I had a really good conversation with a friend of mine not too long ago. We don’t talk often, but when we do, they’re marathon conversations. Neither of us subscribe to an organized religion, we don’t really claim to be spiritual either, but that seems to be the commonly accepted term for “I believe in God, but not much of the stuff said about God in holy books”. That conversation made me want to write about my take on a lot of these things. In previous posts I’ve given more than a hint that I’m not a Christian or any of the Christian offshoots, nor do I believe in Judaism or Islam, so I figured I’d take a few posts to try to make sense of where I stand regarding my belief system for those on the outside looking in. I’ll hop back into the other topics I’m supposed to avoid soon enough.

Making Sense Of It

When I was young, and I mean single digit young, I was skeptical about Christianity. None of the stuff about heaven made sense to me, and the few questions I felt comfortable asking at the time were always poorly answered. I understand why that is the case now, but back then I just assumed the people I asked were bullshitting me because I was a kid. The truth of the matter is, they didn’t have reasonable answers to give anyway, so bullshitting me to appease my young malleable mind was the only viable option. This applied to my conversations with folks from other religions as well, but those other folks were just humbler in the delivery of their “I don’t really know” responses. 

That aside, when I first denounced organized religion and began fully living in my “spirituality”, I recognized that I didn’t miss the church, nor did I feel bad. Quite the opposite, I felt great. I enjoyed being able to see the good in people without second guessing myself for saying “God understands, you’ll be good on the other side”. I never truly felt like those people would be cast into eternal damnation in the first place…but in the back of my mind it was because I figured God was reasonable. Now, I feel like it is because that entire line of thinking is ridiculous. Of all the billions of people that have ever existed, a very small fraction of a percentage has lived lives that were impactful and memorable to a large portion of humankind. The bulk of us lead very inconsequential lives in the grand scheme of things. That includes your favorite celebrities and pastor such and such too. That’s not to say our individual lives are meaningless, rather the bulk of our misdeeds that we will inevitably have, are not so major that they will adversely impact civilization so much so, that we’d be horrifically punished throughout eternity for them. Especially if the creator knows we were all prewired with character flaws and the ability to feel and make decisions on feelings.

They’re Still Human

Conversely, I don’t think any of us have been so special that we should be sainted or deified by any other person. Usually, the things we hold people to such high esteem for are the selfless executions of common sense, or kindness or at least the attempts at such. Mother Theresa may have had a good heart, but she did more harm than good with her “kindness” trying to help the poor. She took in a lot of money for the Catholic Church and administered minimal good and a whole lot of bad with it. Mahatma Ghandi was a racist and quite likely an incestual child molester. Pick any Pope…he covered up for countless pedophiles, and many of them were probably raping little boys at some point in their journey to the top as well. Martin Luther King, knocking off a cutie in every city he stopped in. We don’t remember them for their misdeeds, we remember them for the positive or perceived positive acts. If someone asked me if I’d make them saints I’d say no, if they asked about eternal punishment for those flaws, I’d say no. 

Here’s one of my least shared opinions. Hitler is held up as the gold standard of evil for killing 6 million Jews, King Leopold II of Belgium killed 10 million Africans, and no one even mentions him. George Washington and his wife had over 300 slaves (so did other Presidents) and their belief in this brutal practice STILL haunts Black people in the United States. If a punishment in the afterlife is possible then yeah, these folks would certainly receive it…but eternally, I wouldn’t even agree to that, and I think they’re pieces of shit.

We’re All Flawed

I see us all as flawed people, some more than others. Some have done awful things to one person, some to a bunch of people, but it’s usually because of some awful shit that happened in their own life. Given power and money, those flaws get amplified. The same applies to a person’s virtues. For better and worse, when I started making good money, my generosity was amplified along with the money dependent bad habits that I have. I believe the same can be said about everyone with money…whoever they were when no one was looking, they’re more of that person now that they have deep pockets. For those financially on the opposite end of the spectrum, poverty can drive you to some foul stuff you wouldn’t typically consider (I’ve been there). As a result, though, you are mentally tormented for that in the current life, no need for eternal damnation. I also don’t believe the enlightenment of one person, is good enough to save the world…we’re all on our own path through this thing called life.

That’s just my view on the punishment aspect…yeah, this was covered in that marathon conversation with my buddy along with many other things. I think in some odd way, sharing my beliefs makes it easier to grasp why I say the weird shit I say from time to time. I hope that it also sheds light on the fact that I don’t dislike religious folks, I just don’t play along with their way of life. I haven’t met a 2-million-year-old man, although when I see Joe Biden it seems like he’s playing one on TV.  That to say, no one actually has the answers from firsthand experience. Everything we believe is based on someone else’s opinions on spirituality and religion along the way…some were just more popular than others by way of message or brute force.