Personal Religion

I was thinking about this earlier today.

It seems a lot of people who don't believe in God, or who at least are turned off by religion, are that way because of the hatred and violence that is supposedly sparked by some sort of religious arguments. I ran into a lot of people on my mission who wanted to bash with my companions and I. As I look back on it, I realize how silly it was, and how funny it would've been to an atheist to see us arguing. I didn't always particularly enjoy arguing, but I also never wanted to back down either when somebody challenged my beliefs. These arguments never bred anything but contention and what I experienced as "flustered feelings," where my eyebrows twitched, my adrenaline pumped, and I always walked away from the experience feeling an immense amount of contempt for the person I had just engaged in a bash with.

While none of these encounters ever led to violence, what happened was, in a very small degree, a reflection of what is happening, and what has been happening for thousands of years, around the world. Religion breeds arguments, and nothing in the world does it better. Type any religious statement on any message board or comment thread somewhere on the internet, and within 10 minutes, you can easily have 50 comments from people who insult and completely demean each other's religious beliefs. It is virtually automatic. Nothing offends people more. Perhaps this is why so many people are turned off by religion, especially Christianity, which, at its core, promotes love, charity, and goodwill towards all men, but has been a source of hypocritically violent oppression through the centuries.

I've thought about this a lot, and rather than be turned off by my own beliefs that I've grown up with, I've come to realize just how deeply personal religion can be. People react negatively when somebody mocks their beliefs, as though they are being mocked, when in fact, it is specifically the religion or the individual beliefs. But is there a difference? If I got angry because somebody insulted my religion, would I be in the wrong since they are actually insulting my religion, and not me? A person who is a genuine believer in something is not somehow separated from what they profess to believe. In fact, their religious beliefs define who they are. This is why it's personal, and this is why people get offended. While it's not right to react so negatively to religious mockery or humiliation, it's also wrong, I believe, to "mock" religion in general for sparking violence and hatred. Some may think that's what I've been doing throughout this blog, but it is quite the opposite. It is simply that religion is more personal to people than outsiders may think. My own beliefs are very personal to me, even though they are beliefs that are held by over 13 million people throughout the world. My convictions define who I am, therefore, it is not unrealistic for me, in some way, to get flustered when my beliefs are mocked or ridiculed. I accept that this will happen in many situations, but I choose to avoid the situations where it is likely to happen. I've decided that arguing about religion is "missing the point" of all the Christian scriptures, including the restored scriptures of the LDS church, but I also believe that it should not be an odd thing to see someone overreact when their beliefs are ridiculed or challenged. It just proves how personal their convictions really are, and maybe, just maybe, we should avoid arguing or provoking people.

I'm not justifying Middle East violence, I swear. But when you think about how personal Islam is to its followers, it makes sense. You can choose to hate religion because of the violent aspect of it, or you can do your part to make the world a better place. Either way, religious conflict will never cease until the end of the world, no matter what anyone tries to do about it, and this is because of the deep connection people feel to the god they worship. Non-believers may see our god as a god of war. I see God as a loving father who wants all of his children to come back to him, and would rather have us live our religion, which is showing mercy, love, and forgiveness to our fellow man, rather than arguing and bashing in an effort to "defend" our religion.