so, i had a really good conversation with one of my coworkers tonight, as well as on the forum i go to (thehideawayhouse.com) and i realized that religion truly fascinates me.

i believe that religion should be personal. take little bits and pieces, or large chunks even, from other reiligions or beliefs and fuse them together into your own. believing this also leads me to dislike the idea of organized religion. actually, i think it should be entirely done away with, but that is not plausible. the problem i have with organized religion is that rituals are abused. dont get me wrong, i do not think that rituals should be done away with, its just that the repitition and lack of emphasis on personal spirituality within the ritual allow the rituals to become mere habit. rituals ARE sacred, and should be treated as so…not performed on a regular basis simply as a sign of your ‘commitment’. to me, that is ‘the easy way out.’ and not only is it the easy way out, but you are missing out on the beauty of that personal spiritual feeling.
another problem i have with organized religion is…the lack of organization. i am technically a confirmed catholic, have attended 10 years of religion classes, yet, i have never read the bible, dont know all of the sacraments, couldnt even read off the 10 commandments, and continually asked questions the instructors couldnt answer. thats terrible. and i am definately NOT proud of that…except that i kept stumping the teachers…it helped me to first realize the joke that is that religion.
furthermore, organized religion is full of inconsistencies. one personal example: i attended two different parishes for religion classes….one parish instructor told me that if a catholic took the time out of their day specifically to ask God for forgiveness of a sin, that is the same as going to confession. however, at the other parish, the instructor said that its not good enough to do that. that you have to tell it to a priest. i asked why, and they couldnt give me a straight, legitimate answer.
also, what is the bible? reading the da vinci code really got me thinking…did it really originate from Constantine for political gain? whereas its amazing to me that some of the stories find relevance in historical fact, it was also a series of stories that had been passed on orally for quite a while. doesnt that make it folklore? what if that really is the truth, and so many people are following simply that: folklore…? that is why it fascinates me. that people can and need to find faith in anything and will put their entire lives into something like the bible, and without any form of certainty.

i believe most religions form their belief for a God around the fact that God gave us life, and the worship of him is an intense appreciation for that gift. well, if we appreciate God, then shouldnt we also appreciate the qualities and abilites He gave us. my co-worker said that certain christians do not believe reading certain material (i.e. science fiction, fantasy) is acceptable. shouldnt we appreciate the fact that God gave us the ability to create, read, acquire knowledge, and form opinions about that knowledge? doesnt that also mean that we should also appreciate homosexuals, for being homosexual is, after all, a quality assigned to some of us by God. or, if not appreciate it, at the very least accept it since it is Gods gift. how can anyone but god define what a ‘good’ quality or ability is? they are all gifts and should all be appreciated, for they are given to us for a reason.

i wish that i could write out everything that i continually wonder about religion so that i could pick it apart and try to figure it out…but this is what i got to thinking about tonight.