It seems as if most things that we have talked about, deal with ethics, morality, and right versus wrong, but does that even come into play if there was no religion?
All religions are different, but most generally come down to the same: do well, serve the higher up God/Jehovah/Allah, and treat the people around you well in hopes of pleasing the "higher up" person - all that go along with what we see now as ethics and morals. These ethics and morals were once woven into the nature and life of every human on this planet. As society has changed, the nature of humans have changed as well, and the morals of the people have changed as well.
Now my question to you is: Religion doesn't play a role in every life, how has the presence or lack of religion effected your nature?
Hey Mariah, I responded to this blog!
ReplyDeleteReligion is everywhere. It can be hard to accept it. Even if you or your family are not religious, or follow religious views, the history of our nation is built upon the belief in God. God is everywhere. And I say this in the least religious soap-box preaching way. Taking a closer look at the question, you shouldn't ask yourself if religion affects your everyday life, but how much does it affect your life everyday? The answer to the former is a definite yes, and we can never escape this unless you move to an isolated community that is devoted to the opposition of anything religious. The answer to the latter question is a bit more complicated to answer. The first evidence of the deep institution of religion in the U.S is the use of the 7 Day week. In the bible, the book of Genesis claims that God made the earth in 7 days. This is where we base our week schedule from. In school, we grew up as students reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag, which has a reference to God. Every morning, we stood up from our seats and stated that we are "one nation, under God", and never thinking twice about it. These are two instances that religion subtly affects you, and what makes the idea hard to swallow, is the difficulty of being able to disassociate yourself from religion. It would take some extreme measure to do so, and if successful, you would only end up becoming a degenerate of society. "How could you not follow the 7 day week schedule?! That's insane!" would be the response. Our nation was built on the belief of God. When we go into war, God is always on our side to defeat the evil enemies. The phrase "God Bless America!" is said all across bumperstickers on our cars, and by politicians in office to show their patriotism. "If you don't think God should bless america, then you're not an American, but a terrorist!" which is of course, a satirical statement. How about when you sneeze? What is the usual response? "God bless you"? These are very simple instances, but nonetheless, they exist. Also, when you refute the belief in God, you will have someone against you, thus still indirectly affecting you. There is no peace for the disbelief of God in our nation. So when looking at the question, does religion affect you, then most surely you can say Yes. But how much it affects you, is an answer you have to choose for yourself.
-What are some instances in which we can entirely be disassociated from religion in the U.S?
To start I was raised with a religious background but as the church changed (and not for the better) we ended up leaving the church and don't practice the religion anymore. What really set us off was all the double standards the church had and how blunt they were sometimes. Now getting really into my personal life...my parents are divorced and of course the church knew that. Well one Sunday morning during the sermon the priest started talking about divorced people in general. His comment was and I quote, "Anyone apart of a divorced environment, (including the children) will automatically go to hell; there is nothing they can do to save themselves from this sin." It was after this comment we stood up in the middle of the sermon and walked out of the church and we haven't been back even though this was almost eight years ago. To me and the rest of my family this comment is crazy why should the children automatically be condemmed to hell for something their parents did. To be it doesn't automatically put the parents in hell either because sometimes you would be in an even bigger hell staying together.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, back to the question....I think to some degree the lack of religion in my life has made my nature better and in other ways its made it worse. I think it has made it better because I no longer have these religious rules that I have to live by. For example...come Easter time and thus lent I no longer have the church telling me what I should and shouldn't eat. It has also given some more free time...we I practiced we use to have to go to a class that they called CCD, like a Sunday school (except it wasn't always on Sunday's) and we would also have to go to the sermon on Sunday morning. And then of course there were the special services for hoildays and what not. The lack of religion has also saved money because it use to cost to sign up for the CCD classes and the church was always asking for donations. Have a lack of religion has allowed me to more freely live my life and not have to worry about committing a sin. But maybe this is a bad thing too because now I am not afraid to do silly things like swear once and awhile and other such things.
Although I no longer practice a faith I don't believe that religion is out of my life 100%. The reason for this is I still have many friends who practice some type of religion and thus I feel when I am around them I need to be concious of their beliefs and respect them. Another way that it is still in my life is because I didn't make what Catholics call Confermation I can't get married in a Catholic church. The only way around that is to take some kind of class and promise that if I have kids that I would raise them as Catholics. To me it's a lot of mombo jombo.
Question:
How do you feel about the concepts of heaven and hell???