I responded to everyone who sent it to me with a lol. Some people ignored my lol. Others asked me why i lol'ed. Some people were even insulted and asked me if i didn't love God, or if I didn't even believe in the concept of a God in the first place. And I just had to laugh at how ridiculous the world has become. This is a conversation between me and one of the people that forwarded the message: Person: *forwards some mess about forwarding the message if i love God*
Me: lol
Person: what?
Me: the thing about God
Person: everyone is sending it
Me: so u just sent it cuz everyone else is doing it?
Person: i have nothing to lose although i don't believe in it. and so i don't feel guilty
And I told the person that I'm choosing to stop this conversation there, because of the fact that I was going to be brutally honest, and this specific person can't handle brutal honesty.
Now there is so much that is substantially wrong with this entire conversation, but let's start with this: If you need a message to remind you of God and the fact that you love him, then something is wrong with your "belief". And if you give me an excuse like "everyone is doing it", then that makes it even worse, because it shows that the primary goal you had in mind was to belong to the fad, not to show your love for God. And then, the finale: "i have nothing to lose although i don't believe in it. and so i don't feel guilty." Are you retarded? So you needed a message to remind you of God, then you forwarded the message because it's the hot thing to do these days, and now you're telling me that you don't even believe in it?
I'm not exactly the most religious person, but at the same time I'm an extremely logical and unbiased thinker. I don't NOT believe in religion or think it's bad, and I certainly don't consider people who are religious and hold on to the meaning of faith as ignorant or mislead. To each his own, it's a free world, and everyone should live his life in the manner that he/she finds convincing. But what I do not tolerate is hypocrisy. And therefore, I cannot stand people who claim to be religious (when they are actually not), and then only remember religion when they receive a message like that.
They're not sending it out of wanting to pass the message along. They are sending it because of the guilt trip that they would go through if they don't. That alone tells me that they don't really care, because someone who is truly religious wouldn't have a reason to feel guilty.
What I also hate is how religion is being taught in some countries. This happens actually mostly with Islam. I feel the way Christianity is taught is generally so much more sensible, and the method that they use tries its best to make sure that you love religion and God, and for the right reasons too. When I think back to the teachers that taught me Islam, I remember three things that I believe were huge douchebag mistakes on their part (and I'm sure MANY people will relate):
1. I was always taught to fear God, I wasn't taught to love him.
2. The consequences for not doing my homework or learning my lesson in Islam class were punishments that, as a 10 year old, seemed scary to me. Therefore, these teachers killed my eagerness to learn my religion, and instead made it this thing that I HAD to do just to avoid the punishment.
3. At the end of the day, holy books are the "words of God". And certain things are left open for interpretation and to the person's own judgement. Therefore, it is completely wrong for me to learn the meaning of the verses of the Qur'an through someone else, because all I am getting is that person's perspective, which is a function of his teacher's perspective, which is a function of his teacher's perspective, and so on and so forth, until we arrive to the first teacher of the Qur'an, Prophet Muhammad. Assuming the average length of a generation is 30 years, that means that the meaning of the Qur'an that I am given by my teachers who got it from their own teachers (etc...) has passed through more than 45 generations. Quite frankly, that's alot of filtering, and I really question how much of the meaning was lost in interpretation. And this concept applies to all religions with scripture and books.
All this makes me wonder how the world would have turned out if people were given enough education for them to be able to at some point pick up their respective holy book and read it for themselves, and understand it from their own perspective rather than someone else's. After all, isn't that the point of religion? To find a connection with God that is your own and no one else's?
Food for thought people...
LIKE... A LOT! :)
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have to disagree with the Christianity statement (and my mother is half Christian so I feel like I have the right to say something), I think the way both these religions teach is extreme- through preaching and their imposing nature on any individual.
Let's not even get into the issue of Christian missionaries, it's more about converting people than actually making them love God.
Plus, I don't even think someone actually needs religion to love God but that's a different discussion.
Thanks for this- you make my post on religion seem acceptable :)
Then I guess the situation's even worse than I imagined!
ReplyDeleteI don't believe in preaching either, I think the concept of trying to convince (and force) people to believe in the same things you do is wrong on so many levels, especially when it's taken to extremes like you mentioned. I support conversion to another religion when the person does it out of his / her own conviction and desire, not when someone else pushes them to do it.
I know I was told to read this ages ago, and I did, but not thoroughly. So I just skimmed over it again. To be honest all I had to do was skim because you and I have had so many conversations about this topic, that I more or less understand your point of view. I’m not going to respond with my own point of view, because A. you already know where I stand on most things and B. I have my own blog where I can do that.
ReplyDeleteReligion always has been and always will be essentially the most controversial topic simply because it defines mind sets, motivations and morality for so many. You think sex sells? That’s nothing compared to the motivation of eternal salvation, or alternatively, perpetual damnation. The trade-off all your friends had was simple: send this message and heaven waits. That’s a pretty wicked deal if you ask me. The problem is that religious conviction shouldn’t be fueled by a rewards system of compensation and punishment. I don’t believe in God ‘just in case’, or because if I don’t I will end up in ‘Blasphemy Inc.’ (Restaurant – Lounge – Nightclub). I just do. Again this is not the place for such justification. Point is, if I receive a message that says ‘free pass to heaven upon forwardingation’ and I do forward, it’s not for the free pass to Heaven, it’s for the message itself. Same way, if I get a hilarious joke, I will forward it, just because I think it will hold the same amount of joy/wisdom/meaning for the other person. However, just like I wouldn’t forward the dirty joke to my mother, I probably wouldn’t send a deeply religious message to you. I’m not saying you don’t have religious appreciation, on the contrary I think the way you ponder, prick and probe religion actually means you contemplate religion a lot more than many people who consider themselves ‘religious’. All I’m saying is that from my perspective while such a message may brighten my day, it probably won’t mean anything to you, and at the very best encourage you to write a witty little piece and then tell me to read it.
On to what you perceive to be the essence of the problem; religious education. I was not taught Religion in school. My parents fulfilled this duty by hiring a lady who would come to the house twice a week and basically educate me about my own religion, and honestly in hindsight I have so much respect for the lady. She was pious, yet forward thinking and she wasn’t scared of answering controversial questions. Actually, a few times she would bring up a controversial topic, and although I was a child, she listened when I had my ‘tough’ questions about the irrationality of it all, and her pure spirit, her clear answers and her attitude made me love my religion and believe in God, but more importantly, love God and believe in my religion.
way to not respond with ur own POV dindin! :D
ReplyDeletelook what i'm saying is that while there are good muslims such as yourself, the ones who really practice it and believe in it and live it for the right reasons, there are also people like the idiot i had the conversation with who did it "cuz everyone else is doing it". i'm not questioning religion or god, and i'm not saying people should be labeled as hypocrites because they claim to be muslims and then they drink and party. my point is that you are free to practice whatever religion you want, just do it out of conviction and love, not trends and fear.
your parents probably did the right thing. i'm glad you had a teacher that taught you to love religion. i wish everyone was taught religion in that same way (i will bet money on the fact that we'd have less than have the extremists in the world than we do today). you may not have seen the other side of it, the side where you were sometimes beat into knowing and learning your religion.
and who knows, if i had the same teacher you did then maybe i wouldn't have had so many questions, maybe i would have found it much easier to wrap my mind around it all. but fact of the matter is, i had shitty teachers who made things even worse for me. i'm not trying to make excuses or justify anything, but it's not exactly easy to snap your fingers and un-learn and then re-learn. i'm doing my best to make sense of things, and we'll see where that takes me :)