Why is it so hard for some people to 'change?' I'm not asking for people to change their personalities, or give themselves a drastic physical makeover, but more 'changing with the times.'
For instance, a common frustration many have with our parent's generation is that they are used to rationing, fixing, re-using and maximising the use of things. Most will say that it stems from the war years, when they had to savour every little morsel of food, soap, piece of toilet paper and match because they didn't know when they will be able to get hold of another. I understand, in someways, it's a good habit to get into, as we have become a wasteful society in many many ways, but there are studies now that suggest that holding onto things too long can cause other problems, like food poisoning and harmful bacterial growth causing dermatitis and other ailments, and some of the older generation continue to do things that make us younger generation shake our heads.
How about religion? Many people are brought up on Faith, having God in their lives and learning the moral codes that make them solid citizens of this world and their religious culture. But, with so many people of high religious positioning, taking advantage of their powers to abuse young children, committing adultery (as I mentioned in a previous blog, there's been a study that 23% of religious ministers have committed adultery after they were ordained), steal from the church and their congregation for their own benefits, but also, why are there such a number of religious wars that are crippling societies and why are there a huge number of children living in poverty in both Third World countries and on our own doorsteps? Why aren't there more people questioning God about what is happening in the world? Most are taught that God is a symbol of peace, joy and humanity, however, there is more emphasis on power, materialism and weapons of mass destruction in this world. The religious faithful would argue that because there has become a lack of faith in the last century is the reasoning behind the negativity and greed in this world creating more reason for wars, but how can that be true, when in centuries gone by with less world population, there were still wars, differences of class and distribution of wealth? Why is it, that the church/synagogues/mosques cannot re-write the Bible, Torah or Quran to reflect the changing morals and human rights of today? After all, it is now considered to be against humanity to have slaves, treat women as non-equals and expect women to be fully clothed in public, amongst other things, but these religious doctrines still condone them. No wonder people are confused and are unsure of what to believe.
Our generation, and our children's generation, love the concept of 'new.' We have been thrown the concept of it through media advertisements and shop windows, and we all want to try something new. So trying 'new' things means we are susceptible to change. I know it infuriates my sisters and I (but we've also accepted that it's just 'mum's' way) that our mum buys an expensive dishwasher, then still rinses her dishes before putting them in the dishwasher (because she's convinced that the dishwasher would never do a good enough job on its own). She then uses a tablespoon of dishwasher powder in her dishwasher (when the recommended amount is double that), rather than buy the specialised dishwasher tablets which would save her half the time. It's not like she hasn't the money to buy the tablets, it's just what she knows and what she's used to.
I'm not saying that 'new' is the be all and end all, we do need to be thankful for the things that we have and not expect to have the good life, high life or materialistic life, and the new generation is being taught a lot about recycling, renewable energies and the impact of our actions on the environment, but they are also being taught to 'think,' 'question' and have a 'voice' about what doesn't sit right with them about the morality, politics and right thing is for this world we live in, rather than 'accepting' that you do what you do because you are told. Yes we can all be idealistic and want the best in our own views, but I feel that those born in the last 40 years, the children of the Baby Boomers, are open to changing their views and opinions on what is best for society and their own social stance constantly rather than retaining a morality or holding onto the simple uneducated lives of their parental heroes that have been the strength of the foundation of their childhood.
Change is for the good... change makes us think, change makes us act, change gives us courage. We need changing perspectives to make the world go round, we just need more people to think more analytically and just do it!
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Saturday, 24 November 2012
Monday, 29 October 2012
Blind Faith
We all have spiritual beliefs... some rely on religion to get them through the day, some believe in the universe and all that come from the stars, planets and time, and some turn to ancient predictions like those of Nostradamus, psychics and mediums who can talk to the deceased. But in essence, it is all blind faith. Faith in something outside ourselves that gives us hope.
In essence, 'blind faith' is a concept that makes us want to look into the future, and doesn't concentrate on the 'now.' And by doing this, we all seem to want something that we can't have, which for some can bring us down and make us vulnerable, but for others it can make us proactive, and literally do everything we can to achieve our heart's greatest desires.
No one really knows what the future holds, even if we talk to psychics, have our own premonitions, or get a message from God... no one really knows. We all know that Nostradamus predicted that 2012 was the end of life on this earth, and with the number of natural disasters happening this year, you wonder if there is reality to any of it and if we will actually see 2013, but no one is really preparing for the end now that we are here... With Hurricane Sandy on the edge of the East Coast of the US as we speak and building rather than subsiding, it truly is frightening knowing that the major business and political sector of this world could literally be under water in a matter of hours. But then, somehow, as a global population, we re-adjust and make the world a safer, more compassionate place once we have all been hit with some type of human tragedy or disaster.
