I was once told by one of my good friends, that I was one of the most Christian people she knew. Which is ironic, since I have always denied any religious affiliation, while she is a regular church-goer, with no shortage of card-carrying Christians in her daily life.
Religion is an interesting thing. On the one hand, you can rationalize it as the human need to understand; that is, we need to know everything about the world around us, and when we don't know something because we are unable to experience it firsthand, we come up with theories and stories. For as far back as humanity has questioned the mysteries of life, people have tried to answer those questions. So when it comes to death, the absolute final frontier, all we can do is think up fantastic stories of deities and angels, demons and spirits. As conscious beings, it is impossible to fathom death; how do you imagine nothingness? The end of thought? How does one even comprehend such a thing? As creatures defined by our thoughts and memories, the very idea of all that coming to an end is utterly inconceivable. And so the concepts of afterlives, and souls, and reincarnation are born. We want to believe that there is more after death, that somehow, the essence that makes each of us who we are lives on. We take comfort in the idea that there is some soul that continues, whether it exists on a different plane of existence, or gets recycled into a new life. Given that knowledge, wouldn't you live life a little more peacefully? If you knew that no matter what, there was more after death, you would never have to worry about running out of time, never have to regret not doing the things you wanted. This is without even considering the idea of a deity. How much of a weight off one's shoulders must it be, to be able to say, "I believe that whatever happens in my life, it is the will of some higher power?" To always have a guardian watching over you? If nothing else, to always have a figure of strength to turn to, or even a little selfishly, a scapegoat to blame for our troubles? Who wouldn't want that, if the option was there?
But all that is maybe too simple an explanation. After all, I am not atheist; I do not deny the existence of a higher power. I may not be old and wizened, but it is something that I have put plenty of thought into, and I simply cannot believe that there is nothing out there, that all religion is the fevered imagination of men. People use evolution as an argument against theological schooling; on the other side, there are those who deny evolution because the scriptures make no mention of it. But why do the two have to be exclusive? Albert Einstein once famously stated, and I paraphrase it here, that science without religion is lame, but religion without science is blind. I don't believe God created the world in seven (well, six) days. But I do believe that there is some greater power that shaped the creation of the world, and pushed it the direction that it went. Did the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the land, and the birds of the air all just suddenly get dropped on the earth in one day? Of course they didn't. But is it that much of a stretch to believe that something out there had a hand in designing the eye, or the hand, or the brain? Try as I might, I cannot believe that a complex organ, formed of millions of individual cells, could accidentally mutate into existence from some mass of other cells. The coordination between every part of your body is so intricate, with each part so perfectly designed to perform its unique job; can that all be due to simple coincidence? I don't see it. I look out at the world we live in, with its infinite beauties and mysteries, and I can't help but think it just a little bit arrogant to state that there is no god, simply because we as humanity have decoded so many things about how things work.
Perhaps one of the more compelling arguments for me comes to light when looking at the world's religions on a larger scale. Over the several thousand years of human existence, countless religions have sprung up, completely independent of each other. And yet, they somehow all have the same structure. This is true of practically no other facet of civilization. Social structures, cuisine, language, all are unique from region to region. There may be similarities, and etymological links across cultures, but in the end, they are entirely unique in their developments. And yet, when you look at their religious beliefs, there are so many parallels. For me, this has always begged the question; perhaps, there is no "correct" religion, no one true path; perhaps, there is some other power out there, and all these religions? Maybe they are all the same thing.
Now bear with me here. You're thinking, "Wait. The Greeks had like...500 gods, Christians have their one true god and that weird Trinity, and do the Chinese even have a religion besides that Confucius thing?" But hear me out on this. Christians have their God where Muslims have Allah. The Greeks believed Zeus was the king of all gods, just as the Romans had Jupiter. Chinese Daoists may have believed in gods inhabiting just about everything in sight, but there was still one god that ran the show. Now expand that even further. The Bible describes angels doing the holy work of God. Polytheistic religions tell of an entire hierarchy of gods, each in charge of some aspect of life, not unlike the way angels are split into tiers by what they do. Each religion, from the Aztec's to the Mayan's, from Norse mythology to Hindu, have their creation and destruction scenarios. I'm sure if you looked deeper into various religions, you would find more similarities than those I have given here. Could it be possible that all religion stems from the same powers, only given different names by the various cultures and peoples that witnessed them?
But even all this a little bit misses the point I want to get at here. I have never judged anyone for their beliefs, and am of the opinion that everyone is entitled to have their own worldviews. And it doesn't matter which god you choose to follow, when you strip it down to its core, each religion has the same basic tenets; they preach a way of life, a way of treating one's fellow person. Be it the Buddhist code, or the Ten Commandments, every religion teaches us a better way to live. Any person who takes a passage of a religious text as an excuse to spread hate and discord has missed the point entirely. It is what angers me about so many Bible carrying Christians; they make the motions, going to church, and reading the scriptures, and talking and singing about God's infinite love, then turn around and condemn someone for not sharing their identical belief system. These are people that do not deserve to call themselves Christians. Mind that I'm not singling out Christians for this failure; it exists anywhere there is religion. Religion should never be an excuse to harm another, let alone trying to pass off one's actions as God's will. God did not tell you to take another man's life. God said quite specifically, thou shalt not kill. Seriously, how much plainer can you make it?
I do not believe that there is any fundamental difference between religions. Perhaps that is part of my reluctance to subscribe to any particular faith. Of course, my own doubts play into this as well; it is why I have yet to convert to Christianity; I cannot call myself something when I am still unsure of so much of what it says to be true. I don't know if I believe Jesus turned water to wine, and I don't even know if I really buy the idea that he came back to life after three days. I don't disbelieve it, per se. I just don't know. What I do believe in, however, are the ideals that Christianity stands for. I believe in loving thy neighbor. I believe in forgiveness. I believe in the codes of morality and basic human decency taught in the Bible.
Perhaps this is what my friend was getting at. After all, a title is naught but a name; it tells nothing about who you are. It is, rather, our actions that define us. I would like to think that I live the Christian life, despite my lack of faith. And I would like to think that there is a little more to determining one's entrance into heaven (assuming it exists) than simply professing one's faith and converting. Because if doing the right thing in life, and treating my fellow man with respect and dignity still lands me in hell simply because I never pledged my loyalty to some god, then I call that god petty and gladly take up my place in the flames.
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