Growing up in a home were religion was always present but never required, I was always confused and embarrassed when asked what spirituality I was. To the devout Christians I was not involved enough and needed to embrace my religion more. To the atheists I was judgmental and would, eventually, try to convert them. I was a misunderstood minority, misconstrued by both extremes and not belonging in either.
So here’s what I think in a nutshell: I believe in evolution but, at the same time, I believe in angels and heaven. I think I would be more accepting of Christianity if it weren’t for the fact that they believe that all non-Christians will not go to heaven, regardless of moral or virtue. I don’t like how many, but not all, Christians try to shove their religion down other people’s throats, even when it is blatantly unwanted. At the same time however, I like to think that people who are good will go to a paradise, not necessarily heaven, when they die and those who are cruel and murderous, will not. I don’t like how people kill in the name of their religion and I can’t comprehend how God, if there is one, can allow innocent people to die or natural disasters to destroy entire civilizations. Why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people? When I ask such questions to Christians they respond with, “Everything happens for a reason. It is God’s way,” while atheists say “because the world isn’t fair,” neither of which answers the question at hand. However, while I have numerous disillusions about religion, I also like to think that there are angels, those of loved ones who have died, who look after those still on Earth. What does this make me? Indefinable, really. But then again, why do I have to be one or the other? Like most things about me, as is true of virtually all people, I am diverse. I have no absolute quality. We are not cut outs that are simply black or white; we are a combination of everything and nothing. I don’t live by any definite principle or belief, I live everyday differently. I am me.
*Note: I would just like to make it clear that Christianity isn’t the only religion I have issues with; it is religion as a whole. Christianity is simply the religion that my family has always celebrated.