it and the search continues for them. Then There is the Christians. I believe give or take Catholics fall under the same umbrella. But huge difference with them is that they worship the Virgin Mary as much as if not more then Jesus. The Jesus who is actually God in the flesh. To a Baptist (as you know I am) that is a big no no. Because yea she gave the virgin birth to Jesus but guess what? She wasn't a virgin long after that. Jesus had brothers, and there is only one Virgin birth in the history of mankind. The whole new testament is about Jesus first coming on earth, it is basically his biography. And as a baptist we do believe what all of the bible says.
So that is about it, hit me up if you got any questions dawwggGGGagg and I will see if I can answer them. But one more thing brah...
"I don't believe that I should have to believe in God to go to a good place after I die. I know deep down I am a good person. I can account for my own actions."
Regardless of any actions you might make in your life. You alone can not save yourself. It doesn't not matter if your good deeds out way the bad. The only way to get to heaven is through Jesus.
Thanks man it means a lot. I'd only still have to say that regardless of how much or how little we believe in something pertaining to a certain religion, the point of that paragraph was so that the separation of people stops just because we don't agree on who or what is right to believe.
ReplyDeleteAnd one last thing.. So in order to go to a happy place we must go through Jesus, otherwise if we don't believe in anything we just rot in the ground and let nature take its course? What if this happy place wasn't necessarily Heaven.. just a happy place that we can't reach on Earth but through afterlife? Are Heaven and Hell the only choices we have after passing away?
ok in that 1st paragraph I don't know what your talking about lol... But yes heaven and hell is the only place after this... so if you don't believe in Jesus, you go to hell. There is no black and white with this one.
ReplyDeleteWhat your still not answering is why are other religions considered BETTER than others. a hierarchy. why separate what brings us together as people?
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty much on the same page as you "Eskimo" lol
ReplyDeleteI too don't understand why religions HAVE to be better then the next, I would call myself catholic... I won't say that is the RIGHT religion to follow, but at the same time all I ask of others is to NOT tell me that "theirs" is the right one. Maybe all religions are right, or maybe only one... for all we know NONE of them are right and when u die... you just die just like that lol I'm not too religious myself, I want that Faith but at the same time I do believe that there is no afterlife. I don't know much of the bible tbh, but all I know is that it was written by men through out a long period of time, now those are humans right there... could we really believe in Humans??? I wish I was born back then to have witness Jesus myself and all its mysteries, but unfortunately I wasn't. The only prove I see that there is a God out there is a book that says he did walked through Earth in human form. I don't believe that I HAVE to believe in only Jesus in order to go to heaven, him and God are the same so I believe its ok if you give more attention to "God" himself instead of his Human form/Son. That's just my thoughts, I sometimes have trouble explaining myself.
Its not a matter of being better then one another. It's about who is right. I don't consider myself to be better then any catholic. I just see them as misguided brothers in christ. I believe what the Bible say.
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