So why do we look outside ourselves and not within ourselves to find a place of peace, happiness and prosperity? Why are so many people not happy within their own skin and place blame on others, or even God for not being able to find internal happiness? And why do with rely so much on other people giving us that sense of happiness and peace within ourselves when we should be able to find that by ourselves? It's a complex argument, as there are so many differing factors that make us who we are, and circumstances also shape who we are, but if we can drop all that emotional baggage and look for the simple happiness that we can enjoy every day, then maybe, just maybe, we can find the strength to believe in our own abilities more and forget about the external energies that drag us back...
The reality is, if we can enjoy the simple pleasures - driving in the car singing the songs off the radio, walking in the sunshine, the joys of giving your children a hug or them asking you a question, feeling the rain on our skin, indulging in a book, catching up with friends, tasting the flavour in food, appreciating your nakedness and even the joy of waking up in the morning, then from these positive actions and appreciating their positive nature, we can build on those positives to bring bigger happinesses and opportunities to your life. And those happinesses and opportunities aren't necessarily those happinesses and opportunities that you have stuck in your mind... they could be completely different, and that's why it's so important to live in the 'now' than the future or the past.
I'm not suggesting that we can't have ambitions, but more enjoy the ride... enjoy the smaller things in life that give us happiness and not put pressures on ourselves that were set 20, 30 or 40 years ago because that's what we always dreamed to have had and haven't happened. If we live the life that is given to us, and not rely on the 'blind faith' of an outside force, work on the challenges that are presented to us so that they don't impact us with negativity, then somehow our lives can be even better than we dreamed.
Humans by nature, put extreme pressures on ourselves, and sometimes on each other to achieve something that simply aren't what was going to happen in our lives. But if we can look into ourselves, and stop placing judgement on each other and respect each other's lives and decisions, show compassion to every living thing, find the truth within ourselves and stop pretending to be someone else, then maybe, just maybe, we can have a world where we can find harmony and happiness without relying on 'blind faith.'
In essence, 'blind faith' is a concept that makes us want to look into the future, and doesn't concentrate on the 'now.' And by doing this, we all seem to want something that we can't have, which for some can bring us down and make us vulnerable, but for others it can make us proactive, and literally do everything we can to achieve our heart's greatest desires.
No one really knows what the future holds, even if we talk to psychics, have our own premonitions, or get a message from God... no one really knows. We all know that Nostradamus predicted that 2012 was the end of life on this earth, and with the number of natural disasters happening this year, you wonder if there is reality to any of it and if we will actually see 2013, but no one is really preparing for the end now that we are here... With Hurricane Sandy on the edge of the East Coast of the US as we speak and building rather than subsiding, it truly is frightening knowing that the major business and political sector of this world could literally be under water in a matter of hours. But then, somehow, as a global population, we re-adjust and make the world a safer, more compassionate place once we have all been hit with some type of human tragedy or disaster.
So why do we look outside ourselves and not within ourselves to find a place of peace, happiness and prosperity? Why are so many people not happy within their own skin and place blame on others, or even God for not being able to find internal happiness? And why do with rely so much on other people giving us that sense of happiness and peace within ourselves when we should be able to find that by ourselves? It's a complex argument, as there are so many differing factors that make us who we are, and circumstances also shape who we are, but if we can drop all that emotional baggage and look for the simple happiness that we can enjoy every day, then maybe, just maybe, we can find the strength to believe in our own abilities more and forget about the external energies that drag us back...
The reality is, if we can enjoy the simple pleasures - driving in the car singing the songs off the radio, walking in the sunshine, the joys of giving your children a hug or them asking you a question, feeling the rain on our skin, indulging in a book, catching up with friends, tasting the flavour in food, appreciating your nakedness and even the joy of waking up in the morning, then from these positive actions and appreciating their positive nature, we can build on those positives to bring bigger happinesses and opportunities to your life. And those happinesses and opportunities aren't necessarily those happinesses and opportunities that you have stuck in your mind... they could be completely different, and that's why it's so important to live in the 'now' than the future or the past.
I'm not suggesting that we can't have ambitions, but more enjoy the ride... enjoy the smaller things in life that give us happiness and not put pressures on ourselves that were set 20, 30 or 40 years ago because that's what we always dreamed to have had and haven't happened. If we live the life that is given to us, and not rely on the 'blind faith' of an outside force, work on the challenges that are presented to us so that they don't impact us with negativity, then somehow our lives can be even better than we dreamed.
Humans by nature, put extreme pressures on ourselves, and sometimes on each other to achieve something that simply aren't what was going to happen in our lives. But if we can look into ourselves, and stop placing judgement on each other and respect each other's lives and decisions, show compassion to every living thing, find the truth within ourselves and stop pretending to be someone else, then maybe, just maybe, we can have a world where we can find harmony and happiness without relying on 'blind faith.'
