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My Religion MAG
I have a magnet on my mirror stating, “Life is not about finding yourself – life is about creating yourself.” This is the statement I live by.
Many people do not believe me when I say I am an atheist. They don’t understand that I simply do not believe in any sort of god or afterlife. I also do not believe in the devil, in angels, or in souls. I believe in myself and the strength I have gained through the help of my parents, teachers, and friends – and my own hard work.
I am not going to try to dissuade anyone from his or her own opinions either. I know that people enjoy having religion in their lives; some need their faith to help them through hard times. And some do not want the responsibility of their misfortunes weighing down on their shoulders.
I do. I abhor the idea of fate – that everything is already planned out and you have no control to change anything. If you believe in fate, when bad things happen, it is not your fault; it’s just fate. When my life is not going well, I know that it is no one’s fault but my own. When I do well in school, when I fall in love, it is not fate and we are not soul mates. I worked hard and paid attention and did the homework. My love and I simply love each other – that is all it is, and for me that is all it needs to be.
For some, life is overwhelming. How can anyone be successful and happy in such a difficult, horrible world? They need someone to help them, someone to guide them, and someone to have faith in to make sure things get better. Placing my success and happiness in another’s hands breaks my heart. I need to be successful because of my efforts. I must be responsible for my own happiness. That is what I need from my religion.
Who will ever know what the truth really is? All I know is in the same way that some have full faith and trust in God to give them hope, I need to believe I am on my own to be truly happy – for how can I create myself if I spend my entire life just looking?
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JOIN THE DISCUSSION
This article has 764 comments.
Most of the devout Christians commenting here only wish to help, I know, but I've heard worse said about myself when I let my beliefs slip.
George W. Bush himself once said, "No, I don't know that Athiests should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." (I never liked Bush much anyway...)
You're a very brave person to write all this.
Y'know what? I wanna be you when I grow up.
I agree with you, Sarah. I have a mesh of beliefs, but none of them involve Satan controlling my mind and dragging me slowly into the burning pit of hell, of that God will save me if I'm kind and giving. How in the world does anybody know if Jesus even existed? People trust thousands of years full of lies and hate recorded in a book. I don't know that the earth was created as scientific theory tells it either, and there are some things science can't explain, sure. But don't tell "Sarah M" that she wont survive without God, because she sounds like a very strong person to me and I think she'll get on fine without an invisible walking stick, thank you very much.
"believeinhim"
Science says that too. And she doesn't sound very confused to me. She actually sounds very sure. You're saying God created the universe? Who created God? People's MINDS created God, because that's what people/artists do. They CREATE things.
*Jesus is the ONLY way to live a fulfilled life. When you die, do YOU know what is going to happen?*
Praise God I do. Because I put my faith and trust in Jesus, I am going to heaven!
God bless!
"Well written-I just disagree. There is no way that the universe was just here. What ages has to have a beginning. Energy must originate from somewhere."
The universe came from a compressed ball of matter, it was never "just here". It has aged and it did have a beginning.
Anyway, I guess I'm trying to say I enjoyed your work and completely see where you are coming from.
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