Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking, not that that's uncommon for me to do, but nevertheless I have had some free time on my hands and my thoughts have been free to wander. I've been thinking about a lot of things, but because my next revised essay is going to be about religion, I figure that I might as well write down a few more of my thoughts on that.
So my topic for this upcoming argument essay is focused on how parents should let their children decide what faith or denomination they choose or even if they choose to believe in God at all. Personally I think that every person should be able to choose what they believe in, because it should be a personal thing. You shouldn't have to be forced into believing something that your parents and your parents' parents were forced to believe. Instead, all people should decide for themselves if there is or is not a God or whether or not they are Roman Catholic or Zionist.
Personally, I don't really believe in God or religion, I do have some ideas but for now let's just call me an atheist (I actually hate being referred to as an atheist, it just sound so cynical and sad:(. But what I find more sad is the fact that people lead their whole lives through fear in hopes of something better after this life. I just can't imagine why so many people are so focused on what comes next that they forget to appreciate what is happening now. We only know for certain that this life is real. It's the only one that we get and yet some people reroute their entire lives and center them around a God and an afterlife that was the brainchild of some random "enlightened" men a hundreds, even thousands of years ago. Can you see what I'm getting at? Why would anybody actually want to live their lives like this? If I had a choice between being a free-willed and, relatively, uninhibited person or to be constantly tied down by some fictitious set of rules that dictate and restrict what I know to be real, I think I can guess which one I would choose.
Not only do religious texts dictate the way that people live but they are open to interpretation and lead to some pretty awful things. When people take a version of the bible that has probably been translated over multiple languages and nit pick a passage until the meaning is misconstrued enough to fit what they want it to mean they are then able to justify whatever accusation or claim or action they make. Because of these rediculous conclusions people draw from the bible or the koran, etc., etc., people then are led to terrorism and other awful acts.
Now maybe I'm coming off a bit strong because there are people who are "religious" and "believe in God" but don't necessarily follow their religion religiously, see what I did there? But for serious, I'm not completely convinced those people bought all the way into their faith. What I think is that their parents forced it on them too and all of their lives they never seriously questioned it or thought about it too much because it wasn't that important to them in the first place so they just went along with the whole religion charade.
Now, onto an excellent point Christopher Hitchens made in his book god is not Great about the church, or really any church for that matter. To paraphrase, he basically says that "the church" while seeking salvation in the next life, wants power in this one. I actually chuckled to myself when I read this in class because it really is so true. Even though the church should be concerning itself with helping its members lead pious lives, it will never be satisfied. It will never be satisfied until every last living organism bows down to its almighty power. This is why we see relentless efforts trying to gain converts and people pushing their religions on others because if you don't convert you won't be "saved." That is, you won't have the pleasure of living your life according to an out of date set of guidelines that hold the empty promise of a reservation in the afterlife.
Well, I think that we have established that religion is a complex issue with a lot of different arguments within it. Whether you believe in God or not, whether you think religion enriches society or is detrimental, there will always be somebody that wants to stop writing their blog about the topic and so they end it in a very abrupt and sloppy fashion.
So my topic for this upcoming argument essay is focused on how parents should let their children decide what faith or denomination they choose or even if they choose to believe in God at all. Personally I think that every person should be able to choose what they believe in, because it should be a personal thing. You shouldn't have to be forced into believing something that your parents and your parents' parents were forced to believe. Instead, all people should decide for themselves if there is or is not a God or whether or not they are Roman Catholic or Zionist.
Personally, I don't really believe in God or religion, I do have some ideas but for now let's just call me an atheist (I actually hate being referred to as an atheist, it just sound so cynical and sad:(. But what I find more sad is the fact that people lead their whole lives through fear in hopes of something better after this life. I just can't imagine why so many people are so focused on what comes next that they forget to appreciate what is happening now. We only know for certain that this life is real. It's the only one that we get and yet some people reroute their entire lives and center them around a God and an afterlife that was the brainchild of some random "enlightened" men a hundreds, even thousands of years ago. Can you see what I'm getting at? Why would anybody actually want to live their lives like this? If I had a choice between being a free-willed and, relatively, uninhibited person or to be constantly tied down by some fictitious set of rules that dictate and restrict what I know to be real, I think I can guess which one I would choose.
Not only do religious texts dictate the way that people live but they are open to interpretation and lead to some pretty awful things. When people take a version of the bible that has probably been translated over multiple languages and nit pick a passage until the meaning is misconstrued enough to fit what they want it to mean they are then able to justify whatever accusation or claim or action they make. Because of these rediculous conclusions people draw from the bible or the koran, etc., etc., people then are led to terrorism and other awful acts.
Now maybe I'm coming off a bit strong because there are people who are "religious" and "believe in God" but don't necessarily follow their religion religiously, see what I did there? But for serious, I'm not completely convinced those people bought all the way into their faith. What I think is that their parents forced it on them too and all of their lives they never seriously questioned it or thought about it too much because it wasn't that important to them in the first place so they just went along with the whole religion charade.
Now, onto an excellent point Christopher Hitchens made in his book god is not Great about the church, or really any church for that matter. To paraphrase, he basically says that "the church" while seeking salvation in the next life, wants power in this one. I actually chuckled to myself when I read this in class because it really is so true. Even though the church should be concerning itself with helping its members lead pious lives, it will never be satisfied. It will never be satisfied until every last living organism bows down to its almighty power. This is why we see relentless efforts trying to gain converts and people pushing their religions on others because if you don't convert you won't be "saved." That is, you won't have the pleasure of living your life according to an out of date set of guidelines that hold the empty promise of a reservation in the afterlife.
Well, I think that we have established that religion is a complex issue with a lot of different arguments within it. Whether you believe in God or not, whether you think religion enriches society or is detrimental, there will always be somebody that wants to stop writing their blog about the topic and so they end it in a very abrupt and sloppy fashion.
No comments:
Post a Comment