22 of 52

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 2

spontaneously grow limbs from all those prayers?

So I have come to the conclusion that the spiritual and the material world do not interact. Since I was brought up to believe in the spiritual, I still believe in it. But the notion that God wants babies born retarded or Buddhist monks to be tortured by tyrannical governments is way too odd for me. Again, if all of this is some passion play to teach us a lesson it looks more like something out of that Saw sadist series than some holy writ.

I once heard a rather stern fundamentalist state that anyone who said he talked to God was actually talking to devil and that that the Catholic Church had succumbed to dark forces. Actually that was pretty much my turning point on steering clear on dogmatists, when I heard one of them saying that all Catholics were going to hell.
I am not Catholic but I can't buy that kind of absolutist theology. There are folks who pretty much come out and say that you must dot every "i" and cross every "t" in a certain way or you will go to hell. Again, why would a sane God create a world were billions of souls were doomed to go to hell because of an accident of birth. They happened to have been born into the wrong religion and in the wrong country. If you listen carefully to the dogmatists you will hear them say the Almighty is trying to make us more like Him. And that not being like Him is called sin and must be punished. So the only thing God can stand to be around is clones of Himself.
Again, if a man did this we would find him peculiar. What is divine about this? Why is it that for religious extremists God has all the worst characteristics of man?

My beliefs are now more similar to those expressed in books like "A New Earth" or "The Secret" and even "A Purpose Driven life."
My own spiritual changes are still not fully translatable. My girlfriend seems to have fewer problems with my beliefs but she stills goes off in directions that I can not follow. For instance, I tend believe that we can have happier and fuller lives by thinking positive and giving of ourselves. You get a blessing by being a blessing. She seems to think this means that God is a kind of cosmic Santa Claus or a Genii who grants wishes if you pray enough. That's not quite what I meant

Learn more about this author, Michael Skinner.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2

Add your voice

Know something about Memoirs: My spiritual journey and my relationship?
We want to hear your view. Write now!