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
God's Grace and Mercy vs Grounded Morality
To me, I am a very sceptical person when it comes to religion. Religion has caused more wars in this world, caused more discrimination and creates weak, selfish individuals who believe that no matter whatever they do, they will be saved by God's 'grace and mercy.' People who believe in the higher power in God, don't have enough strength to believe in themselves AND do not take responsibility for their own actions. They seek forgiveness from God, who apparently loves all of us, and through that forgiveness of a spiritual being, they are guilt-free for their despicable actions on this Earth. How is that so?
Now, I've been brought up to be responsible for myself to the other degree - rarely if not any support from those who declare they love me financially, emotionally or physically, and if I don't have a belief in myself to get through any hurdles that I go through, then I have only myself to blame. My roots don't want to hear the sob-stories, and certainly have no compassion for them, even if one of us in the midst of a suicidal depression, they just want to hear that we're alive and doing ok.
So how can someone, who has been brought up on Christianity be so lucid to think that if God can give His forgiveness to him or her, knowing that their penance was heard, that they can be so dumb-founded when man on Earth, including the law, decide that they are guilty of an un-lawful act and punished accordingly? I just don't get it. I have known people who have broken all but one of the Ten Commandments (the only one being murder), yet claim that they can be completely forgiven after they had spent a small amount of time re-reading the Bible, praying and 'talking to God', as they hadn't been completely blasphemous because they hadn't broken ALL Ten Commandments. They will go back to their merry ways and continue to sin and break their beloved Christian laws, because they know in their heart they will be forgiven by God. I'm sorry, but it is completely and utterly morally and lawfully wrong.
For instance, 'thou shalt not steal.' Someone shoplifts, gets caught, asks for forgiveness from God, it's a first offence, so she gets a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again. Two weeks later, she does it again, doesn't get caught. A month later, she goes for a bigger ticketed item, gets caught, gets locked in jail for a month and gains an official criminal record and wonders why. She had God's forgiveness, she even had the law's forgiveness when she first broke the law, so why is she being punished now? It's that sort of mentality that completely blows me away! You did something wrong love, live with it and the consequences!!
If a man has committed adultery, and his wife finds out, the first time she may give him her forgiveness, purely on the fact that she thinks that all it was was sexual intimacy, not emotional intimacy. So he makes an effort to appease his wife, and all is forgiven. Again, it was all so easy to get her forgiveness, and God's grace and mercy, so he goes and finds another escape, but this time it's a longer more meaningful relationship. His wife finds out again, and she starts to evaluate that it may not be his sexual addiction that has led him to this adultery, maybe something is completely wrong in their marriage that was underlying but no one had ever spoken about it. She questions herself, she questions their love, she thinks back to all his awkward behaviour and now understands why he was the way he was. Her trust in him is completely gone, because it wasn't just the sex, it was the lies, it was the emotional attachment to someone else, it was the complete disregard to their wedded vows that he had betrayed. Can she go back and forgive him, even though he vows never to do it again? Can she live in peace with herself and her husband knowing that he may have God's forgiveness, but will he truly have hers?
Why isn't the law on Earth the same as religious law? Is that why so many people are confused about what is right and wrong? Divorce in most states is 'at no-fault,' which means that even if someone did a wrong-doing to their spouse, they are divorced and financially separated with equality.
My argument with the Bible is that you can look at it until you are black and blue and find things in it that suits the argument, or belief you want to continue in your life. There are many things in the Bible that are outdated - the religious expectation that women be fully clothed in public, slavery, even the concept of 'love thou neighbour' has changed from the thoughts of your 'neighbour' being equal in race, financial status, sexual preference and gender to you, to now your 'neighbour' is all of humanity and that different races, religions, gays, lesbians, heterosexuals, children, the elderly, the poor, the wealthy, the educated and non-educated are ALL our neighbours and we should all be treated the same.
I have always been told to treat people the same way I would like to be treated. It is very rare for me to lash out on others for my feelings of inequality in the events or efforts of another upon me. However, those who are devoted to their religion, bar one possible exception, have treated with me with such contempt because of their 'own' wrong-doing, misfortunes or immoral guidance and actions.
I know religion is a very large part of this world, and most God loving people will say that it was mis-guided men who created the wars, used their absolute power to molest children in the Catholic Church and private/Christian boys' schools, and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. If we were taught at school to believe more in ourselves, know the different between right and wrong and take responsibility for our own actions, and if we did do something wrong, then we would need to live with that guilt for the remainder of our lives, then there would be less wrong-doings and more right-doings, as the guilt would just eat us all up alive. However Christianity, has given us the freedom to know that no matter what wrong we do, we don't have to hold onto that guilt, as God has forgiven us, and we are free to make the same mistakes over and over again, until the law here on Earth decides to punish us. Christianity doesn't breed strong moral citizens, only weak people who know they always have a back up, as they truly believe that God will never fail them, even if they fail themselves.
