Its easy if you try
I've been meaning to write a post about religion for some time, but I wasn't sure how to start. But looking back on my journal over the past year, I noticed that over a year ago I posted about how I was feeling a resurgence of spirituality. It's funny how much things change in such a short time.
Shortly after that post last year, I decided to grab my bible off the shelf, and re-read what I haven't read since catholic school. Sure, I had the bible read to me in church, but it's not the same as reading it from end to end. And after I read for a few weeks, I couldn't help but think...what a load of crap! Can you imagine what that was like for me? A catholic school boy from a devoutly catholic family suddenly thinking that the bible was a load of crap!
I mean we've all read the Iliad and the Odyssey when we were growing up, right? But when we read about Zeus and Athena and Pegasus and Medusa, we didn't think they were real, right? We recognize them as pieces of fiction. So why should I believe that a book about a boat that can hold every species of animal on the planet, and about a man that could part the Red Sea, and about a virgin who gave birth, and about a man that came back from the dead after 3 days, is anything more than a piece of fiction? OK, maybe parts of the bible are based on fact, but I find it preposterous that some people take the book 100% literally.
All of this culminated in a moment of clarity a couple of months ago while I was at church (of all places to lose one's faith). I was kneeling and praying when I suddenly had the feeling that no one was listening. I realized that in all of my years of praying I have never heard an answer. Now I don't think that praying is pointless. I do believe that there is a power to positive thinking. I'm just saying that I don't think anyone is listening to my prayers. If you were sitting behind a door, and you read in a book that someone was one the other side of that door, how long would you talk try to talk to that person without any response before you gave up and started to question the book that told you about the person on the other side of the door?
I'm sorry if I offend anyone. You are certainly welcome to your faith, but I have lost mine. I can no longer accept all of this on faith. I need proof. I need evidence. Until then I'll keep my faith in science.
Shortly after that post last year, I decided to grab my bible off the shelf, and re-read what I haven't read since catholic school. Sure, I had the bible read to me in church, but it's not the same as reading it from end to end. And after I read for a few weeks, I couldn't help but think...what a load of crap! Can you imagine what that was like for me? A catholic school boy from a devoutly catholic family suddenly thinking that the bible was a load of crap!
I mean we've all read the Iliad and the Odyssey when we were growing up, right? But when we read about Zeus and Athena and Pegasus and Medusa, we didn't think they were real, right? We recognize them as pieces of fiction. So why should I believe that a book about a boat that can hold every species of animal on the planet, and about a man that could part the Red Sea, and about a virgin who gave birth, and about a man that came back from the dead after 3 days, is anything more than a piece of fiction? OK, maybe parts of the bible are based on fact, but I find it preposterous that some people take the book 100% literally.
All of this culminated in a moment of clarity a couple of months ago while I was at church (of all places to lose one's faith). I was kneeling and praying when I suddenly had the feeling that no one was listening. I realized that in all of my years of praying I have never heard an answer. Now I don't think that praying is pointless. I do believe that there is a power to positive thinking. I'm just saying that I don't think anyone is listening to my prayers. If you were sitting behind a door, and you read in a book that someone was one the other side of that door, how long would you talk try to talk to that person without any response before you gave up and started to question the book that told you about the person on the other side of the door?
I'm sorry if I offend anyone. You are certainly welcome to your faith, but I have lost mine. I can no longer accept all of this on faith. I need proof. I need evidence. Until then I'll keep my faith in science.