"God is love"
in my opinion, that quote is unbelievably true. the love we feel for ourselves, others, and the world around us is God. there is no better way to explain it. it took me a long time to fully realize this. when you feel happiness from volunteering, helping other people or just making someone else happy, that genuine happiness from doing something good, is God.
i don't really believe in organized religion. no one really knows what happened that long ago or how the earth was created. most people just choose to believe the first thing they're told. this is most likely due to the fact that most people believe in the religion that they do solely because that's the way they were raised. their parents were catholic, so they were raised catholic and raised their own kids the same way. they've just never been exposed to any other religion or been allowed to choose for themselves. so who are we to criticize another religion? just because we understand our religion better and were raised to believe it doesn't make it better than anyone else's.
and honestly? every religion has the same take home messages. you should love one another no matter what, forgive those who have hurt you, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism all have this as part of their core teachings, as does practically every other religion. all religions tell us to be the best person we can be and to love one another. i believe all religions are part of one big picture. when we show this love to our fellow human beings we are truly with god because god is love and therefore he is within every one of us.
i don't really believe in organized religion. no one really knows what happened that long ago or how the earth was created. most people just choose to believe the first thing they're told. this is most likely due to the fact that most people believe in the religion that they do solely because that's the way they were raised. their parents were catholic, so they were raised catholic and raised their own kids the same way. they've just never been exposed to any other religion or been allowed to choose for themselves. so who are we to criticize another religion? just because we understand our religion better and were raised to believe it doesn't make it better than anyone else's.
and honestly? every religion has the same take home messages. you should love one another no matter what, forgive those who have hurt you, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism all have this as part of their core teachings, as does practically every other religion. all religions tell us to be the best person we can be and to love one another. i believe all religions are part of one big picture. when we show this love to our fellow human beings we are truly with god because god is love and therefore he is within every one of us.
showing love to everyone around us leads to peace with each other and within ourselves. violence doesn't solve violence. have you ever noticed that? if someone is angry and violent, being violent in return just leads to more violence. showing compassion, love, and forgiveness towards violence is what leads to peace. anger is considered a sickness in some religions and when someone's sick would you ever consider treating them with anger and violence? no, you'd show them love and try to help them get better. no, i'm not saying that people shouldn't be "punished" for what they do out of anger and violence but an interesting point was brought up in a religious discussion: being in jail is about protection, not necessarily punishment. it's about protecting people that could be harmed because of the prisoner, and protecting the prisoner from himself.
my point is, i don't believe in organized religion. no two people believe the exact same thing about God or Jesus or what actually happened thousands of years ago but what we all know is that love is what makes people happy and what keeps us being good fellow human beings so if we all just realize this and embrace it, life could be more pleasant for everyone.
