How Does Your Religion Affect Your Daily Life?

Interesting question, I think. For me, I would have to say that my religion hardly impacts my daily life at all. Actually, I consider myself without religion, although I hold to a Deist philosophy. So what does this mean? It’s interesting really, at least for me, because I feel free from the constraints of any particular belief system. I am able to discover what appeals to my own reason, and pursue that which my reason dictates.

Here is why I consider myself without religion: I have no daily, weekly, or other actions that result from my beliefs in spirituality. Many will talk of themselves as having faith, but not religion. However, I see religion as the outward actions that take place as a result of one’s faith.

I suppose I would consider myself as having some sort of “faith,” as I do believe in some sort of creator. While I don’t possess any personal experience with this creator, or have any “proof” of its existence, I do still believe that the universe reflects creation of some sort. However, the difference with me vs. people of regular mainstream religions is that my “faith” is really more philosophical than practical. This means that I almost consider myself agnostic in the sense that I don’t think we can ever really know the creative force. However, I’m not a true agnostic in that I do think there is some sort of creative force.

It’s really a mixed up system, but I understand it quite well and it makes sense to me and appeals to my reasoning. This is why I consider myself a Deist. It is the one established form of belief that most closely aligns with my beliefs.

It is really a very great philosophy for me because I remain open to intellectual integrity. In other words, if I come across something that really changes my mode of thinking and truly appeals to my sense of reason, then I can make the necessary adjustments. So far, I’ve never come across anything with that amount of force behind it, but one never knows. I can engage in religious conversations (which I love) without feeling the need to be right. I like to play devil’s advocate just to keep the conversation moving. I am not trying to convince someone else that I’m right and therefore he or she is wrong. For me, it’s not about who is right and who is wrong. For me, it’s the discussion that I love, the possibility of finding new ways to think about things. One thing I’ve learned in my few years on this earth is that I don’t know! I can’t know! Therefore, I’m not going to devote my life to something that makes no sense, and I’m certainly not out to win people to my way of thinking. I get nothing from that.

So how does your religion affect your life? Do you enjoy the intellectual stimulation from a great conversation, or do you try to change minds? Is it about right and wrong for you? Do you know that you are right and therefore I am wrong? If so, how do you know? Are you open to new ideas and perspectives, or do you stay with what you “know?” How do you act differently because of your religion than you might if you didn’t have that religion? These are all great questions and can be a lot of fun to answer, not to mention, give you more insight into yourself.

Is Your Concept of God a Crutch?

Jesse (The Body) Ventura, when he was Governor of Minnesota several years ago, came under fire for making a statement about religion being a crutch for weak-minded people. At the time I was a Christian, and I along with many other people of faith was appalled at such a statement. While I still don’t agree with his statement, I can see some nugget of rationality in it now.

What is your concept of God? I have stated in previous posts that I started to really have a hard time with prayer. I realized that I was using my concept of God as a crutch. When things weren’t going the way I wanted, or thought they should, I would offer prayers of “supplication” and “thanksgiving.” I knew I needed to be thankful first, and then I could ask for God to fix me and my life. That was fine for a while…a long while. However, I started to pray less and less, and began questioning my beliefs more and more, until I finally came to the realization that I could no longer continue down the Christian path, nor any religious path for that matter.

Call it pride, self-pity, whatever you like, but I came to the point that I couldn’t, in good conscience, ask God for anything. I realized that one of the problems I had with religion was that it seemed so self-serving. We can all have times of genuine love and admiration for the creator, and even praise it for its grandness. But let’s face it, it seems the vast majority of prayers going on out there are for personal requests. “Dear God, please let me get this job…you know that I have prepared well for the interview and have done my part…please give this job to me…according to your will.” I would always add that tag ending, just to make it seem unselfish.

I began to think, “what about that other job candidate that prepared just as much as I and is just as qualified as I, and has prayed the same prayer? Whom does God choose? As a Christian, I could always fall back on the “it wasn’t according to God’s plan for my life” excuse. It was always a great comfort to think that God had something better planned for me. But then I remembered, wait, I have free-will. How do God’s plans align with my free-will? Sure, I need to submit myself to God’s leading, but then how do I know what that leading is if I am praying according to my perceived needs? If, in my conscience, I feel a “prompting” to become a missionary in Abu Dhabi, does that mean that I need to pack up and go?

