I think religion is a beautiful thing. Believing without relying on naked plain sight, entrusting your whole self fully to One who is not physically present but promises boundless reward for boundless faith.
The intellectuals and reason-minded among us think religion and faith to be absurd. Believing in magic, foolishly praising a God that would let evil and chaos run amok in this world.
I am not a very religious person, nor do I choose to side with reason for that matter. However, with what little light of faith I have inside me and with the many lessons I've learned from reason-minded intellectuals, I'd like to share my views on religion.
So, faith. This idea is one that has so shaken the world ever since the first believers who walked this earth a bazillion years ago. Our forefathers worshiped nature. They believed that certain inanimate objects carry within them a god or a deity. Now that I think of it, it may seem that this is what agnostic or atheist men think of us mildly religious folks. I don't want to start a row so I'll just derail that train of thought.
Religion and faith has made magnanimous impact on our history. Men have been killed in the name of it. Wars erupted among countries, along with crusades, underground societies, dark secrets, enormous supporters. How can something so beautiful as faith lead some to become so corrupt?
When I was a kid, I was taught that praying was talking to God. Going to church was receiving His Body and Blood. Doing good meant making God happy, hence that should also make your soul happy. Earthly deeds make heavenly rewards, they say. Can not faith be this simple?
When I was in high school I was reading "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown after finishing a seat work in class. Some of my teachers told me not to read such literature. They thought that it would shake the very foundations of my faith. I thought about it to myself, "This is just literature. I have no cause to doubt God because of reading a really kick-ass crime novel." They didn't know that because I was "too young" to understand.
Mahatma Ghandi once said, "I love Christianity but I hate Christians". That was probably not in verbatim but that's the gist of it. Powerful words, are they not? And profoundly true. I love faith but I don't trust ALL the men who preach about it, regardless of what religion. ALL men are corrupt because we all commit sin. I trust in God and the way I came to know of Him. I don't mean to sound all preachy and boast of how I am a faithful person. I am trying to serve this topic with as much reason and faith molded in one.
I have tried before to live as atheists do and save me the trouble of relying on faith to ease my anxieties. It didn't really work for me. I felt incomplete. I don't know about the others who choose not to believe.
You can't necessarily say that the men who side with reason are evil. What if they do more good for others than certain religious members? And one cannot claim that he who sides against certain religious men are evil as well. What if they fight for a greater cause in the long run at the expense of the religious' preachings?
I am a Christian yet I love reading and learning about other religions. I think faith is beautiful because it can give believers a compass on how they can live their lives. I think it's also wonderful to take beautiful practices and beliefs from other religions and apply it to oneself. I am talking about principles, not gods and deities.
As quoted in The Da Vinci Code movie, What matters in the end is what you choose to believe. God knows this, hence the gift of free will and intellect. No matter what you choose to believe, all beliefs, even non-beliefs can be made as simple.
