Saturday, July 31, 2010

To My Religious Friends

Do not pity me, do not feel sorry for me. I have chosen my path by my own free will. I am not lost, so there is no need for me to be found. My life is not empty. I know who I am and I know my purpose. I love, I am loved, and I strive every day to make sure I leave this world in better condition than I found it. My world is not dark and it is not cold. I see beauty and divinity in the world around me, and it is in no way less meaningful than your world ruled by a deity. My divine is love and nature, physics and chemistry and respect. I can respect you without agreeing and love you without believing that my love was directed by a higher power. Disagreement is not mocking, but instead is a quest for mutual understanding. I have no reason to mock you and it is hurtful when you proclaim how sorry you are for me.

Have you ever tried to see the universe from a different perspective, maybe one you were not taught through tradition? I can see your point of view because I explored it in my initial wandering. I do not wander anymore. I now understand my place in the universe, and it is right here where I am. I may be small, but I am not insignificant. I can touch the lives of others, and my small caress can ripple through humanity in a subtle wave. I do not need to make the world mine, I just need to make my own world matter. I need to make it matter for my son, my husband, my friends, and my family.

I am not lacking for anything intangible, so do not pity my lack of belief. I have hope, but it is centered around humanity instead of the vague promise of reward based on faith. I see hope and wonder in the eyes of my child and I know he is something special and unique, as is every child in the world. I have not squandered the concept of a soul, for all my soul is is my individuality. I am not like any other even though we are all fundamentally the same, and that spark of uniqueness is my soul. I have morals, and I try to live my life as well as possible because I am living for this life and this life alone. I am living my way so my progeny can thrive in a safe and clean world. I am not selfish. I have sacrificed an incredible amount for other people, so do not trivialize my achievements just because they were not accomplished under the banner of a belief. I try to always be honest, even if the truth isn't always what people want to hear. The truth is deserved by all and it is told out of love and not fear.

Do not pity me, my friend, for I do not live in fear. I lost my fear when I found myself. I found intense love for humanity, respect for the universe and everything in it, virtue in rationality, and innate values which embrace the best of all religions. I respect you as an individual, so please respect me. If you feel you must pray for me, go ahead, but I do not need it and it honestly makes me a bit uncomfortable if you tell me outright that you are. A kind word and a kind thought will suffice, and I will reciprocate the same to you. Work toward your own peace as I work toward mine. Embrace me because I am different from you, since it would be a boring world if we were all the same.

13 comments:

  1. Amen on the humanism!;) The meta-existential question is truly all so much self-gratifying self-righteous blather: who can rationalize away more 'rightness'? Whose linguistics are better? whose worse? It's all arbitrary man-made tribalism.

    To those who just let their own Satori understanding be their guide, the clarity of our position in the universe, asaccidental masters of momentary stories- merely mortal gods forming realities around the circumstantial moment of our lives- Existence is in and of itself incredibly compelling. The wonderful dynamic of cooperation - that working for others' glory is infinitely more rewarding than your own, coupled by at least what I've found to be truly interesting, compelling, driven, peers as individuals has made me utterly and truly gracious to be alive here and now.

    Religious pity reflects _nothing_ but deep-rooted insecurity - those who feel that others are nothing without their God, themselves feel nothing without their God. That's sad, not admirable.

    I have no idea who you are, but I just linked over from reddit and you have a new reader. Thanks1

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  2. Wow.

    Very poignant and a very powerful post.

    I hope your spark of light lives on long after you have passed from this world.

    ~ Josh

    P.S. You have a new reader in me haha =)

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  3. thank you for saying what so many people don't have words, inspiration, or heart to say themselves, yet are all thinking.

    <3

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  4. Beautifully written essay. I would love to have your permission to repost on my friend's blog at meaningtotellyou.com (or you can just go there directly if you prefer). Thanks!

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  5. Nothing to say other than you took the words from within me. Beautifully put, well said, honestly written - I dig it. Good to know that there are people out there who feel the same as me!

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  6. Thank you all and I have to say I'm in a bit of shock right now. It is amazing how one person reposting something I wrote months ago brought 7000 people to my blog within a couple of hours. I'm still trying to process it. I'm a rather inconsistent poster to my own blog, but between my 13 month old, my craft projects, and working on my books, I haven't had a whole lot of time to write worthwhile posts. I'd rather my writing be inspired and sporadic than mundane, so it works for me.

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  7. I'm all right with it being reposted. That's how you found it in the first place. I'm not sure who the person was who posted on reddit, but I'm amazed that one stranger's link brought so much traffic.

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  8. Page bookmarked. I'mpretty sure I'll be using this in the future...

    Awesome piece of work!

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  9. Hi here, I am who linked this excellent words in Reddit. =)
    Here is the original link:
    http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/f6l1o/to_my_religious_friends/
    I saw your post in babycenter.com and I liked so much that I thought it would be nice to share it at Reddit. But I linked to your blog to give you the credit for this great words.

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