One of the worst weeks of my life
My belief essay:
Reading The Stranger upset every spiritual bone in my body. I completely disagree with everything the Existentialists believe in. It is very unrealistic to believe that life is as purposeless and depressing as Existentialists say that it is. If life was that much of a downer, no one would procreate, because no one would see the point in bringing children into a godless, hopeless world.
Some people say that there isn’t enough proof to believe in a god, but I say those people must lack the five senses. There are constant reminders of a higher being that are all around us. The beauty of stars, the sound of children laughing, the touch of a loved one, the smell of flowers, and the taste of a fruit are just a few of the countless signs of a god. Emotions and feelings are also a sure sign of a god, especially the feeling of love. Love of life, love of family, love of friends and that one, indescribable love that dreams are based on should all be able to convince anyone that life is a gift from God, not just a random, scientific event. If people want a more tangible reason to see the existence of God as a fact, rather than a myth, all they need to do is look at every other civilization in the history of humanity. All civilizations have had some sort of religion with at least one supreme being. Humans thousands of years ago buried their dead, showing a belief in an afterlife. It’s completely unlikely that every civilization’s belief in at least one god is a coincidence.
People are too obsessed with knowing what people cannot possibly know, and they have created science to try and explain things. Science, however, should have no say in regards to faith. Though the gift of thought is a wonderful thing, it is also the cause of doubt. Because of science, more and more people are having a harder time “buying into” spiritual faith and it often causes a lot of controversy; how the universe and life started is one such debate. In regards to my own beliefs, I have put my own slant on the Big Bang theory. In my idea, the universe did start from one huge, unknown spark. I believe that spark was God and that it was God that who created life.
I find comfort in believing that all things are meant to be, that nothing is truly a mistake. For example: I believe that there is a certain day each person will die. When my mom was seventeen, she was hit by a car going fifty miles per hour. She didn’t break one bone, but she did suffer a concussion. My old friend, Ben, however, was hit by a car going approximately the same speed and also at the age of seventeen. He was killed on impact. The only way to explain this is that, for whatever reason, my mom was not meant to die that day. To some people this sounds “morbid,” but I find great comfort in knowing that this world isn’t so chaotic. I believe that God has a plan for each person on this planet, but I also believe in free will. In my mind, there are certain things God wants us to do, and intuition is God’s way of communicating with us and telling us how we should act and what we should do. The most basic principles that God wants us to act upon are forgiveness, respect, and charity.
My beliefs on Heaven have changed often over the years, and I still haven’t settled on one idea. I like the thought of Heaven being whatever the soul wants, such as in the movie What Dreams May Come. Heaven would be a different place for each person, it could be a favorite memory or a favorite dream. I also like the idea of heaven as the state of being with God. After I read the His Dark Materials trilogy, I began to view God as a certain “substance” that can be found in everything. With this belief, after a person dies his or her soul becomes a part of God, and therefore a part of everything. I have a strong belief on what Hell is, though. I believe that Hell is separation from God, meaning that for people who don’t believe in God, their soul dies along with their body. Hell isn’t “fire and brimstone,” and there is no river Styx. Hell refers to a complete lack of an afterlife. The Devil is just the personification of the doubt that pushes some people away from believing in God.
I think the best religions are combinations of different beliefs, religions that work well with the people who believe in them. It is important for a person to believe in something spiritual, but, unfortunately, some people get too bogged down trying to find a specific religion that works with them. Another mistake people make is dissecting religions and trying to find the “true” meaning of a religious text. I teach Sunday School at a Lutheran church and every summer I spend two weeks at a Lutheran camp training to become a counselor. I believe in a lot of what is taught in Christianity, but the system that works the best for me is one that I created from other ideas. For example: I respect the Bible, but I don’t consider it all truth. I don’t believe it is possible for anything created by humans to be all truth and without any biases. There is truth in the Bible, but it is still a collection of stories that were passed down for (in some cases) close to a hundred years before being written down and, many years later, translated countless amounts of times. God should be about hope and love, not about every single solitary word written in a thousand-year-old book.
