On Religious Differences

Religion fascinates me. That's one of the reasons I ended up majoring in Religious Studies in university (I double majored, English was my other one). Some people that were taking the program with me started to question their beliefs during their studies, but others just found them reaffirmed. For me, the courses I took allowed me to diversify my own beliefs and better understand those of others. It also taught me how to apply the teachings of others to my own practice. 

Christianity. Many pagans would cringe at the thought of sitting through a Christian service, and although I'm not clamouring to go to one, I wouldn't refuse if I had the opportunity. I find it very interesting what is "discussed" during these masses. The ones that I have had to sit through, I've been able to apply to my own beliefs very easily. Perhaps the churches I went to had progressive pastors, but even the talk of sin and sinning was able to be repopulated in my brain to suit my needs. It could also be the fact that I'm inherently critical of just about everything, so I tend to ask a lot of questions before I accept or believe something. I think that humanity as a whole should be more like this but I digress...

What I'm saying is that if you find yourself in a situation where you feel like you can't possibly have anything in common with what's being preached spiritually, think about it for a moment. Try replacing the words with vocabulary that suits your needs (gods/goddesses instead of God), or try taking the overarching theme or issue and see how it applies to what you do. This won't work in all cases, but I bet you'd be surprised at what you can make work. 

Take the idea of original sin, for example. I absolutely hate everything about this concept. You mean to tell me that baby that's been out of the womb for all of 12 hours is a sinner and needs to repent? Yeah right, buddy. Anyway, what I take from this concept is that there is inherent "good" and "bad" or light and darkness in all of us, and the world around us influences us as to how we develop these things. I don't think that anyone is inherently bad, but I do believe that everyone has the potential to be serial killer...it's just how you internalize the world around you that determines the likelihood of this happening. 

What spawned this particular "discussion" is that one of my co-workers is very religious. She was raised a Catholic, and although she's not as "rigid" as her parents, she still goes to church regularly and observes things like lent and ash wednesday. We have meaningful discussions from time to time, and I find that while we have two very different sets of belief systems, we are able to reconcile lots of stuff. She's actually one of the only people that I feel completely comfortable talking about my spirituality to, because I know she doesn't think I'm crazy. It's kind of funny that...