Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Editorial

My Thoughts on Religion
                Ever since I was a child my mother would take me to church and being catholic she was extremely religious and wanted to learn that I should attend mass every Sunday, so I was forced to go against my will because at my young age I couldn't think for myself. Now that I've grown and seen almost everything there is to religion I've made up my own opinion about how I see religion and I decided that I want nothing to do with it. My parents and others have often told me that “Everybody has to believe in something” and I do believe in something, that which being science because it provides cold hard facts but also because it doesn't leave me wondering how someone came up with the answer or evidence that it existed. In other words I think most people who are religious don’t know half of the answers to what they’re following or preaching if they were to be asked the origins of their religion.         
            From my experience, people who I've met in and out of church seem like they have split personality disorder; that or they’re just two faced, and in most cases they are. One example of a person who acts so innocent and sweet at church is my mother. She is extremely nice, friendly and greets everyone she recognizes when she arrives. Now allow me to shed some light on this little act of hers when she attends mass. At home my mother often complains to me for any little thing that’s wrong, tries to find any little reason to start arguing and constantly questioning me about everything after I arrive home from maybe being with my dad or with a friend as if I was being interrogated. She attends mass every Sunday and acts as if it purifies her yet her harsh attitude and bad habits don’t change. Church to me seems like a large was of time that I could be using for something else instead of listening to a pastor drone on and read a passage from the bible that even just thinking about makes me want to go to sleep.
            I believe that you don’t need religion to have the same morals as one who worships a religion because I’m sure that I don’t need a religion to tell me the news that it’s illegal to murder another human being or that committing adultery is immoral and wrong. Human beings have ethics and know what they should and shouldn't do (excluding the sociopaths who feel no remorse for the life of human beings). The reason I am so opposed to religion roots from when my mother always forced me to attend mass every Sunday and as I grew older I also came to dread it and I never paid attention to the pastor said no matter hard I tried I couldn't bring myself to pay attention to anything said in church, only the announcements right before mass was over which was how I could always tell it was almost over. I knew that once I was unable to stand being at mass that it was not the thing for me.
My mother also tried to make me believe that if I didn't pray or attend mass that I would go to hell once I passed from this world which is probably the thing I never believed the most because how could anyone know if heaven or hell really exists? It’s not like anyone has been through hell and back that’s just a figure of speech and nothing more. These are a few of my favorite quotes from one of the smartest minds of our time that reinforce my opinion on this and its none other than Stephen Hawking and here are his specific words "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail.” In that quote talks about the brain stopping inevitably just like a computer when its components degrade and fail when the time comes for its end. “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” There is a large amount of truth and evidence behind this statement because no one likes to think about what happens in the afterlife. Mexican people have Dia De Los Muertos their deceased people, we in the United States show up to our family member’s or friend’s graves and leave flowers, balloons or even food in some cases if people feel like really paying their respects and In some parts of African they perform something that has to do with the religion of voodoo and remove the preserved corpse out of the ground, have the body stand there, dress it different and perform a few rituals then place the body back in its tomb. People don’t want to admit it but they’re afraid of believing that nothing will happen when they die and the world will move on without them. It comforts people knowing that they will go somewhere special or will always be remembered by their loved ones and live on in their hearts.
To put it nicely about religion I believe that a person doesn't have to believe in anything as long as they have their heart in the right place and were raised in a home where they were always taught to do the right thing as a young child. I think that religion is time consuming, pointless at times and that people twist the words of the bible to make it convenient for them because could you imagine if we followed every single thing the bible said? If we were to actually follow all of the rules every church would act like the Westboro Baptist church who actively shame same sex marriage, picket soldier’s funerals saying things like “Thank god for dead soldiers” and “fags doom nations”. Ironically they’re the church that follows the words of the bible than any other church.