Since the kerfluffle with my supposed “Twin” recently over religion, I feel the need to write a post about my position on religion in general and Southern Christians in particular. I’ll even try to explain my belief system, if I can.
I’m a big Morgan Freeman fan, so when I heard he was doing a series on religion called The Story of God, I set up the DVR. It is a series about ALL religions and their views on god (or gods), comparing the various doctrines. Good stuff.
I know some of you (Twin, YOU especially) feel that I have no beliefs at all – I’m just a raging atheist. Sounds like it sometimes, I’ll grant you that, but that’s not really the whole picture. It’s bible thumper Southern Christians that bring out the atheist in me for sure, so naturally FB makes me anti religion the most often. Truth is, I’ve always been very interested in religion from an academic point of view and I’ve always been a skeptic.
First, let’s stroll down memory lane and I’ll tell you where I’ve been with organised (and not so organised) religions.
When I was a child, my mother took us to a Southern Baptist church – which was odd since she was Methodist. ? At around 6 years old, I was dunked and proclaimed “saved”. At the time I had no idea what was going on, only that I had to get soaking wet and I didn’t like it. We went to Vacation Bible School in the summer and attended church every Sunday.
Eventually, my mother started taking us to her church, Methodist, and we attended regularly. There was a youth group and we did outings and such – it was FAR from religious. My mother tired of going to church, so we stopped going at some point.
In middle school, my BFF Shellee was a Mormon. Very unusual in Knoxville, TN. I went to church with her family a couple of times and was struck by how NICE the Mormons were. I liked the church a lot. But she moved away and that was the end of the Mormon phase.
Then came high school and running wild in the restaurant industry. In 1988, I left Nutsville to come down here and attend the Art Institute of Atlanta (the OLD one that was across from Lenox) and get an AA in Music Business. During this time I explored the Old Religion a little, but didn’t really practice. I have ALWAYS had an interest in astrology and numerology and have always been pretty well versed in both.
While getting my AA, I’d started going to a Catholic church (Christ the King) and I liked the formality of it, but I never converted. Then, I met a Greek guy (Cypriot, actually) and we started dating. I fell in love and wanted to assimilate into his first generation immigrant family, so I began taking Greek lessons and started exploring Greek Orthodox religion. I found it to be fascinating in its pomp and circumstance. Incense!! Fancy smocks!
The romance ended, but my fascination with Orthodoxy remained, so I started going to St Elias Antiochian Orthodox church on Ponce. The Greek church (on Clairmont Rd) was very snobby, so I never wanted to go there. The people at St Elias were friendly and VERY accepting of converts. Eventually I did convert to Orthodoxy and took the saint name Marina. Interesting saint, Marina, read her story here (and learn about the Antiochian branch of Orthodoxy if you’re so inclined). The story of Marina differs between branches of Orthodoxy, by the way. Interesting stories.
For the next few years, I attended church regularly, sang in the choir and celebrated Pascha for the full week like a good Orthodox girl. Religion filled a niche for me in those years. But I eventually grew out of it and stopped going. The patriarchal nature of Orthodoxy started to get on my last nerve. I’m still Antiochian Orthodox on paper.
After Orthodoxy, I returned to the Old Religion (sometimes called Wicca) and began to practice it pretty regularly. I also explored Buddhism and Hinduism. I dallied in the woo-woo side of life, with the psychics, astronomers, hypnotherapists, etc. I also did a stint with Network Spinal Analysis – which worked wonders, I might add.
I stayed with the Old Religion for quite some time. Of all the religions I’ve explored, this is probably the one closest to my current beliefs. I’ve not practised anything for well over a decade, however.
As I’ve aged, I’ve become FAR more skeptical and quite SICK of religion in general. 9/11 pretty much ended my foray into organised religions.
I’m of the opinion that RELIGION is the cause of most human suffering.
Now add the rise of the Christian Right in America and all the trouble it has caused and I’m DONE. Religion is tearing this country apart – as it is wont to do. Southern Christians in particular make me want to vomit. What a bunch of smug, overbearing, bible beating ASSHOLES. It’s appalling. I’m ashamed to be an American. The rest of the world – EXCEPT the Middle East which has been run with sharia laws for decades – thinks Americans are crazy. I agree. How making this a bible beating Christian nation is ANY different than the Middle East is beyond me. And the fact that American Christians refuse to acknowledge that ANY religion that worms its way into government IS THE SAME as sharia just makes me apoplectic with rage. The sheer ignorance of SO MANY religious zealots is shocking.
I once asked the God Botherer ladies (the ones who knock on your door to “witness”) if they’d ever read anything about any other religion than their own or if they’d read the Conversations with God books. NOPE. They had no idea about any other beliefs than their own, which they saw fit to ram down the throats of others. THIS is what is wrong with American religion. Hell, most people can’t even tell you about their OWN religion. Ask a Baptist the history of the Baptist religion. You’ll get a blank stare.
So, bring us to today. Let’s enumerate the various religions I’ve explored:
– Southern Baptist
– Methodist
– Catholic
– Orthodox Catholic
– Wicca
Plus reading a LOT about religions in general. I actually researched Orthodoxy before I joined. I know the history. I’d say that I’ve explored and/or researched more religions than 90% of Americans and probably 99% of bible thumping Southern Christians.
While I do not believe that there is a Magic Man In The Sky (never have), I can’t say I’m wholly atheist, either. I’d say I’m actually an agnostic. I DO feel that there is something. What that something is, I can’t say. I think that there is a universal force that binds us all. I believe that we are one when not on this mortal coil. I believe we are here to further our individual evolvement. I don’t think that anything we do here matters in the big picture. I believe Hitler went to heaven. (Read the first Conversations with God book. It’ll shake up your stale beliefs.) I believe you come back and forth to the mortal coil many, many times to LEARN.
I do have beliefs, they just don’t involve a magic man or going to a building on Sundays. They also don’t involve trying to convert others, being a condescending asshole who “feels sorry” for those who believe differently (Twin) or otherwise discussing my beliefs with others. I shun religious dialog because 99% of the time in this country, it will devolve into a bible beater saying stupid shit like “Well, if there was more Jesus taught in public schools, we wouldn’t have these problems!” RIGHT. And if you dare disagree, then they’ll attack YOU and say “Well, if Angela had more Jesus, she would understand!” RIGHT. You see the problem, here, yes? Bible thumping Southerners just cannot shut the fuck up. They can’t resist trotting out the Baby Jesus to justify their fucked up, backwards, racist, bigoted attitudes. It is repugnant. Therefore, I do not discuss my beliefs on FB or Twitter or anywhere other than here. This also includes silly shit like “I’ll pray for you!!” when someone has a headache. Do Southern Christians REALLY believe that there is a Magic Man in the sky, who has nothing better to do than worry about human headaches? Really? This magical being who created the universe is concerned about ONE HUMAN’S HEADACHE? Or one human’s anything? You people seriously need to read Conversations with God and you need to get over yourselves.
If there is a supreme being, it is more likely to be LeeLoo than some hippy looking white guy and he or she will certainly have no interest in the workings of the various beings grunting out their lives. I say beings because I also believe that we are not the only intelligent life in this big ole universe. And if there is one unifying God, you can bet that she is busy just keeping all the planets spinning and the suns shining. Your mortal soul is of no consequence.
Or perhaps God is a mathematician…
“I have concluded that we are in a world made by rules created by an intelligence”, Kaku says in a video produced by Big Think. “To me it is clear that we exist in a plan which is governed by rules that were created, shaped by a universal intelligence and not by chance.” – Michio Kaku