Most people do not change their faith as they age. Maybe from one Christian to another, but it is rare to see anyone change from a Christian faith to become Buddhist, Jewish, or Muslim. Most of us are what our parents are, if we have any faith at all.
Why is that? It probably has something to do with the fact that we live in the homes of our parents for so long, roughly the first 18 years. When we are small children, we do whatever our parents do, including going to church, synagogue, or the mosque. We ‘grow up’ in that faith, listening to all the stories, prophesies, and beliefs of that system. Just like social ‘opinions’ such as racism, sexism, and homophobia, we are what our parents are. When we hit age 19, unless we are in a negative relationship with our parents, we are not going to (all of the sudden) say that what we have learned over the last 18 years is bunk. Heck no. We take it hook line and sinker. We nay-say the others not like us, just like our parents did. It’s a domino effect that is very very hard to break from.
So that means most of us are following and practicing a faith blindly because we were born into it and not because of any honest discernment made in our own lives. We might question it, but obviously we usually come back to what we are familiar with. It is very hard to break with the religious practice of what our parents did. If one religion was so much better, that religion would be converting people left and right. No such religion exists, obviously.
When I think of it, I question the whole societal structure with regards to religion. All of those 18 year olds who come into my class as ‘Jesus freaks’ have really, truly, never even contemplated the ‘other side’. They believe what they are saying is complete truth, but it is not because they have evaluated all other stories and found theirs to be the most authentic; it is because it is that one they are familiar with. I say things about Christians only because that is who I am surrounded most by. I heard just the other day about how the Michigan legislature wants to put the 10 commandments in the state capitol in Lansing. The supporters argument is that the ‘founding fathers’ were very religious and their faith forged their idea of statehood and democracy. Yikes, it is a good thing that Michigan was not founded by a bunch of Muslim guys. What a crock!
Remember, faith, to me, is a good societal ‘police’ in that most religions have similar edicts regarding niceness to others, not murdering people, etc. It is that influence that I think organized religion is good. Unfortunately, that is about all it is good for. I disagree with the whole premise, but convincing everyone of that is a silly expectation for me to have. From now on, anyone who purports there version of the ‘truth’, weather it be some extremist protestant fundamentalist Christian religion, the Muslims or the Mormons, I will only listen to their arguments when they can tell me that they have critically evaluated other ideas and come up with sound reasons why their version is wrong.
This conversation begs the question, what is the purpose of a religious practice? Are you looking for someone to tell you what to do? What your purpose in life is? How should you act to your fellow human being? Are these not questions that are unique to each individual? Why do you need someone who doesn’t know you that well telling you how to live your life? Is that really how you want to move through this plane of existence, living by someone else’s rules? If you like rules, try prison. The similarities of blindly following a religious practice and prison (house arrest maybe?) are pretty creepy if you think about it.
Are you insecure in decisions that you have made or will make in the future? How do the teachings (stories, really) of 2000 years ago have any relevance in today’s society? You have to, again, throw out any believe in an almighty, powerful deity for this argument to have any resonance. Again, to those of you believe there is one God and Jesus Christ is his son, you are in the minority (of the world) opinion.
Simply saying ‘My religion is right because I _KNOW_ it is’ is not valid. Your faith has little value when you are trying to convince anyone of anything. But that is for another blog posting…
What I need to do is work on a good, well reasoned tome that starts with core reasons as to why people believe their religion, and then convinces them why they need no such guidance if they look within themselves. I should practice what I preach, so to speak. A series of talks, titled ‘Why everyone has their own religion and why you don’t need anyone elses’ or something like that…
