Sigh, dunno why but i'm in some kind of limbo at the moment. Don't feel like studying, don't feel like exercising, not really in contact with the outside world, and shopping and computer games don't seem all THAT fun somehow. Like, even after the A levels, the freedom'll be no big deal. Let's hope that changes...
Hmm, was lazing around last night when i suddenly decided to pick up Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and read it. Read it before so just flipped through it this time. It got me thinkin about Christianity and religion again..
Personally, i believe a lot of the Da Vinci Code is true. Not the crap about the Priory or the keystone, which aren't really proven, but about the beginnings of Christianity. Yup, i suppose some of you out there can go call me a blasphemer right now...
I noticed, however, that what Dan Brown had mainly done was disprove the evidence the Church had put forward to claim it was correct about God and Jesus. He didn't try to prove Christianity was really wrong; it was their reasons for claiming otherwise that he attacked. That got me thinking. The Church might have scrambled to gather their supporters and deny Dan Brown, but so what if he's correct? So what if something like the Dead Sea Scrolls pop up again and counters the claims that Jesus Christ was in any way divine? Perhaps the Church won't be able to say with the same conviction that they are the sole vessel with which people can reach heaven, but that doesn't make them any more wrong than the rest of us.
Personally, i believe that no one really knows much about the spiritual world, and about God. Not me, not you, not the Pope, no one. But it doesn't mean people don't have the right to believe what they want. In that spirit, i don't think Christians should be worried that they might be wrong, because even if they "run away" from Christ, there'd be nowhere to run to. Heck, they may be more right than the rest of us.Religion should be a personal thing and not governed by lies and people claiming that they know the real truth. A Christian who truly understands religion would know that there is a chance he and his pastors are dead wrong, but that doesn't mean he can't continue believing in Christianity and what his pastors and parents taught him. A person who changes religion constantly based on who seems more correct isn't someone who is truly religious; that guy just wants to get to heaven.
It's truly a pity how religion has degraded from simply personal beliefs to organisations that are a huge political force. (eg. Bush's insistence on barring gay marriages) Picking certain beliefs and wisdoms from different religions and from your own personal experiences and logic, and then forming your own "religion" from there, is a concept that people don't even consider nowadays. Spiritual beliefs have now been seriously catergorised. Those who care about the spiritual world and weren't born into a religion seem to want to rush into organisations like the Church, who insist you must believe and follow everything they tell you. It's as if you have to join a religion to HAVE a religion. Religion's not just a belief anymore; it's an identity. People don't say: "I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God." They say: "I'm an evangelist Christian and i go to So-and-so Church."
Take Buddhism for example. Siddharta Gautama believed that people should not worship wooden idols, or any type of figurines for that matter. In fact, he didn't really intend for Buddhism to become a religion; it was just a way of life that he wished to impart onto others. But thanks to a fusion of Buddhism with Chinese and dunno-what-other beliefs, almost all Buddhists in S'pore seem to worship idols. But i think, despite all this, people shouldn't abandon their Taoist-Buddhist (let's call it that for want of any other word) beliefs and go become "true Buddhists". Because, then, they'd become too concerned about the name, that they aren't true Buddhists. What's more important are the beliefs that they've held dear for so long. A religous person who truly believes will not throw his beliefs aside just because of one man's opinion.
Hmm well, i guess i've really written a lot...not sure if people can bother to read for so long. I realise i've sidetracked a lot every now and then, which makes all of this pretty confusing, so if you understand all of it, or at least tried to, then that's good. I thank you for your efforts regardless. Also, please don't get angry if i've offended you somehow. I'm just a seventeen year old boy, turning on eighteen. I don't know much about the world. Tell me what you think, and enlighten me if you will. I'll be glad to hear your views...just as long as they arent rude ones.
