My BELIEF, My HOPE

Why am I writing this?

By way of background I was raised in a Christian (Protestant) Household. Despite the strong attempts by my mother to get me to become a believer in God, and a baptised Christian, I am still to be convinced in the existence of God or a Supreme Being.  I would describe myself as being on the “Christian” side of Agnostic. I have as yet to meet a person who has returned from the after-life, and therefore accept that people are convinced that they “believe”, rather than actually “know”.  In many ways, we are a more tolerant society than 50 years ago. For instance, as a child I was told “don’t you dare marry a Catholic”. I did, and I believe my family was happy I married someone with religious beliefs rather than a non-believer.

I am a reasonably intelligent person, and accept both Creationist and Evolutionist hypothesis. Who knows, they may both be right. We exist, but do not understand enough to be fully informed. Whether a Creationist or “Big Bang” supporter, the stumbling block in logic is “OK, but where did that come from”. There has to be a level of acceptance that somehow we exist, or you will eventually become insane thinking about it.

Some notable person, I can’t remember who, said that man should be described in latin as homo-pathiens (feeling man) rather than homo-sapiens (thinking man).  This aligns more closely with “I believe(feel)” rather than “I know”.

What I do believe is that mankind in general wants to do good, and this is possibly my motivation for writing this discourse.

In many ways, I am a cynic, but have met people who believe in God and the after-life. Some, like my mother, are what I would call “True Christians”, in that they believe in God, Christ and the resurrection, and their actions are consistent with their words. On the other hand, I have met “Sunday Christians” that go to church on Sundays, but their actions do not reflect what I would call the “Christian Spirit”. As a cynic, I sometimes feel that there are more “True Christians” outside of churches than inside.

Anecdotal family experiences suggest that there could be a Supreme Being. Myself and my siblings always felt that as long as my mother was about, things would be alright. We believed our mother believed. Even after her death, we still feel her influence. It is said, “never underestimate the power of prayer”.

I myself contracted Mantle Cell Lymphoma, an as yet incurable blood cancer. I have already survived longer than the average. I could claims that someone is watching over me, it may be right. Conversely I could claim that I was blighted in that I contracted the condition in the first place. During treatment, I had several Taxi journeys, and conversed with drivers from diverse religious backgrounds. What I learned from these experiences is that in the main, whatever the Religion, core values are generally the same. In general, informed followers of mainstream religion want to do good and lead a humane existence. This be whether they are Moslem, Jewish, Bahai, Budhist or the Australian core Christian.

There are those who seek to profit from religion whom I do not classify as believers. As an acquaintance once said to me, “there is a lot of money in the Lord”. I take issue with those using religion to further their own cause. I believe that if there is a God, he/she is a merciful God and not a vengeful God.

There have been a lot of atrocities committed in the name of the Lord. Whether this “Lord” is called Yaweh, God, Allah or any other name, if a true Deity exists, I do not believe this Deity would sanction such atrocities.

One could argue that for the greater good of mankind, purges of activities that threaten decent society may be necessary (eg Sodom and Gommorrah in biblical times, Hitler and Stalin in more recent times). Self defence is arguably acceptable when true tolerance fails.

In essence, in modern society we should be tolerant.

What ever our personal beliefs, we should accept the rights of others who have genuine beliefs. Tolerance does not mean agreement , acceptance or adoption, simply their right to have those beliefs and also their acceptance of others to have alternative beliefs. As long as there is not a force of wills to the detriment of society, true religions should be allowed to coexist.