My doubts about religion
I don’t think I will ever understand people’s need for a god. My parents are catholic, and although I was baptized and I was taught a few religious lessons, religion never made sense to me.
I had so many questions about religion that my parents weren’t able to answer. My skepticism grew every time they gave me a non-answer answer.
As a child these where my questions:
- Who wrote the Bible, and how do we know that what they wrote is true?
- If the Jews, Muslims, and Christians believe in the same god, why do they kill each other?
- If the Catholic teachings are the true religion, then all other religions must be false. But certainly, all other religions must believe they are the true religion as well. What makes Catholicism better than others? Have you tried learning about other religions?
In short, to the dismay of my grandmother (the biggest religious pusher in my family) and other family members, I never felt swayed by their explanations or logic.
The colonization of the soul
However, I do understand that believing in a superior power is a natural human tendency. Humans are superstitious by nature and from the beginning of time they have always believed in something bigger than themselves; whether it is the sun, the moon, or some mystical creature.
As the European countries started to colonize the rest of the world, they forced their religion on the inhabitants of the lands they raped.
England, Spain, and Portugal subjugated at least half of the world with their military forces and assassinated millions of non-believers, and thus those aboriginal peoples who survived were forced to either believe in the white people’s god or die.
My family’s indoctrination
It’s interesting to see members of my family praying, like automatons, repeating the same words over, and over, asking for favors, for forgiveness, or expressing gratitude for one thing or the other.
When I speak to my family, it irks me that in between each sentence they add the following phrase:
- If god, the virgin, and the saints allow it
- If god, the virgin, and the saints wish it
- With the permission of god, the virgin, and the saints
- If so is the will of god, the virgin, and the saints
When I hear the same phrase several times during a few-minute conversation, it fills me with frustration.
Does god even cares?
But let’s put aside my skepticism. Let’s assume that there is a god that created all of us and we feel the need to adore her.
Why would it be important to god that we love her back?
Isn’t she all-powerful?
What difference would it make to her if some humans among 8 billion are totally indifferent to her?
Do you know what I mean? If you do what god wants, and you try to be good– you try to treat others right– what difference does it make if you love god? Why would god give a shit?
Is god’s ego so inflated (or fragile) that she would require us, humans, to get on our knees and say the same prayers over and over again?
I don’t think so.
Our beliefs are reinforced when others follow along
I think that, many humans believe in some superior power. This superior power took the shape of a powerful god. With the gods came rituals to adore her and the creation of organized religions. The more people followed the same beliefs, the more the belief was reinforced and the more it became necessary that others fall in line. Remember the Inquisition?
The Inquisition was a powerful office set up within the Catholic Church to root out and punish heresy throughout Europe and the Americas. Beginning in the 12th century and continuing for hundreds of years, the Inquisition is infamous for the severity of its tortures and its persecution of Jews and Muslims.
Estimates of the number killed by the Spanish Inquisition, which Sixtus IV authorized in a papal bull in 1478, have ranged from 30,000 to 300,000. Some historians are convinced that millions died.
Religion in our ever-evolving world
Today Catholics are not allowed to murder infidels, they simply ostracize them. They get entrenched in their tribalism and vote for losers like Donald Trump to represent them.
But we are all stuck on this earth together. We need to learn to live with people from different religions or, like me, who have no religion at all. Many people need a god in their lives, but I don’t think the god needs them.
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