Religion vs. Belief

I talked at length with my father about my grandfather's passing tonight. He's a very devout protestant, Southern Baptist actually. It's a very conservative sect of Christianity, and I don't want to upset him by telling him I'm not sure, I'm not ready for that lecture. But I did let him tell me what he felt about the whole situation. And this is how I perceived it.

Apparently we're told that in order to become good with God, Himself, we have to choose the right side. The side that God said we must choose to be with Him. He created us to choose whether we loved Him or not, and as it seems, there is only one right answer. He created us so that he could have fellowship, but He wanted true love, He wanted us to make the choice to love Him, so He also gave us the chance to damn ourselves...all because He wanted true and undying love from us. And because we're imperfect, because we chase our greed and our own sinful desires above the desires of heaven, God sent himself in the form of his Son as a sacrifice on our part, so that we may believe and forever live in His glory.

I don't think this is absurd at all, I'm just not sure about the whole afterlife thing. It's so hard to wrap my mind around, and while I attest to believing in Christianity, I cannot say that I am a Christian, for I have not followed Christ like I should, and I will not shame the name of this belief.

But the religion, the orthodox religion of Christianity, the organized religion, is all very political.

I'm very sure that everyone can agree that wars are started because everyone is right about their one true belief, and that the rest of humanity is incorrect. I know it's easy to think about the Catholic and Protestant conflicts in Ireland and England. Of course we know about the Muslim skirmishes in the Middle East. We know that religious conflict in the late Imperial era sparked many rebellions, along with political and social unrest. It would seem that religion does nothing but bring chaos to our lives, but if we stop and think for a moment, what of human origin HASN'T brought chaos?

We try and do something for the good of the people, and end of ruining the environment. We are greedy and selfish, and capitalism only contributes to that. We think for ourselves. It's in human nature, and with that though, comes egotism. We think we're the only right ones. No one else can be right.

Judeo-Christianity sees the all-mighty power of the universe in the form of a man. Because our texts say that we were created in his image, which we have determined, must be physical.

I'm not exactly sure what other religions exactly believe, but I know that they are different from what I believe. I know that Hindu, Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Confucianism....they all believe in different powers, different beings. But it all comes down to one shared focus.

Love.

Love is a powerful thing. It can mend hearts, minds, egos. It's amazing. And showing love to a fellow human being is what each and every one of these religions bases their ideologies off of. If we look to the core of Christianity, we see the basic foundations, of love. God wants us to love each other, He wants us to love Him.

Buddhism deals a lot with meditation, and sending love out to the world.

Taoism deals with the way, finding love and following it through simplicity.

Love is a belief held near and dear to my heart. Loving the rest of humanity is hard sometimes, but we were created to love one another, and although we were doomed to fail, love is a goal we all aspire towards.

The existence of all this is always hotly debated, but I don't exactly have time to go further into detail, although I wish I did, I'll save that for a later date.