NOW �for something completely different.

I keep questioning religion lately. It makes me feel weird to see people so passionate about their praise and what not. A long time ago, somebody wrote a book of stories, and a couple thousand years later, the people still believe every story to be true, no matter what the fantasy or how out of this world�

They call this book The Bible�

But why don�t many more people question this? Why don�t more turn around and say �Why am I believing all this, when the only reason I began believing in the first place was because somebody told me it was true?�

Am I supposed to just accept everything? Just believe because so many other people do? They can�t all be wasting their time! With any other subject my mother would tell me to do just the opposite. �If everybody else jumped off a bridge, would you too?�

Fear. Fear is in everybody. Fear runs our lives. The fear of being rejected by family, rejected by friends, rejected by society, and the fear of what? Going to hell? If I don�t believe, God will shun upon me, and send my gruesome soul strait to hell! Or then there�s the other fear� If I don�t believe�

Then what is there to believe?

"I�d rather believe something will happen to me when I die, then to try to comprehend what it would feel like if nothing did�"

There�s no verification of heaven or hell or angels or demons or even a God for that matter.

But, you see, there has to be something bigger in this world. That�s what life is all about� first you discover yourself, that you have legs, and fingers� then you discover the room around you� and then your house� and then that there are places beyond your house.

When you get a wee bit older, you discover the concept of your neighborhood, with your school and park and home and local grocery store. And school then teaches you about your city, then your state�. Then your country� then that there are other countries�

You begin to discover how really big the world around you is. That there are groups of people within groups of people within groups of people and so on. That the world is divided into seven huge continents, that you won�t even begin to be able to grasp until middle grades. The seven continents are on the planet, Earth, which revolves, with about dozen or so other planets, around a large star. There are more of these solar systems� in our galaxy� and more undiscovered galaxies in the universe. No matter how old and wise you get, it is impossible for a human to comprehend it all in relation to one�s self. You, the tiny little thing you are, and there�s more.

There�s something bigger. I don�t know what it is� but it�s gotta be there�

I would think "God" doesn�t expect everybody to be Christians or Catholics or Jews or Muslims or whatever. He would know humans made it up. Obviously, if this god is such a great guy, he knows that we clearly can�t know what is the right religion or what is bogus. If I were born Hindu (or something), would I be under the influence that "God" thought Christians were all going to hell? If I were born Jewish? You see there is no way to know�

I think no religion is true. There isn�t a way anybody could know how the world and the soul work. Religions are all made up and kept alive out of fear of it not being true, no matter what form it takes.

But I�m not afraid. I know if there is a hell I won�t be going to it, believer in Religion/god or not. My only fault is that of being human. Every human, at sometime in life, has questioned in their thoughts about their faith, but were too scared to ask, or didn�t even think about asking. ''Everybody else takes this to be true, and they can�t ALL be wasting their time�''

If you haven�t had second thoughts, which probably scared you, about your religion, then I feel sorry for you. It is our gift as humans to reason and ask questions. The constant search for truth� it�s the way we were created� and it is a very treasured gift. I won�t even get into repetitive thoughts about what the world would be like if humans weren�t like this.

All I believe in now, is that there is something bigger. It may not be a being, or a soul, or somebody looking after us, but whatever the bigger(not neccessarily in size), unknown thing is� I�ve named it "God".

Now you know - my "God" is completely different than yours. Mine might just be another science discovery taht won't happen for another century...But, if "God" is a being� then that something or someone might have it alllll figured out, (unlike the human race)�

Because God knows I don�t.