Thought i would tackle this coz of something that's happened in the past few hours.
I awoke to my dad saying that we're all going to mass.
How nice of him to just demand it.
So i told him everyone else can go but i don't want to and he said we're all going and that's that.
Sorry. I'm afraid you can't force me to go somewhere i don't want to go and you really can't physically take me.
So he got all angry and i said to mum i didn't want to go and she was fine with that, she said i can do some study instead (which i will do after this post)
And with that mum jokingly said, "Ok we're away to pray"
And dad said, seriously "For your soul"
=)
How nice of them!
Anyway the point of this was to talk about Catholicism and i will.
I was born and raised Catholic. I was baptised, went to Confession, made my First Holy Communion and all that.
But in recent years religion has just not interested me at all, in fact i'll go as far to say it's pointless.
And yes, this also ties in with me realising i was gay in the past few years.
It's condemned by Roman Catholics and i don't want to follow a religion where i can't be accepted.
If they don't want to accept me, why should i accept them?
The truth is i don't think i should.
And don't get me started on the Bible lol.
We had an assignment in RE the other day and we had to read the first chapter of Genesis (creation of the world)
And i was reading it thinking, "What drugs was the author of this on!?"
I know there is no real author but stuff like, God breathed life-giving breath into Adam's nose.....
That sounds like it came straght out of any old fairytale story.
....and the river Pishon lol
Steven had a laugh at that.
And of course, we were talking about the Bible and he said, "At least they got one thing right"
You know what he was talking about.
Blah, blah homosexuality is wrong etc etc.
So then i took this as the perfect time to introduce my adultery remark.
"The Bible also says adultery is wrong"
He stammered with a blank expression and defeatedly said, "Well, come on, we've got to agree to disagree here"
Pah. 1-0 to Rowan!
Haha.
But then the girl next to me, she's nice and easy to get along with, said, "Why have you got such a big problem with homosexuality?" to Steven and he just replied it's coz of the way he was raised.
She asked me what i thought, and without giving too much away i just said i don't see a problem with it, why should there be a problem?
Steven just gave me another blank look and went onto tell us about a certain family relation of his.
His cousin.
He is gay.
How about that!
That's karma. He hates gay people but his cousin is gay.
"No cousin of mine" Steven said.
And he told us a saddening story about his gran telling this cousin to burn in hell when she was on her deathbed.
Wow.
That's rather extreme.
Drifting away from Catholism now but thought that little bit might be of interest.
So, as i write this, everyone else is away in church "praying for my soul"
I remember the last time i went to church and i started laughing, really loudly when people started singing hymns.
100+ people droning away to meaningless words on a page, while the priest stands up the front in his funny white robe thing, watching.
Standing there it seemed like some sort of cult.
I just thought it was funny.
Does it sound like i'm putting Christianity down here?
It probably does but i'm not meaning to, be Christian if you want, i just choose not to be.
In reality, i consider myself Agnostic.
I won't go into it but if you're really interested then Wikipedia knows all :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism
Existence of God is a deep and interesting topic as well, maybe too much for now, but it's something else i find myself questioning alot and Agnosticism sort of covers this as well, so i refer to Wikipedia again.
I better call that a wrap.
I'll need to get started on some work before everyone comes back from their cult =P
KO.
But lastly, this is what i thought when mum said i didn't have to go this morning.
Just to say, i'm sure my family all believe i'm Catholic, although it has never been put forward to me by them.
It would be my dad if anyone that would ask.
But this is what i thought :
If my dad would be annoyed with me for not going to Church/following Catholism,
I wonder what his reaction would be if he found out i was gay.....
:-O
Cheers,
Rowan
juiceboys *2524
1 week ago
Well Rowan you are a man after my own heart - the only thing that never occurred to me at the time I decided I was agnostic was the gay issue, so that just gives me one more reason to justify my decision.
ReplyDeleteReligion as a whole has a real lot to answer for down the ages. My own personal thought is if you live life as a good person you are way better than a bad or evil person that goes to church and thinks that that makes every thing all right - if there is a god he surely can see through all the bullshit.
Regards Stef.
I certainly know how you feel. To be honest, I'm not one for organised religion either, though I was raised, pretty loosely, as Anglican. I just can't get any form of group that preaches tolerance, love and acceptance, on one hand, then hatred and bigotry on the other. I just don't see the point of it all.
