My father once told me, “Have faith in your own religion.” Is it really my religion? How did I choose it? Do I really have a choice? How do we know which religion is right? How does God make his decision about who goes to heaven and hell?
Today I hung out with John and once again I brought up the religion thing. I believe I came up with one of my best arguments yet. My argument to him was pretty much the questions I asked above. I asked John, “what if I was born Muslim or Jewish? What if it was all I knew from my birth? What if my parents raised me to follow the strict rules of a religion?” I know that in many religions, in order to be accepted by its God or Gods, you must be a follower, a believer and obey certain laws. You must follow the writings in some ancient texts, most of which have been rewritten or revised countless times. How do we know which one is right? How do we know any of them are right?
Once a person has decided which they believe is the truth, then comes interpretations. Everyone has their own interpretations of different religious texts. How can anyone go about picking a specific religion when there are so many, and so many variations of each? I say they can’t. The moment a child is born, their parents beliefs are passed down to them. Sure, there are some who grow up and think similar thoughts that I am thinking, or they grow up and think that another religion is correct and their parents are on the wrong course.
What if the religion I choose isn’t the right one. What if in order to get into the kingdom of heaven, you must follow a certain path? How the hell am I supposed to know which one to pick? What if I never even had the chance to choose? To me this proves to be a great injustice. It makes no sense. My father always told me as a child, in order to go to heaven you have to accept God in to your heart. But what if I never had that chance? Would God punish me to a eternity of pain and suffering? Once again, it makes no sense to me. There are just to many questions that cannot be answered.
Maybe God is just an invention of society to help keep people under control. Or maybe He was invented to give explanations to the unexplained. I have no clue.
This journal is fantastic. I wish I could have met Matt. I feel as though I had a lot in common with him concerning religious questions and a religious father.
I am sorry for you loss, John. Thank you for writing Matt’s journal for us to read. I anxiously await more.
this is a really interesting project. i hope someone does this for me when i pass. im sorry for your loss. i dont know what the circumstances are, but sometimes bad things happen to good people, and sometimes people make decisions that we cant understand (that they would undo if they could). i have experienced this in my own life and it has helped me to remember that each life is a short but beautiful gift to the world, and even when it’s gone it never leaves us. i hope this doesnt sound trite or cliche, its hard to express these things, but i mean what i say. peace.
Maybe God is just an invention of society to help keep people under control. Or maybe He was invented to give explanations to the unexplained.
Both. Created originally, i believe, to explain the unexplained. Then once someone realized that people bow down to this thing that lifts the sun from the corner of the earth, this thing that no one has ever seen, they then took it and recreated it to make different versions to divide the people. This served to make the poeple fight each other so the big government can control them without being the main targets of the people’s hate, as long as that government allows them that freedom to hate.
But yes, exactly. How can god send someone to hell who is born in a family that has never heard of the christian god, believing in their own gods or spirits? The christians just then patch on yet another bandaid answer (like the whole “free-will” bullcrap) that god IS all the other gods, so it’s ok. They can worship their own gods cuz it is really our god, since he’s the only one. So, then, why do they (at ALL other times) tell people that they are worshipping the devil if they don’t follow their own god, and that they are going to hell?
It’s all fear and control, and the thing is that it’s created to govern itself. People become their own thought-police and don’t let anyone else think that there are other ways to think. People are happy to stay ignorant, if it gives them a sense of power that they’re told they aren’t supposed to understand.
This is why it’s so frustrating that this violently succesful religion is still in existance. People don’t see it’s a sham, because at first their told not to, and then after years of it being driven in, they don’t WANT to see the big picture, claiming that they do see it, while everyone else is blind.
I guess i’ll stop ranting, here, hehe.
This comment is about Nick’s comment. I’m no bible thumping strett standing yelling at people religious freak and I have questions just like everybody else. But Nick makes it sound like basically man created God or rather the idea of a God. So how exactly did the world begin Nick? Two rocks hit each other and skyscrapers appeared. Give me a break. There has to be something that is greater than all of us. You just don’t get something from nothing. Only in math do two negatives make a positive buddy.
Jennifer, if you aren’t a “bible thumping strett standing yelling at people religious freak,” you’re at least as shallow as one. Why can’t you accept that we really don’t know the whole story behind the origins of life and the universe? It seems like you’re so bent on having this knowledge that you have to make up some invisible guy in the sky that we can neither prove or disprove the existence of. Seriously, your second sentence is completely contrary to the rest of your post. Get a little open-minded, then respond please.
good points. seriously.
i love your arguments on religion. I wish i could shove some peoples face in this.
bravo.
While i agree jennifer on some level because i do not know how our existence came to be and i would imagine that there is more to this life than just simply passing through however, i find the idea of religion confusing because like matt said how can we know which one is right? what if we are all being bamboozled and the idea of god was simply created as a way to control the people give them answers because if you think about it thats how greek mythology came to be the citizens needed explanations for everyday events. modern day christianity could be the same thing but i really dont know ? call me ignorant but i really do want to believe that Jesus really exists because it gives me something to look forward to instead of a desolate end an endless sleep with no dreams.
PS for those that seem to be angered by the very thought of religion like nick let people be what harm are they doing? they are living their lives how they see fit and if one day they die and thats it they wont know the difference at least they lived their life and were comfortable with the idea of dying and if their heaven is the true heaven then so be it live your life without flollowing the word of “god” and dont worry about everyone elses deception