Beliefs
A friend of mine who I haven’t talked to in over a decade (and I figured had forgotten all about me) sudden popped out of nowhere and started talking to me again. Past the initial “where have you been?!” surprise phase, we started talking about various things and my beliefs came up. This is a common question as mine are a little off kilter, so I decided to finally jot down a good dose of what, at this moment, my beliefs are in various fields.
First of all, religion and spirituality. As everyone who knows me already knows, I’m an atheist. I have absolutely no belief or faith in a supreme being of any nature. There is no bearded man in the sky, no noodley monster, no giant space turtle, and no menagerie of gods for every aspect of our lives.
Now, this aside, we have the reasoning behind this. It’s an absurd notion. Every tale of a higher power is no more fantastical than another story of fables and myths. Science has explained an incredible amount and constantly explaining more. What was once magic and the power of gods is now the power of man and harnessed. This will continue to be the case
The other thing where science excels where religion seems impossible to move on is adaptability of principle. Religion establishes itself and then is done, it doesn’t move from that movement aside from possibly absorbing other religious beliefs to absorb those other religions’ followers.
Science, on the other hand, tests with what it has, attempts to prove itself, and stands by the result. However, should new information present itself, should new factors or elements prove the idea otherwise, science accepts, revises, and continues on.
I used to be much more militaristic towards religion. Very aggressively argued against it. I’ve eased up a little but only as I’ve grown to understand my own feeling towards it: I don’t get it. I don’t see a reason for it. Myths, of course, and stories that tell morals or create heroes, but to live your entire existence based on such things doesn’t make any sense. It’s like looking for answers through Occam’s Razor. Why does this work? God did it. Why does this river flow south? Because Vishnu wills it. Why are there waves? Poseidon makes them.
I can see why it continues, though. Again, the answers. People are afraid of the unknown and instead of waiting for the veil to be pulled back they’d rather have a comforting answer. There’s also the camaraderie around it. I’m a Shintoist, Tom is a Shintoist, and so’s Jane. We all hang out together because of our common beliefs. There’s also the simple matter of one’s upbringing. Your parents were Jewish, you were raised Jewish, it’s engrained into your mind, so you stick with being Jewish.
I don’t fault anyone for this, there are a multitude of reasons why someone is religious, I just don’t see a point why people would stay with it. Why, with such a wide variety of information available, with the nature of the world itself, that anyone would stick with being religious. However there are the inherently bad things with religion that I do, however, find myself appalled at witnessing.
Such things as genocide, hatred, crusades, discrimination, racism, and a disregard for humankind as a whole because of these religious beliefs. People blowing themselves up in front of crowded restaurants, men gunning down women and children because it’s their Godly duty, people slaughtering entire countries because they’re not Christian. It’s disgusting, it’s horrific, and it follows along the same line of lack of personal thought and responsibility that gets bred out of this line of thinking.
This does not mean, however, that I’m void of spirituality. Reincarnation, however, is a strong belief of mine. Laugh if you will, but my strongest reasoning for this is the Law of Thermodynamics itself. Matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, and we all have power within us and when we die, what happens to that energy? It moves on, it becomes part of another system, whether it be the plants and animals or another life entirely.
Ghost, spirits, demons, phantoms, what have you I have a skeptical view of. I’ve never seen one, never experienced anything that would be considered supernatural. However, it could very well be that energy I spoke of earlier simply manifesting itself through whatever bonds have not yet been discovered. Then again, it could simply be people that want a story and create it themselves.
I believe in the power of humanity, I have faith in my friends and family, and I feel that not much is beyond us if we stop fighting amongst ourselves first. This could be inexplicably linked to the whole religion thing, but not completely. Some people are just plain ignorant and angry anyways. We’re a crowded planet, so someone is bound to rub someone else the wrong way.
Some may or may not know this, but I’m polyamorous. This may be a good reason why some of my beginning relationships didn’t work too well. I don’t feel comfortable being boxed in, locked down, or restrained and the idea that any one person only has enough devoted love for only one other person is a type of artificial restriction I can’t abide by.
A common misconception of polyamory is that it means the same person is also a swinger. This is false, especially with me. I’m not stating that I have enough love for more than one person simply as an excuse to sleep with whoever I like. For me to consider such things, I need to have a vested emotion and relationship with such a person. This has become increasingly true as I’ve matured and come to this realization about myself.
