Before I get into my post on Civil Religion, I would just like to point out that this is (I think my 5th repost) of this blog entry! The reason is because after I posted it, I realized all of my dates on my blogs are wrong! Turns out, the time is about a day ahead of the time it really is. So when I read my entry over, I looked at the date and noticed that it said April 29th at like 2 in the morning. That’s wrong and even when I fix the time on my post, I cannot fix the a.m. p.m. section, so it still looks like the wrong time/day! So what I wanted to point out is that right now, at this very moment as I’m typing, it’s 10:54 and it is Apr. 28th (Monday night). All assignments are due by tomorrow and I have successfully completed all of them, so I wanted to make sure I pointed that out so it didn’t look like I was passed the deadline, which I’m not. I wish I’d have noticed it before. Anyway, I fixed the time but it still says a.m. but it’s really p.m. right now and I can’t fix it, I am so sorry!

From our talk on Civil Religion, I actually came to a lot of new realizations. I realized mostly that all religion has basically the same function, to give people faith, to give people hope, to give people orderly lives, etc. I realized that every religion has their own rituals, beliefs, texts/manuscripts, and rules. For example, the Native Americans gather around a fire to do the eagle dance to praise their Gods, whereas Christians gather in church and sometimes have a choir. Another example would be the Ten Commandments in the Bible and the list of set rules that the Hindu’s go by (I forget the name…sorry!). Mostly every religion has belief in some kind of higher power, like God. This is not true for all religions, though. There are Atheists, who don’t accept God at all and Agnostics who really haven’t come to a decision yet and are content with it. Some religions believe in more than one God, like the Hindus and the Greeks. Religions like Christianity praise God and the Buddhists praise Buddha.

I took a humanities class in high school that helped me explore other religions, kind of like this activity. But with all the information I learned, I never took the time to really think about how interesting it is that although every religion has its differences, they all serve the same purpose. The purpose of religion is to give an individual some sort of closure and I think that closure can be found whether they choose to believe in a higher power or not. I was raised Christian, but my parents never really stressed religion on me at all. I think I have been to Church about four times in my entire life and I only went with my aunt’s and uncle’s. This could have something to do with my personal feelings on religion, but I’m torn in between. I’m confident in what I say, yet on the inside, I don’t think it makes much sense. It feels right though. My person belief is that there is no “God” sitting in the sky on a fancy chair, calling all of the shots. No way, I think God exists, but I think that we are God. Every individual, every animal, every plant, every organism in our universe is God. I say this because only WE have the power to change the world. God doesn’t wave his hand over the globe and make a tornado or natural disaster occur. Pollutants, global warming, etc. make those sorts of things happen and they are caused by man. Purposely? probably not, but it is definitely a fact. Another example: when people pray at night; when I pray at night, I pray for my family, my friends, people I don’t know, people who have hurt me, you could say I have a routine. I always make sure, though, that I ask God for strength, but I know full well that I am the only one who can find strength and take on each day.

My idea sounds silly, but I think it’s true. I think the power of God and the ability to make a difference can be found inside of all of us. I think the problem might be that people aren’t comfortable searching that deep within themselves. I believe that heaven is not a place you go to and exist in after death, I think that perhaps it is a never-ending euphoria of every good moment in your life. It’s some kind of combination between every happy, life changing moment, every tear, every accomplishment, etc. I think it’s a state of mind that stays stagnated in joy for the rest of eternity. And as for Hell, the exact opposite: a never-ending state of mind with every guilty feeling, hurtful action and off-beat emotion haunts your mind for the rest of eternity.

I think that the Bible is also really interesting. I meet a lot of people who believe the events that happened in the Bible, and also, many who believe what I believe, which is that every story in the Bible is just like a metaphor. It’s just a way of making understanding the acceptable ways of living life easier. If you’ve got a story or some kind of example or metaphor to assist you in understanding a new concept, it can be very helpful! I do believe that Jesus existed, I mean, it IS a fact, I have no doubt about that. But as far as Adam and Eve and the burning bush, I think those are the beautiful metaphorical stories that were told to express and spread awareness of what a civilization should be like.

I enjoyed the conversation on Civil Religion. Like I said, I learned/realized a lot of what I think almost seems obvious, I just had to put it in the right perspective! I remember, I left class that day feeling really good!