I am happy to say my family reads a lot, we read a large variety of different books. My son likes science fiction/fantasy, while my youngest daughter likes mysteries. My 13 yoa is reading Harlan Coban novels and she also likes Carl Haissen. I am still trying to get through The Icewind Dale Series by R.A. Salvatore. He has so many books I may never finish. I like my son love science fiction/fantasy. I love Robert Jordan, L.E. Modesitt, Robert Silverberg, and Piers Anthony, but my favorite genre is horror and my favorite author is Steven King. Infact I took a break from my current book to read Stephen King's 'Cell' .....It was good a typical King read and I enjoyed it. My husband on the other hand likes Stephen King but is more likely to read murder mysteries or military type fiction. He likes the Tom Clancey type authors. Right now he is reading the Dan Brown books. He has finished 'The Davinci Code' and is currently reading 'Angels and Demons'. Religion has taken on a whole new light for him. Even though his works are fiction it is laced with some truth and many theory's about religions and how it has have evolved over the centuries. It is amazing at all the new insights he has gained just from reading these two books. It has made us all think.
In the last week we have had atleast 3 different conversations on religion. Both Fred and I were raised Southern Baptist and because of it we are sort of Agnostic. It is not so much that we don't believe in God because we do. We just don't believe that any one religion is necessarily correct. I do not believe in organized religion at all for that matter. I have gone to several different denominations in my life and so far nothing feels right to me and the religious dogma that is spouted usually leaves me unsatisfied and looking for a more realistic answer. I get tired of being told to "just believe" or "have faith". I like to think of myself as an intelligent person and I guess I have a habit of asking too many questions that most of the time no one in that particular religion really has a reasonable answer for. My children seem to have taken after a similar philosophy.
Fred and I have tried very hard to raise independent thinking children. We want them to think out of the box as they say. We have tried to instill in them tolerance, patience and kindness towards others. I insist that they try to look at all sides of a situation and to try to be fair and open minded. I have tried to teach them to treat adversity as a challenge. We encouraged them to question authority and to not be afraid to voice their opinions. We have taken great care to raise them in a loving home and to make sure that they are confident and have self respect. Fred and I have tried so hard to make sure our children have had more then we had growing up and to make sure they know they are loved. However, somehow I have managed to raise 2 children that are atheist, I don't know how I did that and nothing I say will change their minds. You live and then you die. Erin still has not made up her mind about the whole religion thing yet but she still has a few years. I hope she is more open minded.
As for myself I was a very religious child growing up, I was baptized twice at 2 different churches. We moved a lot and I guess my mother was trying to find the answers to her questions and she dragged us to many different churches and denominations. One Church we visited was the Mormon Church - The Church of Latter Day Saints. They were nice enough people and very helpful always ready to help other members of the church. They spend a lot of time on missionary work, out reach and genealogy. I just could not get a grasp on the whole John Smith thing and I don't think my mother did either. We went to many different Christian churches along the way, always looking for the right one and never really finding it. I think the longest we stayed at any church was Charleston Heights Baptist and I think it was this church that really soured me to religion. I learned what it was meant to be called a hypocrite. I saw what greed could do to people and just how little tolerance there was for people who did not conform to the Baptist ideology. As a teenager I went to Presbyterian Church with my girlfriend and it was nice. It was I guess you could call it Baptist Light no fire or brimstone preaching just a good sermon and fellowship it was a pleasant experience but by then I was already jaded as far as my faith was concerned.
Now my grandmother was a very devout 7th Day Adventist and my Mimi made my brother and I conform to her rules when ever we were at her house. She made us turn off the T.V. at sundown Friday night and we were not allowed to turn the T.V. on until sunset Saturday. The Sabbath was very important to her and per their doctrine the Sabbath was a day of rest and the only thing she did on Saturday was to go to church and worship. The Adventist follow much of the old testament teachings. They have a few quirky beliefs I thought was weird but I was a child. They don't eat pork or any kind of scavenger. Adventist believe in Jesus and the second coming of Christ. They believe that once you die you are dead until you are called from the grave at the second coming. I just recently went back and read through their practices and beliefs and maybe they are not so far off the track.
I am not a theologian, I have read the Bible but I do not profess to know or understand everything that is in it. I have come to believe over the years that the Bible is just a book written by men and at best it is a very good history of the Jewish people and the life of Jesus Christ. It is sad to note that many books where left out of the Bible because a man decided they where not appropriate or did not portray the religion as men believed it should be. I was appalled to discover that many of the books that describe the youth if Jesus were removed. I have since gone back and read as much as I can find and I can see why many of these scriptures were removed. Jesus in our day could have been branded a witch and burned at the stake for some of his antics. I just amazes me how easily the Bible and the Christian religion has been manipulated to conform to man's will and not God's. I do believe in a higher power and I call out to God occasionally and thank him for all he has bestowed in me and mine. I am still not sure what exactly it is I believe in and I have toyed around with many of my own ideas only to dismiss them because again they can't answer all my questions.
I studied the idea of Karma and reincarnation as a young adult and it did satisfy my faith for a little while but as I have grown older and the more I have thought about it the less sense it makes. Although I truly believe that "what comes around goes around" or the popular "you sow what you reap" the reincarnation belief no longer feels right. The world has just become too populated and I don't think our souls multiply. I even went to several psychics in my early 20's and I was very impressed. I had one tell me about my past lives. My most recent past I was told I was a catholic nun who taught algebra. I think it safe to say I went to the total opposite side in my current life. The same person also told me I would never have any children...........So much for that.
I guess I have ranted enough for one day but there are still so many ideas and theory's I have and I know they will grow and change as I become older and more knowledgeable. I will continue my search for the truth even though I know I will have to wait until I am dead to find the truth and answers to all my questions.
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