Here’s the deal, God became a great excuse for all sorts of things. If I was happy, I praised God for the happy experience. If I was sad or worried, I asked God to fix it. If I was unsure of what to do, I asked God for direction. If I was angry, I could blame God. Where is there any personal accountability in this? You may write comments to me remarking that my concept of God was skewed, but let’s be honest, how many people have that same skewed concept but don’t admit it?

I touched on some of the issues in my earlier posts regarding “American Christianity” parts one and two. I do believe that our concept of God is really going astray. We have taken the “personal relationship” portion of Christianity and turned it into a “personal genie” relationship. Instead of honestly looking at why we are in the situation we are in, whether good or bad, we tend to give God the credit for it, and then “pray” to it according to our desired outcomes. Is this what God is all about?

The standard line in Christianity is that God created us to honor Him. That is our purpose in life. Well, because we have a “personal” relationship with God, we can push the “honor Him” portion of our purpose aside, and focus on how we can bring honor to Him by Him using us to accomplish great things. Do you see what I’m getting at. We can be very clever beings. If I want God to use me for His glory, then I want His glory to be revealed in the things I want to pursue. If I mess up getting there, God will fix it. If it’s going great, then it’s because I am in tune with His leading. (read- when I screw up, God will bail me out, when I do well, it’s because of ME being a good follower.)

I really don’t want to criticize all religion. That’s not my point. My point is that I think we should re-examine our belief of who God is and who we are. If you come out with the same beliefs you’ve always had, more power to you (although I would question the depth of your analysis).

These are thoughts and feelings I’ve had for a long time. However, it wasn’t until recently that I was really able to identify them. As most of you know, I am no longer a Christian. I consider myself a Deist philosophically. In all honesty, the only “prayers” that I can utter are recognitions of beauty in nature. That’s it. I can’t pray about myself or my situations, whether good or bad. I believe that my fortunes and misfortunes are directly related to my action or inaction in life. I can’t see it any other way.

How do You Find God?

While this post may come across as irreverent, I really don’t mean for it to be. I have been thinking recently about my leaving Christianity and pursuing Deism as a philosophy. It occurred to me that I am a free-thinker, meaning, that I want to think about things myself and come to my own conclusions. Often, my conclusions will align with the thoughts or systems of others, and many times they don’t. I don’t think it’s any “rebellion” on my part, this is just the way I am.

In Christianity, freedom is an important concept. According to scriptures, Christ set us free, and we are free indeed. We are free from guilt, from sin (though not the consequences of sin), and free to act as Christ would have us act. Now I’ve realized something that was really bothering me about Christianity, but was unable to articulate until lately:

Perhaps Christ did set us free, but Christianity has bound us in a variety of ways.

1. We are free; except that we must accept Christ as Lord in order for us not to burn in hell;
2. We are free; except we cannot be homosexual;
3. We are free; except that we must (or should…depending on your denomination) be
baptized;
4. We are free; except we really should unite politically and socially with other Christians;
5. We are free; except that we ought to be evangelizing;
6. We are free; except we must do what a collection of books as old as 6000 years tells us;
7. We are free; except that we must be pre-millenial (or post-millenial);
8. We are free; except that we must worship the god of the bible and no other;
9. We are free; except for that darn original sin issue;
10. We are free; except that we can do no good unless it’s Christ doing the good through us.

We can go on and on here, and many of these arguments can be made for other religions too. So, back to the title of this post.

Do we find God through systems? Really, that’s what Christianity, Islam, Hinduism et al are. They are man-made systems put in place in order to advance our attempt at knowing God. Even Deism, when approached as a religion, becomes a system. Do I get to know god by performing the right actions, believing the right things, and spending the appropriate amount of time on my knees in prayer as laid out by other people or systems? I suppose its possible. However, I don’t believe it’s the correct way.

