I’m not religious.

There.  I said it.  I’m not Lutheran or Christian or independently spiritual…

I’m also not atheist or agnostic or anything else with a label.

I tried to be religious.  I really did.  My parents took the family to church a few times when we were little.  It was fine.  I’ve always thought Bible stories were really interesting.  King Solomon was my favorite. When I was in school, I felt like I may be missing something, so I joined Awana and memorized bible verses. When I was in high school, I started going to church with a friend.  I remembered inviting my mom to go with me once.  The minister’s tagline was “Does God live in your house?  Does God live in your house?”  My mom leaned over to me at one point and said,  “Well, no, but he can visit any time he likes.”  *lol*… my mom is great!

When I went to college, one of the reasons I CHOSE Baylor was to get a little more religion.  It’s such a HUGE part of our national character I really wanted to know and to understand.  I took old and new testament bible classes, I took a “the bible as literature” course.  I went to church and revivals, and disciples in God meetings…

…and what I learned was that it didn’t make sense to me.  I get it… I like the CONCEPT behind it…  that there is something benevolent and omnipresent there… that we have this code of rules that GOOD people should live by…  that we have someplace to turn when there is no where else to go…

…but it still doesn’t make sense… because ultimately every religion says they’re the RIGHT one… Catholics, Baptists, Episcopalians…  Jewish, Islam… all of them… they all have their own story or their own variation on the story, and they all claim that their way is the ONLY way…  Make no mistake… they ALL will kill you for disagreeing with them… maybe not in the current, bloody, flashy way that Isis is… but bloody Mary got her name for a reason… the Crusades did happen…  people have been killed for being heretics, and for being abortion doctors, and for being gay…  for what?  for disagreeing that what a book says is true?

That really wasn’t my point, however. My point is the sadness that I sometimes get from people when I tell them I am not religious.  People will look at me with such disappointment in their eyes that I have not “accepted Jesus.”  I did… I really did…  I believed it once.  Nothing earth shattering happened to make me NOT believe… it’s just that it no longer made sense.  Besides, I was baptized as a baby… and if you’re worried about my soul and spending eternity in hell, I won’t… I was baptized… and according to at least one religion that’s good enough…

The part that makes me REALLY sad is I have had more than one person ask me recently:  “If you’re not a Christian, then what would make you be a good person?”  I can’t tell you how sad that makes me.  Why WOULDN’T I be a good person?  Why should I need the threat of punishment or the promise of a reward to sacrifice and to be good? Why wouldn’t I want to treat other people the way I would like to be treated? and why would I expect anything in return from other people?

I’ve always been taught that when you leave someplace you should leave it nicer than it was when you got there…  what difference does it make if I have children myself?… there are billions of people existing on a planet where I exist every day… because I am part of the human race… because I was BORN it is my job to do the best for the planet and to be good to every human being I encounter.

I do not have any need to make ANYONE else believe the way that I do.  If you KNOW without a doubt that God exists… if you have SEEN and interacted with Jesus and He is part of your every day life, good for you.  I am happy for you that you feel that relationship.  You do not need to be sad for me that I don’t.   If you want to pray for me, feel free!   Positive energy in the universe IS something in which I believe.  I think we’ re ALL connected.  I believe in the law of conservation… I believe that energy can neither be created or destroyed…and can simply change forms.  I believe that everyone and everything that is here now has ALWAYS been here and always will be…  I can’t explain everything, but I don’t need to… I don’t need myth to explain.

Many people I know who are Christians have spoken to me of times they have felt abandoned by God… or wonder why God allows bad things to happen to good people… They think that maybe they’re going through some kind of test… or they need to “let go and let God.”  If that works for them, great.

But I also see people crushed by the idea that God has abandoned them; their well meaning religious friends turn to them and say “If God brings us to it, he’ll bring us through it…”  When Pat Robertson or Joel Olsteen tells them that there is only ONE way to get through hard times…and they get MORE angry and more resentful because they no longer know how to help themselves when they feel God is not there for them.

I think there’s something to be said for both aspects… if turning to the church works for you…  that’s great, but if it leaves you feeling abandoned and alone as a failure…  isn’t it just as okay to realize that maybe “God” had nothing to do with whatever crisis it is you’re enduring?  that it’s just a really horrible thing that happened… and that it’s up to you to choose to get through it?  You don’t have to turn to the very thing that you expected to protect you and support you when you feel like you are entirely alone.  It’s okay to realize that you have yourself and your friends and your family and that you don’t have to rely on the supernatural.

Along those same lines, I really don’t understand vehement atheists either… people who are ANGRY that others take their religion so seriously and it’s so important to them..  It provides something for them…  I don’t understand why anyone would want to take away something that comforts someone else

I get it… I get that non religious people get upset when the religious try to control THEM based on beliefs to which they don’t adhere…  when we start insisting that laws and curriculum need to be based on religion that’s a problem…  I hope we’re moving away from that as far as laws are concerned… and as far as curriculum… I say “so what…”  If you don’t want your child to have an abstinence only education, then educate your child about birth control.  If you don’t want your child to hear about the theory of evolution, tell your child why you believe it isn’t true…

I don’t understand why everyone is always so concerned about making everyone else believe what THEY believe.  Express your opinions.  Debate.  Listen.  Learn… but there seems to be this need for so many (religious AND non) to say “This is what I believe.  What I believe is best…  You would be better off if you believe it… so you need to…”

Religious people saying “I  have been where you are before… when I found God my whole life changed…”  Often there’s no malice behind it at all…  it really is them wanting you to feel how they do…

but the atheist feeling is often the same… “I’ve been where you are…. my life got so much better when I realized that was all just a story… when I realized that I’m in control of my destiny… not some supernatural force…”

And I know far too many atheists who just assume that religious people are ignorant or redneck or uneducated because they have faith and because they believe in things that can’t be seen or touched by everyone.  I think atheists who believe that about ALL religious people are even more ignorant than the religious people for whom they have such unmitigated disdain.

I believe in the power and the eternal life of the human spirit.  I believe in the power of positive energy.  I believe in the law of attraction.  I believe in integrity and charity and faithfulness…

I believe in being a good person.

I believe the world would be a better place if we would listen more and judge less.

I believe that NO ONE needs to believe the same way that I do.

I believe Rodney King may have said the most profound thing ever…  🙂