The subject of this blog post might not be about a subject everyone would want to read about: religion. I've never really talked much about religion on here or other places of the Internet other than the occasional comment about church or something. My religion is a large part of my life though, and I feel like I should talk about it in at least one post. I don't want this to start a debate over religion. This post is more about how religion affects my life than my actual religion (which is Catholicism if you're interested).
I've been raised Catholic my whole life, and my family attends church every week. We'd probably be described as a pretty religious family. My dad is currently studying to become a deacon. (To learn what that is, you can go here. Essentially, they're part of the clergy, but they're not a priest. I'm not quite sure how to describe it.) A lot of my extended family is also Catholic, but not my whole family. The Catholic Church has been a large part of my life. Up until high school I also attended a small Catholic school.
Like every person, I've questioned Catholic teachings before, but it's never gotten to the point where I've actually considered leaving the Catholic Church. I'm just a person who always questions things. (Here's one of those obvious reasons I'm a Ravenclaw even though I don't want to admit it.) I don't think you can honestly believe something unless you've questioned it and figured it out for yourself, and I do that a lot. I have several books on Catholic teachings, I look stuff up online all the time, and of course, I read the Bible every day.
There's a lot of prejudice against the Catholic Church, and I believe most of it us unfound. I've seen a lot of people believe things about the Catholic Church that are completely untrue. For instance, we don't have to do everything the Pope says. There are only certain times he exercises papal authority. We don't worship Mary. Catholics don't worship anyone other than the Holy Trinity. In the same light, we also don't worship statues. As someone who's been Catholic my whole life, I've never understood why some people believe we do. I've never bowed or prayed to a statue in my life. I've bowed in front of an altar, which had statues on it, but I was bowing to God, not the statues and I wasn't even directly in front of a statue. I've always seen the statues as more of decorations than anything else. And here's one that may come as a great shock to a lot of people: Catholics don't hate gay people. Or Muslims. Or any religion or group of people for that matter. If they did, they wouldn't be following God's teachings.
That became even more religious than I was planning. Like I said, I don't want this to turn into a debate over religion. I think I've said this somewhere before, but I love learning about religions. It's one of my favorite things to learn about. It's always interesting to see what different people believe about God, creation, an afterlife, etc. My religion is very important to me, but I'm always open to people with different beliefs.
As I've already stated many times, I don't want the comments to become some big (especially hateful) debate. I would be interested in knowing what your views on religion are though. Just be nice about it. I don't want there to be any insults. Also, I've considered writing more blog posts or even filming videos about different religious things. I don't know if I'm brave enough to do it though. I'm not sure how it'll go. What do you think?
I was raised Catholic but somewhere down the line I don't if it was really lost faith but was searching and from even as a believed in the magic of nature. I did not become a Wiccan but followed some of there rules and still consider myself Christian. I studied Buddhism for short time as well. I think it is only nature to question. I know Catholicism teaches not to but we can't help questioning. I have found my way back , well I don't know if is back because I never left really, but I follow Christianity more so now and less magicks witchcraft. I believe there is a God and Christ was a person but I think the bible is usually taken out of context with most people. It is taken too literally a lot of times.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading most recently about Edgar Cayce he said some interesting things about God and Christ. And I found that what he says ties into some things Joesph Campbell has say on mythology.