Happy Monday Steemverse!
I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. I apologize for my sparse posting lately. Having 2 deaths, a wedding, and the holidays in the past month and half has kept me and my mind a bit occupied. The creative well has been running a bit dry. Granted Mindful Monday doesn't take much creativity if any. I still need the thoughts to flow.
Through the years, centuries, and millennia there has been a battle, more or less, about religion. It is one of those topics that people feel so passionate about that it has destroyed families, people, societies, and in some cases even war. So why on earth would I even want to approach this subject? Why not? We shouldn't be afraid of having a discussion on any subject. Not talking about it gives it a power that it does not deserve.
My personal belief honestly, anti-religion and pro-spirituality. This belief has come from personal experiences. I have had the leader of a very large church and 'renowned' author tell my kids to call me 'evil' because I don't go to church and because my personal beliefs don't fall inline with what his church teaches. This same man chastised me for divorcing because I was being abused. "It is the mother's responsibility to maintain the family unit at any cost. You gave up your life when you had children." He also told me that I should move back in with my ex-husband to be 'nanny' to my own children because it would build more stability in my children. My answer to this was a resounding NO. This same man also helped orchestrate circumstances in which Child Protective Services were called on me several times and in the end with my ex-husband kidnapping my kids and charging me with abandonment (I have touched on this a bit over the years, this however is not the time to discuss this issue).
The other impacting moment was when I was told I was not welcome at church because I did not wear a dress. That 'God'took it as an insult for me to not be dressed in the manner he had set forth. I looked at that preacher and said 'Funny, my god is happy that I came to church regardless of my attire.' Was then asked to leave and not come back.
Religion is belief in someone else’s experience. Spirituality is having your own experience.
– Deepak Chopra
My personal view has become one of acceptance and understanding. I believe it has 😁. I had a fundamental problem with someone telling me that Buddhists, Hindu, any indigenous people and so forth are wrong for their beliefs. Not only that, but they are going to burn in hell. What a concept. What a way to live life that anyone that does not believe the way you do is dammed. That to me is very judgmental. I don't have the right to tell anyone that they are living their life wrong. That they are going to burn in hell for all eternity. I don't even know if eternity or hell exist. I mean if people want to believe we all came from stardust, great. If they want to believe that we were zapped her into existence.. great. We all have our own journeys to make it isn't my place or anyone's place for that matter to tell you that you are wrong for the way you believe.
I had an ever bigger problem with a 'man' telling me how to live my life especially when their life is out of order. How many adulterers and swindlers have we seen in the 'Evangelical' scene? Do as I say not as I do? when we should be practicing what we preach. That proved to me that it is part of a much large scenario that is purely money based. You give to your church and you will receive riches in return. That sounds more like a cult than a religion in my opinion.
I think that the greater majority that fall into religion are simply wanting to find their place in the grand scheme of things. I also believe that there is a fair portion of those people that look into religion as a means of spirituality. I truly believe that the masses have confused religion and spirituality.
You don't have to go to a building to listen to a man who has put is own spin on words he read in a book to tell you how to live your life. I firmly believe that we are innately inclined towards a sense of fellowship, to help others in times of need, to look at all that life has to offer. I feel it is circumstance that impedes upon our growth. It takes that individual's desire to be more than their circumstance. I truly admire spiritual people. To have that amount of faith and belief in something that it gives a sense of peace, of balance, of oneness, and most of all a sense of belonging.
a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.
We are seeing more and more cases of religion being used as justification. Justification for war, for hatred and the like. Even with being what I have been through, I still have a very hard time understanding where any religion gets off on telling people who they can and cannot be friends with. How they can tell someone how to live and most of all that they are a bad person because they don't think the same way as they do. And why? WHY? do people feel that they need to fill their lives with this mentality. Almost as a lesser of two evils. When the 'evil' is hatred how can that be a choice?
I cannot and will not hate because I do not understand. I cannot and will not hate because it is the 'popular' opinion. We need to stop and reflect on things when the reality has become the norm of hatred as well as the doctrine. I sure as hell am not going to pay money for my place in 'heaven.' My actions are my price and if that isn't good enough then I wouldn't want to be there.
This is a subject that I could spend sometime talking about. My mind goes wild with possibilities and I could post pages upon pages with the thoughts on this subject alone. It is high time we start discussing and communicating, if not we are doomed. The only way to start to resolve some of the worlds' problems is to start talking about them.
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Love,
