by Eileen Schmidt

Created on: September 22, 2009   Last Updated: September 27, 2009

There are so many different religions and belief systems and if you ask a person why they are Christian or Catholic or any other, they will most likely tell you that their religion is the only right one. I have asked this question many times, but I always follow with, "Why is it the only right one?" Not once have I received a clear and direct answer with proof that there can be no other, but an answer that makes so much sense to me yet little sense at all. The answer that most people have, which is that of following in what they were taught.

Most Christians are Christian and Catholics are Catholic and so on and so forth because that is what they were taught. People are taught not to question their faith. Most of us are taught to just know that what they are told is right. This goes on from generation to generation with people never even taking the time to know other religions. What is puzzling is that we are all taught, at some point, about the freedom to choose and freedom of speech and many run with that and learn from it, but still do not question the religion that has been bestowed upon them from their parents.

I have also been known to ask people how they can go through life without ever even learning another religion (not believing in it, but just learning about it). How can a person only go on what they have been told without finding what is right for them?

Maybe I became so open-minded because of a mother who lived a life with several faiths, yet no faith within herself. Each time she re-married, she chose to believe in what her husband believed in and chose to teach me that each one was the only right religion at that time. By the time I was eight, I started to seriously question what was right. What I was taught made no sense to me because it was all so different, yet very much the same and confused me quite a bit. I went on a quest to find out why people believed what they did and why each set had different views. I wanted to know why each set of beliefs were proclaimed to be the only right views. Not only did I investigate the basic religions, such as Catholicism and Christianity, but the scientific views on life as well. I have learned much and have claimed myself as Agnostic for most of my adult life. I do not wish to turn away any one religion (even if I think the views sound ridiculous), after all, people believe so strongly for a reason. However, I also cannot say that any faith is right, but what I have come to understand and believe, and

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