I would like to talk about faith. I do not care if you have faith in Christianity, Buddhism, Tao, Hinduism, Wicca or whatever as long a it provides a positive outlet for you and it does not cause harm. Many of my friends claim a faith of one kind or another and I am very happy for them because it seem to give them comfort during difficult times and is calming from the day to day. Here is my difficulty--- I do not have a faith, at least in an organized religion kind of way. I am an older woman who was raised in the Catholic faith and never (not once) during that up-bringing did I feel faith. I have come to the conclusion that faith is not a "fake it until you make it" experience. You either have it or you don't. I cannot have this discussion without making my faith believing friends TOTALLY uncomfortable. My lack of believe in an organized religion really bothers them....I have often wondered why.... My outward observation is that my statement scares them or they take my expression of lacking a faith as a challenge to their belief. Worse case scendario is they try to convert me, try to scare me about going to hell or that I am "of the devil." I recognize that we are all alone in our own skins-- as much as we hate that idea, it is the truth. I cannot truly understand anybody elses experience because they are locked away just as I am within my own body. For this fact alone, I respect someone elses experience. I wish someone could respect mine....... So, when faith is brought up in everyday situations....someone gets over a grave illness or something monumental happens for someone, everyone is giving praise to their diety of choice and I try to simply express my appreciation for the goodness of some event. All cool by me, but it does put up a block for someone getting to know me deeply-- I feel like I have to hide this fact from others, which is not cool. So, I am wondering how many others out there have thad similar thoughts on this...
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