Religion and faith.

Yes... *My* religion and faith. I get asked about it a lot.


"You can tell me you put your faith in God to put you through the day, but when it comes time to cross the road, I know you look both ways." - House


First, we'll get the big one out of the way. Yes, I believe there is a god. I even believe it's the Christian/Catholic one, because I used to want to be Catholic before I reached the age of reason, and wanted to learn about the Catholic beliefs and study all the teachings of Cathol... or something.


Second, I don't believe in the afterlife or a heaven and hell, because I refuse to believe this is all a test. I choose to believe that the white light people sometimes see are chemical reactions when the brain is shutting down. There is nothing else after this - no heaven and hell. If we're good, we'll be remembered as good people, and if we're bad, we'll be remembered as bad people. The proverbial heaven and hell people talk about don't exist - at best, we remain on earth as spirits and the heaven and hell we're put through, we've created ourselves... Watching the world continue to hate us only to be forgotten without a pleasant memory, or watching the world continue to love us and think of us highly. There is a middle ground, and we're in it. Instead, there are no extremes. There is no "divine plan" that the world follows, because God gave us free will. Likewise, there is no one watching and judging us all based on our actions. It's simply impossible. There's no unending line of angels watching us, reporting up a chain of command to one omniscient being. We're alone, and there is no one in charge.


Third, I should mention the Bible. I think the Bible's got some good guidelines, but it was written by man. As House says, "It's a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what." There's absolutely no reason to think that a large enough group can't agree on a small enough group of single principals (including the existence of the Bible).


Fourth, to quote House, I get it if people are just looking for a way to fill the holes, but they want the holes. They wanna live in the holes, and they go nuts when someone else pours dirt in their holes. That's what I believe religion is - a way to fill a hole. It could have been filled with friends, drugs, love, alcohol, creativity, adventure or any number of things, but instead, it's been filled with dogma that's being dictated by books that nobody can agree the age of and an old man in a funny hat (yes, the Pope).


Maybe there was once someone powerful enough to control ALL THAT WAS, IS AND EVER WILL BE, but right now, we're a science experiment gone wrong. We're the ant-farm that's grown out of the glass and taken over the house. We're putting faith in someone that's not powerful enough to be all we've built him up to be. We're paying lip service to a memory.


There is a God, but I think he's no longer all he once was.


He's probably in bed asleep right now, wondering where everything went wrong.