At this moment there are two people I feel strongly for, incredibly so. “In love,” as some would say. While, yes, I do have a much stronger relationship with one over the other, that doesn’t mean I discount my feelings in any way for the other. I love them both dearly, would do anything for them, and place their happiness equal to, if not above, my own.
Love is one of those powerful human conditions that is just part of who we are. As such, there is no reason to restrict it. Gay people, be gay! Genetically you are so there’s no point in hiding it. You love each other, it’s fantastic you have that feeling, relish it. The very idea that someone would want to stop such things, restrict them or even ban them, is despicable. No one should have any right to control any other person’s emotions or any say in their private life at all. If you don’t like it, look the other way. Avoid places those people frequent and ignore them. No, they won’t go away, but they won’t be near you. Trust me; they don’t want to be anywhere near you either so it’s a win-win situation.
I also feel that sex and sexuality is stupidly over-criticized in America. Sadly, I don’t have any worldly knowledge to honestly compare this to, but I have my own opinion so here it is. Anyone can go see a movie depicting blood, gore, and all matter of violence. Yet we hide away films of sexuality, showing nude people, or even (*gasp*) sex it’s heavily restricted, hidden away in windowless stores, and people feel dirty or ashamed if they’re seen with it.
Censorship on this is almost comical to the point of head-shaking sadness. Women, beware! Those symbols of your femininity on your chest that provide nourishment to your children, well, don’t you dare let those be seen. Oh, well, you can show as much of the breast as you like, but heaven forbid anyone sees that nipple! The very corruption of the youth is at risk if you do. Oh, and your internal sex organs, the one’s we can’t see, don’t let the entrance be seen either. True, we all came out of one, but never should he have to look upon it again!
Guys have it easy, all they need to do is make sure their ugly, dangly bits never see the light of day. I have, personally, no problem with this but of course that’s biased because I have no interest in said bits and think they’re ugly.
You could probably gather at this point that I have no problem with porn. Enjoy it, actually. It’s fun, makes stress relief easy, and is usually more funny than anything else, as it should be. Sex should be fun, playful, loving, and joyful. If you’ve never laughed at least once during sex then you’re doing it wrong. Not to say your bedroom should sound like you have a laugh track turned on, but different moods should be welcome. By all means, though, when the mood strikes, go at it like animals and make no apologies… except if you accidentally hurt someone. That always ruins the fun.
The political nature of the world is another bit that bothers me. There are a lot of swaying as far as this is concerned on my own part. A lot of things I can see merit in. A strong military for defense, but you shouldn’t be knocking down other people’s doors under the false pretense of “defending freedom.” Social care programs should be in place to catch people when they’re down, but there should be enough regulation and restrictions to make sure people don’t abuse it. Things along these lines.
As there are so many various things that can be talked about I’ll try to focus on the big ones what have been in the news or discussed recently. First, because it popped into my head, is this big bailout that’s being talked about. Banks, well, they screwed up. They shouldn’t have been trading mortgages and loans like they’re a commodity. It’s a lack there of. Honestly, I think they should fall through the cracks and disappear. The financial state of the nation needs to move away from private banks anyway to ensure a stable system.
The motor companies, I’m not quite so sure about. They probably messed up big time as well to be falling into debt so quickly. However, the motor companies also provide this country with a whole mess of blue and white collar jobs. Entry level positions and middle-class jobs that this country desperately needs. As such, I do believe that they should have assistance in getting back on their feet as they rebudget to fix whatever they messed up on to get themselves into such a whole. Personally, I think whacking a whole digit off of the salaries of the CEOs and Presidents and upper-level mucky mucks would help immensely. They can all give themselves fat raises that rockets them to over 246 times their average worker’s wage later, after they got their shit together.
Church-State Separation should be a given. This is a country of many beliefs, many creeds, and many traditions. As such, the government sponsoring any one religion is just a recipe for discrimination and a distinct lack of equal rights. This should be true for any nation, I feel. Religion is a personal matter. A fine example of how personal it is is my favorite twins. Both are Christian, both have been raised the same, but both have wildly different ideas of what “Christianity” means and what their core beliefs are. If sisters who were raised the same, grew up going to the same churches and having the same indoctrinations don’t have the same ideas about their own faith, how could an entire nation of over three hundred million people possibly follow the same ideas?
I’ve been typing at this for a while and I think I’ve drained my brain pretty well. However, I’m also always up for questions. I love answering questions and if people are truly curious about my beliefs, I’m only more than happy to answer them. So there we are: a brief rundown. Enjoy.