What is the correct way? I don’t know. However, I do know that I feel closest to the creator when I’m noticing and appreciating the creation. I don’t “pray” per se, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I see prayer as an ultimately self-serving action. Instead, I might make a brief mention to this unknown creator that the weather is beautiful, or that tree is really pretty, or that I love walking in the woods…and I might even say “thanks.”

More and more I am viewing religion as binding. I see it suppressing curiosity, creativity, and expression. I think that religion can close minds and hearts, and cause people to pay far too much attention to the lives of others. I don’t like to be driving down the road and told by a bumper sticker that I need to accept Christ so I don’t go to hell. If someone wants to have a Jesus sticker that’s fine, but please don’t tell me what I need.

All of us, whether Christian, Deist, Muslim, Jew, Sikh, Buddhist, or Hindu are all on this earth looking for the same thing. We are all looking for meaning in our lives. Perhaps you’ve found your meaning in life…fantastic. Perhaps your meaning is Christ…great. That’s not my meaning though. This has nothing to do with truth. I’m not asking for the absolute truth. I think people spend far too much time and energy debating the truth issue. Truth does not necessarily equal meaning or purpose in life.

To be honest, while I do believe there is absolute truth, I don’t believe we can ever find it. Why? Very simply, we are too wrapped up in our own needs and desires to recognize absolute truth. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, it just means that my idea of absolute truth and yours may be very different–so which one of us is right? Is it the one with the best logical arguments? How many times have you known you had the superior argument in debate, but still failed to change the mind of the other person? It happens all the time. So where does this leave us when we are trying to find God?

I think we have to follow our own reason and passions. I don’t believe any system will provide it for us. This is why I get so irritated with the religions of the world, as once you subscribe to one, then you need to fit the mold. If you don’t fit the mold, then you need to go to the other denomination. Instead of messing with all of this, I would rather try to find my own way by following my God-given conscious and reason. Right now, I’m pulled in the direction of Deism as a philosophy, but who knows where I’ll be next year.

Unexamined Beliefs?

Socrates is quoted by his pupil Plato as saying “The unexamined life isn’t worth living.” I truly love this statement, and also do believe there is much merit to it. However, I think this can be expanded to “the unexamined belief is not worth believing.”

How many times have you heard people, of any religious belief, say “I was raised in a [insert religion here] household…or, “I was baptized at the age of 4 and have been following God ever since…” Here’s the deal, I’m not trying to bash these life experiences. What I am doing is questioning whether you’ve sincerely examined your belief system.

I think one of the most important things I can hopefully teach my son as he grows up is to be a free thinker. By this I don’t mean to go against the grain just to do it, I mean to take nothing for granted. Just because his dad subscribes to the Deist philosophy doesn’t mean that he needs to. Sure we all want our kids to grow into mature, responsible adults, but I do think that we need to encourage them to think for themselves.

I have the type of personality that automatically questions what I’m told. This doesn’t mean that I have no capacity to believe, or that I’m person who can’t accept authority, it simply means that I am curious. I don’t question authority just to do it, I question in general to have greater understanding. This entire blog is actually for me. I write for myself. You will no doubt find many grammatical mistakes and posts that aren’t cohesive, but that’s okay. This blog is one way that I question. It’s a great medium too, as I can get comments and thoughts from others.

I have had a couple people try to “witness” to me over the past year. I’ve caught them off guard when they asked me “why don’t you believe in salvation through Jesus Christ?” I answered them “why do you believe?” I have had the response of “the Bible says so, etc…” however, not once have I had one of those people say “because I have truly examined what’s out there, and found that this is what I truly believe.” That, to me, is a great answer.

I’m not saying one needs to write a Master’s Thesis on every subject about which one wants to know, however, I do believe in the importance of being inquisitive. “Why do I believe what I believe?” “Do I actually believe it, or am I playing a role?” “How do my beliefs align with my perception of what others expect from me?”

I do not hold myself up to be a brilliant person, but I am happy that I am a thoughtful person. So why do you believe what you believe? Do yourself a favor, if you haven’t already, really dig down deep and try to answer that question and some of the others asked above. I bet you’ll be glad you did.

