Today while reading about world religions, I found that fear is a very common theme. I believe that many people are pressured into a religion as the result of fear. Fear of the unknown and what might happen if they refuse to accept the religion. People are always fearful of the unknown and therefore become weak to the beliefs of others.
I remember one of my closest childhood friends grew up in a super religious family. She was the only person I knew that had never been to McDonald's, but that's besides the point. She was keep under a tight watch and whenever she disobeyed her parents a harsh punishment was immediately inflicted upon her. I grew up watching this lively, free-thinking girl turn into a conservative woman with few thoughts of her own. Her sense of self was totally erased due to her conditioning to become exactly the same as her mother. I blame these changes on her parents scorn of any diffent thoughts she had on life. Eventually she was driven away from our friendship due to her belief that I was going to hell, this statement she rehearsed to me many times. I think this is a clear sign of her own fear of going to hell which kept her intimate with Christianity. I futile attempt she brought me with her to Awana Christian group, helping kids learn about the bible. I was only twelve but had noticed that during group conversation my thoughts were different from the group of kids where theirs was quite complementary. They all had grown up in the same settings and no longer held and of their own beliefs for themselves.
This story is not told to show negativity towards a religious group, but instead to show that some people are forced into beliefs against their will. This is my major problem with religion. One's beliefs should be synthesized on their own accord and be true to who they are. Otherwise they are living a lie, no one can believe something if its not in their own ideals, therefore there's no point living as if they do. If there is a God he will know that the person never really believed and so why force yourself, or worse yet, force your religion on others?
2 comments:
It's unfortunate you had to experience the not so light side of religion. It's very strange what religious beliefs can make individuals as well as whole communities do. As you may have studied, whole wars have been fought on religious precedent and tragic instances of inhumanities have been wrought upon not only individuals, but entire races. What amazes me is that through it all, there are people, individuals who see this, understand it deeply, and continue to have faith in whatever tradition they locate themselves. Some might think them blind fools; others might see them as enigmatic. Whatever the case, it certainly is something to wonder at.
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