Religion

I've never been the most confident Catholic, but lately I'm starting to wonder more than usual. I accept, you could say I have "faith" in a cause and effect world. I believe that evolution is the method by which God, yes God, chooses to create. I think science can fit very neatly alongside religion. Science is our way of looking into the complexity of what God has created and not being able to understand it, grasp it. I feel more religious in a science classroom than I ever have in a church pew. I think life is a miracle. I don't need testaments to have faith in a creator. Most importantly, I don't believe God can be fit in the box that is advertised by the world's religions. I don't believe you can understand God as fully as most people would have you believe.

9/11 Memorial, New York, NY.

I wonder, frequently, would I be predisposed to Christiantiy if I were, say, born in an Muslim family? Maybe I lack the faith to fully appreciate Jesus. But...what makes Jews and Muslims wrong and Christians right. Explain to me, and I'm sorry if it's another "faith" thing, why we are expected to have total confidence in Christ, but no confidence in the teachings of Islam. Isn't that exactly how the Jews feel about us? All three seem similar enough to me. It's not just monotheism. God has several incarnations even in Christianity. Perhaps it's the same God in Hinduism. Perhaps God has never showed himself so plainly at all and it's all myth. Maybe they're all creation stories gone wild. Sets of rules and methods for organization that have a little more punch when you tack on "Signed by The Creator." I'm not arguing for or against anything in particular. I'm asking a question: what does everyone else know that I don't? When it comes to the specifics, I'm not sure if I know what to believe.

And religions are probably good in a net sense. There's a lot of good done in the Lord's name to combat the many, many evils that are commited under the same cross.

I get frustrated. Everything seems so contradictary. God works in mysterious ways. But somehow it's all approched in a cut and dry sort of way.

This is the son of God.
God did this and this and this.

Anything that says otherwise must be wrong.

This is what God said.

I'm laughing because now I'm thinking that I don't have faith in faith. Maybe faith is a chemical in the brain or something, a disposition towards this or that. God gives some people faith and not others. Maybe you're predisposed to be accepting towards what people say about religion. So if you're community is predominately Jewish, then you're Jewish. Christian, Christian. Muslim, Muslim, and if you're community lacks religion or you lack the appropriate balance of brain juice then you're a free-floating aetheist. Not that I'm that.

I do have faith in a creator. I want to keep on repeating that. I believe in God. Do I believe that the Bible is a historically accurate document? That's doesn't seem to click for me. And if it's innaccuarcies are a test of faith, well, then I guess I'm failing. Unfortuantely, if that's true, I don't exactly see a good solution. How do I change the way I think?

I'm just as confident that the Gods fled from underground because of a flood and came up through reeds to create life then anything else I've ever heard. And, still, I don't see why not? I certainly am not going to accept Jesus just because that's the religion I've been exposed to. In the end, I'm not sure it matters. Maybe the point is to follow whatever teachings are likely to have the best net results for the community. All the ones I'm familiar with seem fine in theory. Don't steal, give to the poor...or at least they certainly were good ideas when the documents were first conceived. That last statement, I think, is extremely applicable to many parts of Judaism...Kosher for instance. The things that are recorded as foods to be avoided are, in general, things you would risk your health by eating them in the time period the Torah was written.

I don't believe God cares one way another how you worship him. I believe He's in control of how you worship anyway. Is God bothered by abortion? Does it matter to God when we die? If abortion is "playing God" then so is every other form of killing. Maybe the military should be against Christian policy. Maybe God needs update his organization; maybe that's what the Karan is...the Book of Latter-Day Saints...Maybe what's good for us as species at one time isn't always good for us as a species. Maybe the people that wrote the Bible weren't perfect and put some of their own personal beliefs into it.

Church.

I don't think I'll ever find a satisfactory concluding point. So, I'll let my tiredness guide me to an end.

I'm not trying to shake anyone's faith, of course. I do honeslty want some answers. I hope someone can shoot down everyone of my arguments, and give me a final, defenite answer.

Your move.