Now, I've been brought up to be responsible for myself to the other degree - rarely if not any support from those who declare they love me financially, emotionally or physically, and if I don't have a belief in myself to get through any hurdles that I go through, then I have only myself to blame. My roots don't want to hear the sob-stories, and certainly have no compassion for them, even if one of us in the midst of a suicidal depression, they just want to hear that we're alive and doing ok.
So how can someone, who has been brought up on Christianity be so lucid to think that if God can give His forgiveness to him or her, knowing that their penance was heard, that they can be so dumb-founded when man on Earth, including the law, decide that they are guilty of an un-lawful act and punished accordingly? I just don't get it. I have known people who have broken all but one of the Ten Commandments (the only one being murder), yet claim that they can be completely forgiven after they had spent a small amount of time re-reading the Bible, praying and 'talking to God', as they hadn't been completely blasphemous because they hadn't broken ALL Ten Commandments. They will go back to their merry ways and continue to sin and break their beloved Christian laws, because they know in their heart they will be forgiven by God. I'm sorry, but it is completely and utterly morally and lawfully wrong.
For instance, 'thou shalt not steal.' Someone shoplifts, gets caught, asks for forgiveness from God, it's a first offence, so she gets a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again. Two weeks later, she does it again, doesn't get caught. A month later, she goes for a bigger ticketed item, gets caught, gets locked in jail for a month and gains an official criminal record and wonders why. She had God's forgiveness, she even had the law's forgiveness when she first broke the law, so why is she being punished now? It's that sort of mentality that completely blows me away! You did something wrong love, live with it and the consequences!!
If a man has committed adultery, and his wife finds out, the first time she may give him her forgiveness, purely on the fact that she thinks that all it was was sexual intimacy, not emotional intimacy. So he makes an effort to appease his wife, and all is forgiven. Again, it was all so easy to get her forgiveness, and God's grace and mercy, so he goes and finds another escape, but this time it's a longer more meaningful relationship. His wife finds out again, and she starts to evaluate that it may not be his sexual addiction that has led him to this adultery, maybe something is completely wrong in their marriage that was underlying but no one had ever spoken about it. She questions herself, she questions their love, she thinks back to all his awkward behaviour and now understands why he was the way he was. Her trust in him is completely gone, because it wasn't just the sex, it was the lies, it was the emotional attachment to someone else, it was the complete disregard to their wedded vows that he had betrayed. Can she go back and forgive him, even though he vows never to do it again? Can she live in peace with herself and her husband knowing that he may have God's forgiveness, but will he truly have hers?
Why isn't the law on Earth the same as religious law? Is that why so many people are confused about what is right and wrong? Divorce in most states is 'at no-fault,' which means that even if someone did a wrong-doing to their spouse, they are divorced and financially separated with equality.
My argument with the Bible is that you can look at it until you are black and blue and find things in it that suits the argument, or belief you want to continue in your life. There are many things in the Bible that are outdated - the religious expectation that women be fully clothed in public, slavery, even the concept of 'love thou neighbour' has changed from the thoughts of your 'neighbour' being equal in race, financial status, sexual preference and gender to you, to now your 'neighbour' is all of humanity and that different races, religions, gays, lesbians, heterosexuals, children, the elderly, the poor, the wealthy, the educated and non-educated are ALL our neighbours and we should all be treated the same.
I have always been told to treat people the same way I would like to be treated. It is very rare for me to lash out on others for my feelings of inequality in the events or efforts of another upon me. However, those who are devoted to their religion, bar one possible exception, have treated with me with such contempt because of their 'own' wrong-doing, misfortunes or immoral guidance and actions.
I know religion is a very large part of this world, and most God loving people will say that it was mis-guided men who created the wars, used their absolute power to molest children in the Catholic Church and private/Christian boys' schools, and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. If we were taught at school to believe more in ourselves, know the different between right and wrong and take responsibility for our own actions, and if we did do something wrong, then we would need to live with that guilt for the remainder of our lives, then there would be less wrong-doings and more right-doings, as the guilt would just eat us all up alive. However Christianity, has given us the freedom to know that no matter what wrong we do, we don't have to hold onto that guilt, as God has forgiven us, and we are free to make the same mistakes over and over again, until the law here on Earth decides to punish us. Christianity doesn't breed strong moral citizens, only weak people who know they always have a back up, as they truly believe that God will never fail them, even if they fail themselves.
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