What a horrible "conclusion."
Reading The Stranger upset every spiritual bone in my body. I completely disagree with everything the Existentialists believe in. It is very unrealistic to believe that life is as purposeless and depressing as Existentialists say that it is. If life was that much of a downer, no one would procreate, because no one would see the point in bringing children into a godless, hopeless world.
Some people say that there isn’t enough proof to believe in a god, but I say those people must lack the five senses. There are constant reminders of a higher being that are all around us. The beauty of stars, the sound of children laughing, the touch of a loved one, the smell of flowers, and the taste of a fruit are just a few of the countless signs of a god. Emotions and feelings are also a sure sign of a god, especially the feeling of love. Love of life, love of family, love of friends and that one, indescribable love that dreams are based on should all be able to convince anyone that life is a gift from God, not just a random, scientific event. If people want a more tangible reason to see the existence of God as a fact, rather than a myth, all they need to do is look at every other civilization in the history of humanity. All civilizations have had some sort of religion with at least one supreme being. Humans thousands of years ago buried their dead, showing a belief in an afterlife. It’s completely unlikely that every civilization’s belief in at least one god is a coincidence.
People are too obsessed with knowing what people cannot possibly know, and they have created science to try and explain things. Science, however, should have no say in regards to faith. Though the gift of thought is a wonderful thing, it is also the cause of doubt. Because of science, more and more people are having a harder time “buying into” spiritual faith and it often causes a lot of controversy; how the universe and life started is one such debate. In regards to my own beliefs, I have put my own slant on the Big Bang theory. In my idea, the universe did start from one huge, unknown spark. I believe that spark was God and that it was God that who created life.
I find comfort in believing that all things are meant to be, that nothing is truly a mistake. For example: I believe that there is a certain day each person will die. When my mom was seventeen, she was hit by a car going fifty miles per hour. She didn’t break one bone, but she did suffer a concussion. My old friend, Ben, however, was hit by a car going approximately the same speed and also at the age of seventeen. He was killed on impact. The only way to explain this is that, for whatever reason, my mom was not meant to die that day. To some people this sounds “morbid,” but I find great comfort in knowing that this world isn’t so chaotic. I believe that God has a plan for each person on this planet, but I also believe in free will. In my mind, there are certain things God wants us to do, and intuition is God’s way of communicating with us and telling us how we should act and what we should do. The most basic principles that God wants us to act upon are forgiveness, respect, and charity.
My beliefs on Heaven have changed often over the years, and I still haven’t settled on one idea. I like the thought of Heaven being whatever the soul wants, such as in the movie What Dreams May Come. Heaven would be a different place for each person, it could be a favorite memory or a favorite dream. I also like the idea of heaven as the state of being with God. After I read the His Dark Materials trilogy, I began to view God as a certain “substance” that can be found in everything. With this belief, after a person dies his or her soul becomes a part of God, and therefore a part of everything. I have a strong belief on what Hell is, though. I believe that Hell is separation from God, meaning that for people who don’t believe in God, their soul dies along with their body. Hell isn’t “fire and brimstone,” and there is no river Styx. Hell refers to a complete lack of an afterlife. The Devil is just the personification of the doubt that pushes some people away from believing in God.
I think the best religions are combinations of different beliefs, religions that work well with the people who believe in them. It is important for a person to believe in something spiritual, but, unfortunately, some people get too bogged down trying to find a specific religion that works with them. Another mistake people make is dissecting religions and trying to find the “true” meaning of a religious text. I teach Sunday School at a Lutheran church and every summer I spend two weeks at a Lutheran camp training to become a counselor. I believe in a lot of what is taught in Christianity, but the system that works the best for me is one that I created from other ideas. For example: I respect the Bible, but I don’t consider it all truth. I don’t believe it is possible for anything created by humans to be all truth and without any biases. There is truth in the Bible, but it is still a collection of stories that were passed down for (in some cases) close to a hundred years before being written down and, many years later, translated countless amounts of times. God should be about hope and love, not about every single solitary word written in a thousand-year-old book.
What a horrible "conclusion."