When you’re at the bottom of the barrel, with next to no hope left, the littlest beam of light can save you from out-and-out self-destruction.
There have been times during which my devotion to God has been tested to the limit. The extreme cases have involved my rejection of the existence of God in its entirety. Though in the early hours of the evening of the day before the day before yesterday, something happened that reaffirmed my faith in God, and fortified my belief in Him up to heights I had not reached before.
I am not a very religious person. At all. I approach Christmas and Easter with the same materialistic view most other Brits nowadays do. I, on rare occasion, attend church. I blaspheme a lot. And I will not leap to the defence of Christianity, should someone mock its traditions or values. I surmise that I don’t appreciate having religion shoved down my throat for me to digest uncomfortably, and I’m not taken by the notion that religion should play as important a role in today’s society as it currently does. Officially, I’d be classified as a Roman Catholic (ironic, as that is one of the strictest denominations of any world religion, not just Christianity), as both my parents are, and have tried in the past to convince me to follow the ideals of it; they christened me in my early years, and sent me through the Communion process whilst I was still in primary school. Both of these acted as preparatory procedures in order to allow me to fully confirm myself as a Roman Catholic around 16/17. In reality, I don’t feel obligated to progress through a confirmation, as I wouldn’t uphold the principles of Roman Catholicism, or obey all of the rules. You can see how senseless it would be for a person to join a religion under their own jurisdiction, whilst not believing in its purpose. Overall, I’d categorize myself as having views that closely represent a deist; I feel that God exists, but I strongly doubt the influence he has on everyday life, and most events are caused by people.
I’m not about converting people to my way of thinking. If a person wants to be a devout member of their religion’s community, I am not one to stop them. I may step in periodically to criticise poorly defined reasoning, but will not be accusatory in a boorish manner or label them a deluded fool. One of the best things about humanity is that people can have differing opinions on the same topics; diversity is found in more places than race, gender and sexual orientation.
However, in this advanced technological age, does the upkeep of traditional religious views and actions not warrant its place in society? When humanity is trying to push forward with new inventions and ideas, isn’t it a drawback to have something that requires people to constantly appreciate the distant past? The argument between science and religion has been raging ever since the concept of evolution was first mooted. And with science being prominent in this era, shouldn’t religion take a step back into a lesser role?
No comments:
Post a Comment