As of late, I have been thinking about the impact religion has had one the general populous over the past hundreds of years and I have found that although the prospect of salvation and repentance have a certain allure to them, over all religion hasn't lived up to the preached and written "morals and values" of its patron: that being God.
A bit of background on myself, before I rush into anything: I grew up in a very strict catholic house hold. Church was every Sunday, including Sunday school, bible camps, alter serving duties and prayers (morning and evening) and also I attended a Convent school from grade one to grade three, public school from grade four to seven and my high school years were spent at another Catholic School. During my time spent in High School I began developing a fascination with atheists. I found them to be very interesting and so free, something I thought was impossible, because Jesus was always "watching me".
I began talking to some of them, one of whom became one of my best friends and she began explaining that religion, isn't something God gave to mankind but rather religion was a tool developed by the upper class to control the peasants in the fields by instilling fear and anxiety. She told me that the presence of a higher power or God would defeat the notion of freewill and thus create a society governed by a non entity destined for narrow minded thinking.
This was distressing, No God? how could this be? I immediately went to my grandmother (who at the time was the ultimate source of wisdom and knowledge) and asked her about religion. I found the answers extremely unsatisfactory and became very uncomfortable during my usual religious duties. I could no longer say "praise be to God" or "In Jesus name" with as much reverence as before, I found myself asking, Are/ were these people even real? and what on Earth am I doing here? and thus began my questioning of God and this institution called Religion.
Over the years I have became very happy without God looming over my head and I haven't been to church "willingly of course" in the past 6-7 years and I have come to realise that everything comes down to a basic choice and that there are no real right and wrongs in the world when you really think about it. All these things are societal constructs that enable us to live "harmoniously" with one another but what it really comes down to are the consequences of your actions and whether or not such consequences will impact positively or negatively on your life.
Religion is a very dangerous thing, I am not averse to the belief in a high power, that as it stands is acceptable, but the institutionalisation of faith (religion) into classifications such Catholics, Methodists, Christians, Judaism etc is one I have a problem with. Countless wars, the repression of science during the dark ages, stoning of women for seeking an education all have used religion and God as justification. It seems to me that all these religious denominations are seeking to become the one ultimate force behind the army of God, but aren't they fundamentally all the same? When all is said and done, when one goes to "Heaven" and Saint Peter asks what have you done with your life? will he really care whether or not you were Christian or Jewish?Muslim or Hindu?
What scares me the most is that we live in a world where people need God to be good people versus being Good without God. Scary very scary indeed.
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