Religion

If I wasn't already a skeptic, I would be now.  In my childhood, I was taught that we had a loving god who looked after all of us...never, ever happened...and, if we lived decent lives, we would go to heaven and sit beside him on his throne.  A question here...if everyone who died got to sit beside him on his throne, wouldn't it be unbelievably crowded?  Could he even see the people at the end of the line??

Even as a child I questioned why god wouldn't stop the horrors of war.  Where was he during the holocaust?  Where was he when little children got cancer and died?  Where is he now with all the wars and evils going on around this world?

My religious friends tell me that we are responsible for ourselves but that isn't what I learned at Sunday school.  I was told that god would keep me safe.  Where was he when innocent little children were being molested and murdered?  Where was he when a drunken husband beat his cowering wife and children?

These are the questions that made me an agnostic.  I know something miraculous happened to create our world and universe but I don't believe it was an all powerful man who would sit back and watch the holocaust happen and do nothing to stop it.

All of my life I have watched how much hatred is spewed from one religion on another.  We had the holocaust where people were tortured and killed just because they were of the Jewish faith.  We had the years of fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland and now we have all of the christian religions foaming at the mouth with hatred for Muslims.  How many other wars are being waged between obscure religious factions right now?  It seems like our world would be better off if religion had never been created.

Since religious followers are so unstable, it is up to religious leaders to teach love and tolerance and not discord.  I read that people who follow no religion are now in the majority and the reason might be that we are asking questions and not following blindly.  This is the age of mass information from the free press and the internet so we are better informed about what is going on in the world.  And we're starting to put 2 and 2 together and wonder where the love is in organized religion.

I get along just fine without leaning on the comfort of religion and I have my own personal beliefs about life and death.  I believe life and energy are eternal and I hope some of the mysteries will be solved for me when I pass away.  If I get to sit next to anyone in the great hereafter, I hope it's my grandmother.  I have a lot of questions for her.