Star.Maker

I have decided to move my blog over to Blogger. Call me what you will, but I am finding Blogger more appealing at the moment. So for current art blog posts, please go here.

Thanks for reading.

I have been reading quite a few articles about the clashing b/w science and religion. There is this new crop of atheism called "The New Atheists" which are basically as hardcore as fundamental Christians (or any extreme religious sect) in regards to spreading their message around.

People who are atheists and people who are religious in and of themselves do not bother me. I respect anyone's religious (or lack there of) beliefs, and I can see both sides of an argument easily. I demand respect and understanding from anyone I engage in a religious/political discussion because without that, it's yet another patheticly heated argument that leads to ignorance and stupidity, two things that I passionately detest.

To get to my point faster, these articles I have been reading, as well as talking to my diverse group of friends, have gotten me thinking, what is it that I exactly believe? I was raised Catholic, and inadvertently or not, much of what I learned my first 15 years has influenced much of my thinking. I consider myself a lapsed Catholic now, mostly because I disagree with much of the bureaucracy that goes on in most organized religions. I think their intentions were good (to promote community, good morals, and heightened spirituality), but it has been corrupted to something warped and unrecognizable. Although I cannot complain about my parish and my 9 years of school there. There were very understanding and taught us well, at least in my case. We were taught evolution and it was not discarded or mocked or considered secondary to creationism. So this is were my confusion sets in. I have absorbed many new ideas and things as I entered public high school and most recently art school and the real world. So my ideas and beliefs are a mish-mosh of everything I have experienced and learned up to this point.

So this is it: I do believe in God. I believe evolution and natural selection is how the world and the universe came to be. I believe the Bible was written as a guide in order to understand the world, using metaphor and parables, and not to be taken as a literal account. I believe Jesus was a revolutionary, in the league of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Whether or not he is the son of God is irrelevent to me. He was a great teacher and showed that much could be done without straying into violence and the chaos it insues (passive resistance and civil disobedience). I believe if everyone just treats others as they themselves want to be treated, the world would be a better place.

Now, I might be contradicting myself, simultaneously believing in what some consider a relic from the Bronze age, but in my mind it is possible. God for me is a concept, of goodness and love, someone who helps you during the rough patches of your life, much like family and friends do. I see God more as a spiritual guide to become a better person than who I already am. God may or may not have been the Creator, but again, that is irrelevent to me.

My true friends will not judge me, as I do not judge them, and accept what I believe without trying to tell me otherwise. The point of the matter is nothing will be accomplished taking religious matters so seriously. Everyone is entitled to their own ideas and beliefs, and others shouldn't be forcing anything down your throat. We should all accept our differences and keep truckin'.

I plan on writing an essay about this. Once I get it down, I will post a link. This is all fascinating to me.