A New Understanding

I have been thinking a lot about how religion gives some people hope who've had none. How it can give people perspective, make them feel loved and a part of something. In one respect, I can see how religion can help bring people out of a dark place, be it addiction, self harm, etc. On the other hand, the thing that appears to be one thing often ends up to be a bait and switch and religion is no different. What if that thing that gives you hope is at its core, disingenuous? It happens to well meaning, good hearted people all the time! Look at MAGA as an example. Otherwise good, well meaning and largely Christian individuals were sucked into a narrative and the need to belong outweighed any downside until it became a cult. 

As someone who grew up a believer and who is now an agnostic atheist, I am open to new ways of seeing the world and I am coming to the realization that, at least for me, it had been my faith holding me back all along. 

As I was driving to work this morning I had an epiphany. 

Letting go of faith and religion and all the baggage that comes with it is giving me a whole new perspective on life, the earth, human relationships and love. Here are some things that ran through my head this morning on this wavelength:

• The planet is not disposable nor is it fallen or evil by default.
• I had been taught through my religion that the earth is a fallen, evil place and it is nothing more than a temporary stay. We should NOT fall in love with the earth; we should rebuke it. We shouldn't appreciate the planet, but instead thank God for any shred of beauty we find. Any beauty is a gift for us, from God. 
• That actually sent my brain on a tangent thinking about how the first rainbow was supposedly the sign from God and promise that he would never flood the earth again. What a guy! Also, that's not how rainbows work. It's light refracted through water, so anytime it rains and is sunny there is a rainbow. God doesn't send us rainbows; they occur naturally. 
• What I noticed is that since I stopped attributing everything to a God and just started appreciating things for what they are, I take more joy in them. I noticed that once I stopped looking at everything through the God lens, the planet is an amazing home and we are fortunate to have it. I also have started to have a better understanding of why being a steward to it is important. It is hard to consider the future of the planet when you are constantly assuming the end of the world is right around the corner. 
• Time actually DOES matter, but there is still no reason to fear death.
• I had been led to believe that this life was something merely to endure before accepting the reward of eternal life after death. I had been taught that suffering was part of God's will and that it was all worth it when the journey of this life ends and the afterlife begins. I had been taught that we should fear death for those people who do not know Christ because we knew what it ultimately meant for their eternity and it was important to show them the way so that they too can live in heaven one day.
• I realized this morning that we DO only have the time we have on this planet. We don't know what happens after we die, but the chances that we simply cease to exist is the likeliest of the known possibilities at this point. I feel like a physical heaven and/or hell are the least likely. 
• This isn't a lesson in YOLO where you go all ape shit and be a douchebag. This is more of an understanding that tells me THIS IS what we have and at the end of the day we humans have each other and this planet and our destiny is to care for one another and for our home, for future generations. It is important that we become wise contributors for when we are the ancestors. 
• God is not love, people are.
• I am seeing that all we have on this planet is each other. That's it! As a species we are amazing, in what we can accomplish through working together and looking at the things we have overcome is astounding. 
• All of the love and empathy we have is within us. We experience it and exercise it independently regardless of whether or not we are religious. In fact, a person's ability to show empathy has nothing to do with their religious affiliation and has more to do with personality and upbringing. There are extremely loving and empathetic atheists and likewise there are arrogant and selfish Christians. Love does not come from the Bible, it comes from within. 
• When you remove the God filter and instead of running everything through that filter first, just take a person's heart and intentions at face value, you can see that love is independent from anything and just exists as a human phenomenon. 
• Allowing yourself to love and to experience close bonds with other people without the God baggage being in the way, things feel far more genuine. 

And that's what ran through my brain on the seven mile drive in to work this morning.