In today's blog, I would just like to respond about a comment that was left on one of the DesignLife videos. I say respond ABOUT instead of respond TO, because I have already replied to the person specifically, however I would like to expand on this conversation a little bit and just express the purpose behind the video and how I feel about the comment. I love sharing my thoughts, if I didn't I wouldn't be blogging or making videos in the first place. So I appreciate her feedback and that it has given me something to think about and say. The video that I will be referring to throughout this blog is called "Is it Time to Rethink Religion?" and it was posted a little more than a week ago. In the video I discuss something that I read in the book Life on Earth by Mike Dooley.
I don't talk a lot about the book itself, just something in the first chapter or so that caught my attention and caused me to realize why I had distanced myself from religion since I was about 19 years old. I read something about how children are generally curious. They tend to ask a lot of questions and I'm sure I did too. But one of the first stories told in the Bible and one of the first stories we tell kids is the story of Adam and Eve, which (roughly summed up) is about a man and a woman in a beautiful garden that is told by God that they can till the ground and eat freely of all the trees in the garden, except for a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This next part I am borrowing from Wiki:
The phrase in Hebrew: טוֹב וָרָע, tov V'ra translatable as good and evil, may be an example of the type of figure of speech known as merism. This literary device pairs opposite terms together, in order to create a general meaning; so that the phrase "good and evil" would simply imply "everything". It is equivalent to the Egyptian expression evil-good which is indeed normally employed to mean "everything".
Subsequently, I really feel like the first story (or lesson) we are told as kids when going to Sunday school (or wherever) is basically it's a sin to be curious or it's a sin to seek knowledge. Maybe that's why, somewhere along the lines, kids stop asking questions... Maybe that's why, somewhere along life's path, people stop questioning... And they just accept ignorance and become sheep. In the metamorphic words of Katy Perry,
Are we crazy?
Living our lives through a lens
Trapped in our white-picket fence
Like ornaments
So comfortable, we live in a bubble, a bubble
So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, the trouble [...]
Stumbling around like a wasted zombie
Yeah, we think we're free
Drink, this one is on me
We're all chained to the rhythm
To the rhythm to the rhythm
(I urge you to read all of the lyrics, it's from Perry's song, Chained to the Rythm). Summarily, I had distanced myself from religion, because by the time I was 19 I had stopped accepting the God I grew up with based on pure faith and I started asking a lot of questions about people, life, religion, love, happiness and just everything. Yes, I sought to "eat fruit from the tree of knowledge" and therefore I could no longer live in the Garden of Eden, because I had (at least according to Christian standards) fallen from grace. I was a sinner. And to be honest I didn't really want to spend the rest of my life feeling sorry about who I was and thanking an invisible god for forgiving my sinful ways. I mean, if he didn't want me to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil why did he make the damn tree?
I was banished from the garden and fell from grace, landed flat on my face and was pretty much mad at the god I thought I knew and terrified of the world, but something in me knew that I shouldn't give up and that there is more to life. So I started searching for truth and asking questions and I have found my answers. BUT today's post is not about the answers I have found or convincing anybody else, because my journey was my journey and the question I posted was simply
Is it time to rethink religion?
At about 3:49 minutes into the video I specifically say that I am not telling anybody that their religion is wrong or right or debating about it, just that it might be time to change our approach to religion and how we teach it to kids (and of course, I point out that this is just a personal opinion). Why do I make such a huge deal about emphasizing that this is a personal opinion and not a debate? So that nobody can tell me I am wrong, or say that I told anyone else that their religion is wrong. And yet, there always has to be someone...
Facts? Facts and religion are mutually exclusive, since religion is based on faith. Which means believing in God without facts or proof. Once again, I am not saying God does not exist, I am just saying that there is no proof. Personally, I believe no person could ever prove God exists, because our minds would never truly be able to comprehend God for all that God is. God is not quantifiable, which means we would not be able to express or measure God as a quantity. God is an experience.
My thoughts, therefore, about this comment is... Why so defensive? I was not condemning your religion, I merely spoke about Christianity, because I had 18 years personal experience with the Christian god and I didn't find my solace in him. The purpose of this video was not to prove to others that they need to throw their beliefs out of the window... It was merely to open a discussion.
Which is why I am blogging about it, because I don't understand what the person who wrote the comment disagrees with exactly? What is she saying? Is it:
A: "We do not have to rethink religion or our approach to how we teach religion to others."
B: "I do not think you are allowed to have an opinion about Christianity because you should probably read more of your bible." Shit, this is a problem, because I don't have one.
Or C: Is she trying to tell me that god changed his mind and even though we once were not allowed to be curious, we are now because "God took that away"(what did he take away? His law about not being allowed to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?) so this video is irrelevant now?
I don't know. I just felt like expressing my personal thoughts in the video and opening a discussion about religion in general and how times have changed and how religion has changed - but has it kept up with us? It just feels to me like the comment misses the point of opening a discussion and just says "Mmm nope, nah God changed his mind and said we could be curious, so I disagree with you, we don't need to be curious and ask these questions, we good."
I'd love to hear your thoughts Readers if you would like to be a part of this open and inquisitive discussion I have going on in my mind. Do you think it's time to rethink religion, change our approach to how we enter into a relationship with God and be more open to the thoughts and beliefs of others? After all, God is Truth, Love and Light. Whether we ask questions or not, God will remain the same. The only thing that can happen if we ask questions and aim to understand the whats, whys and hows of the world is that our relationship with God would deepen and be more authentic. As a result of my journey of questioning and seeking, I feel like it has led me to choose to be in a relationship with the God of Love, instead of just having been raised into accepting a default relationship with a god I don't even know...
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