One side note: Please notice that not once did I correlate “belief” with “proof.” I am coming more and more aware of the fact that one can offer “proof” of nearly anything they want. How? Proof is dangerous, what may be “proof” of God’s existence to me, may not be to you. What may be “proof” of the infallibility of scripture to you, is not to me. Proof is tricky, and people become very dogmatic when they can “prove” their beliefs are true to their own satisfaction. The point of this post is to examine beliefs, not look for proofs.

From Faith to Reason

Going through any major life change can be difficult, scary, and confusing. I think that making a change in one’s religious views helps to magnify these feelings of insecurity. Anybody who has been reading this blog for a little while knows that I am a former Christian. Over the past couple of years I have removed myself from church and ultimately from Christianity itself. The reasons? Check out some of my other posts and you’ll begin to understand. I do want to point out one problem I have. This is a problem that seems to be well represented in the de-conversion world. The problem is “what if I’m wrong?”

Before I go any further, I want to let any Christians who may be reading this to know that this is not the appropriate time to comment on this post saying that “the reason you’re concerned about being wrong is because the Holy Spirit is convicting your spirit…” I’ve already thought about this. Please note, I’m not looking to “feel better”, I’m simply relaying thoughts I’ve had in the attempt to process them and maybe help others.

As a Christian for the majority of my life, and a truly serious Christian for the past 10 years or so, I cannot help ponder this possible situation of my being wrong to turn away from Christianity. I find that there is a disconnect in my head concerning this subject. Intellectually, I know that I cannot accept the Christian story anymore, and that to go to church or even pretend to be a christian would nobody any good. However, it is hard to let go of certain beliefs that one has had for a number of years. Such as:

1. Am I prepared for the fact that I may be consigning myself to hell just because I can’t intellectually follow Christianity anymore?

2. Am I prepared to meet God the Father face-to-face and explain why I stopped believing in his son?

3. There are and have been many people, much smarter than I, who have embraced Christianity. Could I be wrong about this whole thing?

There are many other questions that come into play when making this sort of life decision, but I wanted to list a few and also let you know what I’ve come up with.

First, because I still believe in a creator, I recognize our ability to reason as God-given. The simple fact that I can process these questions and try to come up with answers (creatively, on my own) is amazing. Second, as our reason is God-given, then the creator would never expect us to go against it for things that can’t be proven true or false. In other words, when it comes to the Creator, the only true revelation, other than personal, is general revelation. That revelation that comes through the handiwork of the creator–Nature. I believe nature is a map of the creator’s footsteps. I do not, however, believe in any holy or inspired book or collection of books from any religion. In truth, accepting a book as the authoritative word of god is accepting the author(s) as god.

There is an argument in favor of the infallibility of the bible that just because it was written by humans does not mean that the bible contains errors. While humans are fallible, they are capable of being infallible at times, and can do things perfectly from time-to-time. While I agree with this line of reasoning, it occurs to me that we have no way of knowing whether the writers who wrote the books of the bible were infallible in their memory, recall, and theology. They may have written exactly what they wanted, transmitted it exactly how they wanted, but that doesn’t mean that they were correct in their theology. To place my belief in Christianity is indeed to rest my eternity on the laurels of people who lived 2000-6000 years ago.

I can believe in God through the general revelation of nature and the universe, but I cannot place my creator into the box of any one religious system. In reason, I see religions as man’s attempt to grasp the eternal and shape it into some sort of map or guide to get through life. Instead, I believe that the eternal gave us reason to exercise at every opportunity, to expand our knowledge of the world, and make our own way through living as good and effective a life as possible.

As for the questions above:

1. Am I prepared to go to hell? No. However, I realize that if indeed there is a hell (of which I don’t believe), then I suppose I would be going. This cannot change though. If the Christian story is true, then I cannot believe in and worship a God that determines our eternal fate because of one decision we didn’t make on the brief blip of time we were here on this earth. If the fact that I’m using my god-given reason leads me to hell, well, I really can’t change that as I can not worship that creator.

