I have always had a remarkably strange relationship with religion. I have ample faith, in both myself and in something greater. I am a firm believer that it does not matter so much in what you believe in, as it does that you have faith in something. Whatever it is that I choose to put my faith in, I do not try to force a name upon it. People don’t understand my beliefs, or me. I suppose it can be confusing that I can identify with almost every faith that has been in existence. Each religion has its piece of the truth, which I snip out and add to my collection. You could say that my religious script is nothing but a scrapbook, a collaboration of beliefs and rituals.
I feel like society is hoodwinked by the obvious. “We are the hands and feet of God”. What if that means we are God. Perhaps God has not graced us with his presence because we have not unified, we do not acknowledge our own presence or potential. We have become individualists, who in our lonely form cannot accomplish even a smidge of what we are capable of as a community. What if the concept of God is just a symbolic representation of our own capabilities?
Every opportunity I have I visit a place of worship in order to feel revived. As if everything I need is being channeled into me. This happens if I meditate, pray, or rejoice with others, no matter the faith or practice. It also happens at concerts, in crowds as I watch the celebration of lights.. It is not God who gifts me this energy and power… God, by that name, does not exist in all places of worship, nor does he reside in a rock concert or in fireworks… His image does not fit underneath all those other houses, only under the house of the Church. My question then – where does this sense of empowerment derive from if not from God? I believe it grows from the connection of people themselves. I believe we have the ability to be our own higher power if we only acknowledged our own capacity for creativity. We have forgotten our own ability to create and impact the world around us.
Religious scriptures are just a complex version of a children’s book. Humans have written each scripture to tell a story, which teaches us basic values and ethics. Immorality is not a crime against God but against humanity. The God who lives in the clouds does not require sacrifices. What is he to do with slaughtered sheep and spare money? Society is who requires sacrifices and not those of material nature. It requires individuals to sacrifice little things in the name of the common good. It requires taxes. In times of need people look to the sky and cry to God for help, when it is not God who answers their prayers. It’s the social networks of society. Rather, it is the employer who offers a job, or the soup kitchen down the street who provides food. It’s the friend who offers a couch to sleep on, the family you can lean on. It is taxes that provide social programs. The Alcohol Anonymous group is what cured the alcoholism, not Zeus. When will people realize they need to put their faith in each other? When will they realize their own responsibility for helping the community? When will they realize the potential of their own creativity -their own ability to change the world?
