The idea of God has been intriguing me a lot in the last ten years or so. I like to read and study people's perspective of God, what powers he has (or lacks) and what he personally does for people's lives. People's perception of the events that happen in their lives is also endlessly interesting. Something wonderful happens, God was watching over you. Something bad happens, he has a plan for you. Or he's testing you.
The “use” of their God also interests me. Some people pray that they won't run out of gas, or that they won't be late for work. Some people pray to fix their crummy lives with his divine power. Some say you shouldn't ask anything of God and just praise him and thank him for the fortunes you have been given. And still others merely ask for the strength to endure his arduous trials.
Those aside, where my real interest lies is in the complete devotion of this one super natural being. The strength, vigor and complete faith and worship of something that no one in the entire world can be completely sure of, is one of the most incredible things about human nature. Their entire perspective, their views on the world, the way they treat people or how they feel about people. All these things can be directly related to a holy figure they learned about during their life. Some people so devoted and so passionate that they create entire groups of people to watchdog and protest anything that might criticize their faith. When in fact, if that particular person had happened to be born in India, they'd be worshiping completely different Gods and still be fully convinced of their correctness.
According to the Christian God, your life is a test. You are born full of sin, despite never doing anything wrong yourself, and you must devote your life to praising Jesus and 100% committing that he is your savior. You live your life to the best of your ability, to a set of rules passed down from the ages. You are told if you follow these rules and live a good life, you'll be sent to paradise. Complete happiness and love for the rest of eternity. However, if you turn from this path, embrace feelings of your own or of another spiritual being, you are to be punished with eternal pain and suffering in a pit of fire.
There in lies the problem I have with the Christian religion. I don't like the thought of my existence; my entire life on this world being nothing but a test for something terrific, or possibly horrible later. It makes the entire journey of your life seem utterly meaningless. You follow a strict set of rules, spend every Sunday in church, listening to the same passages from the Bible you've heard a hundred times, for your entire life, on the chance that this God is real and you'll be avoiding eternal damnation. The way it sounds to me is a lot of people aren't living good Christian lives because it's the right thing to do. It seems a lot do it purely for the fact that they don't wish to be tortured until the end of time. This seems like a very poor approach when giving your entire life to something.
I suppose you can call me an Atheist or whatever. I personally don't believe in any kind of super natural being from any religion. However, I do respect people's devotion to it. The faith that people have in something they are so sure is real. It's the kind of faith I wish I had; to feel like there is someone I can't see, watching over me and guiding me down the path that was chosen for me. However, I don't have that faith. I've tried it and I can't have it. Sure, I could claim Jesus as my savior, but I'd know I didn't believe it. If God does exist, I'm sure he'd find more blasphemy in that falsehood than he would in my lack of belief.
I guess the overall picture I'm trying to portray here is, strive for the afterlife that you hope to find. Just don't forget about the one you have right here. If God is all knowing and all powerful, I'm sure he'll realize your devotion to Jesus would still be as strong if you let yourself get angry with a neighbor or have a few too many pieces of the chocolate cake you made for your friend's birthday. Think of your future, but don't forget about your present.
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