ReplyDeleteOctavius.
hey man, i know its my first time commenting but i have been following. i personally agree with most of what your saying. i too was raised Catholic, and even got confirmed. i now am atheist. i do have to be the devils advocate though (not a pun...)
ReplyDelete(i have studied religion a lot, and although i am only 15, i know what i am talking about, even though im not religious)
well Catholics do NOT hate gays. they simply look upon gay as they look upon people who sin, which is everyone but Jesus and Marry. now people in the religion may have there own personal opinions.
and about the bible. the whole old testament (which genesis is in) is NOT to be taken literally. it is supposed to convey a bigger message such as creation or original sin. the church its self agrees that that is probably not how the world was made, and i say probably because sense God is absolute and can do anything, catholics can not say anything is impossible.
i am in no way trying to push Catholicism on you, just letting u know a little more about the religion. if you have any more questions, or just want to argue or talk, email me at laxwax89@yahoo.com
rowen hell of a topic
ReplyDeletetry and make this post less
complicated as it was mum and dad had been together since 1970 next year would be 40 years.
anyway mum Irish dad English from liverpool :} anyway both my grandparents were a bit strict
Catholics anyway mum gets pregnant 13 has baby sister emma both fell out with my grandparents
because they brought shame to family.
i came 5 years later would see my gran and grandad dads side often but mum s side wanted nothing to do with us ever.
anyway i found out years later her dads brother had raped a 15 year old girl and he
was accepted into the family mum had sead it was coz no baby came from it . selfish or what
anyway rowen theirs a shit load i could also mention other stuff but gets bit heavy and upsetting to be honest .
i came out to mum and dad at 16 knew dad would be ok but mum never mentioned it to her family but i told them just after mum and dad had gone . suppose what am saying is a believe in god but what it stands for is is bollocks
take care mate DRU
Good post! I'm glad you had the strength to say no to mass and spent the time doing something useful. Like blogging.
ReplyDeleteIt was the problem of evil caused me to reject Christianity. How could an all-loving all-powerful god make me a homosexual, if being a homosexual was bad? Not to mention all the other suffering He causes.
Good luck with your father. That's going to be tough. Hopefully your mum eventually brings him around. That, and you being the wonderful person you are.
You hit the nail on the head, Rowan, but religion isn't pointless.
ReplyDeleteReligion is power. And it's a con, the best con ever perpetrated,
It works like this. Ignorant people - and the world was full of them until the 20th century - asked questions like "Where did we come from?" and "What happens when we die?" and "What's the point of life?" and "We're powerless, will the suffering ever end?".
Some smart guy, way back when, came up with answers to these questions, saying we had to have faith in his answers or else we'd burn in hell. For the suffering he gave them Hope. What is Hope? It is what you have left after you have lost all control in your life.
So the people went along with it and felt much better and prayed, sang hymns, had parties like Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas (funny time of year for shepherds to be in the fields). In fact life in the village centred around the religion, so if you complained, you were ostracised and were cut off from everything in the village.
Example. Disaster in Haiti, people are praying for his help. Couldn't he have prevented it in the first place? If he decided not to, no amount of praying is going to change his mind.
Question. Have you noticed that how the right religion is the one your parents have? Very few people go out to find another religion. Reason: so they won't be ostracised (see above).
Thanks for that opportunity, Rowan, and congrats on standing up for your beliefs.
R.jimlad
Ok, so this is a sensitive one. It's easy to mock, and at your age I did. Or maybe I didn't. Lots of my mates got confirmed, for a present, or to please their parents.
ReplyDeleteI have gradually come back to a faith, but don't see it in much religion. So much is trimmings, but in our set up, Christianity, Jesus never mentioned homosexuality. And don't tell me we didn't have gays then, they did in Greece, just a short distance away…
He preached that we should love one another. And love God. Both are tricky, an ideal. God created us, so we need to love ourselves to love God.
In time this may seem important, it may not. He also said don't condemn unless you are without sin, and as no one was they couldn't. In light of my comment on Mrs Robinson this may show my failings. Hey!
You sound like you are on the right path, but look out for Steven, he obviously has a big problem to confront at some stage, fear is hard thing to live with, and it will catch up with him.
Love is the important thing. As a very old man once said, don't forget God loves us not equally but infinitely, and that is a lot of love.
Hope that is not too heavy?
love,
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