2. Am I prepared to meet god face-to-face in explanation? No. I cannot even fathom this actually happening. I cannot believe that the creator of the universe will be so hurt, and feel so dejected that I did not say “I accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour” that I will be promptly judged and escorted down to the fiery lake where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Instead, I think that using reason and recognizing the handiwork of the creator is all the recognition it is looking for.

3. Could I be wrong about this whole thing? Absolutely. There have been and will be many Christians, smarter than I, that are continue to hold to Christianity throughout life. I however, cannot. Do you understand that it’s not just a matter of “not wanting to believe”? When I say I cannot, I mean I cannot. If I were to get down on my knees right now and plead to god for forgiveness for my apostasy, it would not be genuine. I would simply be looking for a way to avoid hell (once again, which I think is bad theology). I can’t just turn from my wickedness and believe. Really, who among agnostics, deists, atheists,… wouldn’t like to believe in the afterlife… heaven for the good, and hell as retribution for those who wrong us during life. Everyone would like to believe in eternal life in heaven, however, it’s not that simple. If you are a believer in Christianity, and always have been, you probably won’t understand. Unfortunately, we can’t just flip a switch and decide to become whole-hearted believers. I believe, according to Christianity, that that is the Holy Spirit’s role anyway.

So, as you can see, I do not have the answers. However, I am becoming more and more comfortable in my apostasy. It takes getting used to. Undoubtedly, I will always have some of the left over theology of my past following me around and appearing every now and then, but to tell you the truth, I am becoming more and more thankful everyday for the freedom to use my reason to aim higher.

Why I am a Deist

Like many others throughout the United States, I decided at a fairly young age to become a Christian by going forward and accepting Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. At this time, my convictions weren’t exactly strong. I went forward because some of my friends were Christians, I had been going to church all my life, and I was at a Christian event. Circumstances just came together for me.

Throughout the next 10 years or so, I dove head-first into the world of Church and Christianity. I was reading books on Christian Apologetics, learning all I could about the intellectual properties of being a Christian. I served in Church, went to Sunday school, and attended and even led a bible study group. However, I still question to this day whether my devotion was heartfelt or a sense of responsibility.

Over the past couple of years I have gone through a real soul-searching period of my life. After examining what I truly believed, I realized that I cannot honestly proclaim myself to be a Christian. I have too many problems with the tenants of Christianity as well as organized religion. Instead, I discovered that my beliefs tend toward the path of Humanism. I do believe in the natural goodness of humanity, the beauty of our creativity, and especially our incredible power of reasoning.

Unfortunately, in visiting many Humanist websites today, instead of honest articles written in the interest of the human condition, I find vitriolic attacks on religion and those who believe in God. There must be another way. While I don’t hold to the tenants of Christianity, I feel no animosity toward it.

Enter Deism.

Deism, that old form of belief system that seems to have disappeared since the age of the founding fathers, is truly where I seem to have found a home. I now consider myself a Deist because:

1. I believe that nature loudly proclaims an intelligent Creator;

2. I believe that humans’ ability to reason not only separates us from lower animals, but also gives us the incredible ability to fix our own problems; and

3. I cannot, as a matter of conscience, choose to believe in any religion that proclaims to be the only way to eternal life.

I list number 3 above not as a matter of “fairness” (i.e. what about those who never heard of Christianity, Islam, whatever), but as a matter of intellectual honesty. After examining my time as a Christian, I discovered that I never truly had a “relationship” with Jesus Christ, although I certainly prayed to, and thought I did. Instead, I was believing in the divinity of Jesus so he would save me from eternal damnation. This is, I believe, horribly self-serving. The simple thought of entering a relationship with anyone, purely to use that person, is among the highest “sins” that man can commit.

There are many other reasons for my leaving Christianity, including my inability to comprehend any rhyme or reason to the entire Christian story. That is, perhaps, a later post. For my purposes here and now:

I love humanity, I love being a human; I believe that humans have incredible potential for advancement and world stabilization through our reason; I love nature, I believe that nature loudly proclaims a creator; and I love the peace of knowing that at the end of the day, all that really matters, is how I lived today.