How can they all be wrong?
Watching a Sikh parade, made me think.
I stood and watched hundreds if not thousands of people parading the streets with their friends and families, smiling, dancing and laughing. It made me think.
If was born in another part of the world, I would have believed something else entirely. I wouldn’t have heard about other faiths, just the one my family believed. But brought up where I was, in conservative England, I had been taught my whole life that there was only one faith, naturally, the one I was brought up in. All the others were wrong. Worse than that, they would be condemned for all of eternity for believing what they did. Why? What kind of deity would do that?
It made me think – How could they all be wrong? Are they wrong? Who says they are wrong and I’m right? How could the millions of people living in another country be so wrong about eternity? Were they?
So I started examining the roots of my own faith and found it to be completely flawed. Not only were the basic day to day vital routines (like prayer) utterly ineffectual, but my life had not improved for the better, as I had been promised. Over forty years of devotion had led me absolutely nowhere.
I’m not writing this to condemn anyone or their beliefs. If they bring you comfort, that’s fine. But I would challenge you to examine the roots of what you believe. Take a step away, and ask the hard questions.
Imagine that the book you read had been written by a human. What would their incentive be? How does that change the context of rules and judgements?
Then look at the history. How was it written? Does science hold up what you believe, or is your answer to everything “because the book says so”?
Leaving my faith was incredibly hard to do. At first, it was the realisation that it was a volunteer organisation and I didn’t have to attend every Sunday. I was free! And then, after deconstructing, I found that I had to answer a lot of questions that had been filled in with spiritual Polyfilla. Ceasing attendance was easy – realising that the last forty years of my life had been for nothing was shocking.
But now, I’m determined to live the rest of my life to the fullest. I’m no longer surrendering my reasoning to something or someone who is beyond reason. I’m making the decisions myself, and living life.
I’m living the life I was promised. But on my terms.