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Beliefs

(My problems with religion and atheism:
A personal perspective)

Evolution vs. Creationism has become a trendy topic of debate nowadays. I grew up in Mexico and evolution was taught at schools and nobody had any problem about it. Academic education and religion were completely separate areas which (unless you were part of a catholic school or religious institution) were never mixed.

I always thought that to be a universal standard, but based on all the recent controversy that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

I am not going to mention the differences between one and the other (there's already plenty of information about those topics on the web). I just want to give my personal opinion on the attitude I see from people standing on both radical sides.

RELIGION:

One of my Mom's many studies was theology. She dedicated many years of her life to research in this area and, throughout our lives, my parents befriended a lot of priests. Most of them were exceptionally brilliant individuals with high ranking positions in the church (in Mexico).

I learned a lot from these priests and I am grateful that they shared some of their knowledge with me. At the same time, I was never afraid to engage in a debate whenever I thought I had a reasonable argument.

I believe in God. And I believe that when you die, something survives. That "something" is still unclear to me, but there is a lot of evidence that this is indeed, in my personal opinion, a fact.

One of the things that bother me greatly is that, when someone dies, you have all these people gathered around saying that the person is in a better place.

How do they know that exactly? (Aside of their blind and unquestionable faith) I know that the bible says a lot of things, but, at the same time, the information provided is very generic and many times symbolic. They explain point A and point B but nothing about the process in between.

Let me give you an example: The months following my father's death, I had a series of different dreams. As I explained in my previous articles, I constantly have lucid dreams. I feel I become fully aware, as if waking up inside of my dreams. It is during those brief moments that I feel I have control over what I say or do. But this awareness is not something that I have control over. It happens at random and usually in the middle of my dreams.

In one of my dreams, I was sitting outside with my Dad. We were talking about something that I cannot remember. All of the sudden, I became fully aware that I was dreaming. At that point, I turned around and asked my Dad: "Are you OK?" And he immediately stopped talking to me. At that point he is not even looking at me. I continued asking him the same question over and over and he just ignored me.

I had the same dream with my Dad in different places and as soon as I became aware and changed the topic to my "are you OK?" question, the results were always the same: silence. Conversation was over.

But one day, which was the last time I had those patterns of dreams, I dreamt that I was in my house. I opened the door and my Dad was there. Then, I became aware that I was dreaming and, as usual, I started asking him the same question: Are you OK?

He then looked at me and said: "Why do you ALWAYS ask me the same question? I am OK but I could be better."

He then proceeded to explain that there were 12 levels that he had to go thru. He said he was in something like level 4. He told me the names of every level and what I did was to repeat those names back, trying to make sure that I could remember them once I wake up. Needless to say, I woke up and couldn't remember any of those names.

I consider my dreams just that: "dreams with very special personal content" ... period. But I can't help but wonder. What if ... what if when a person dies, not everything is love and light? What if they still have to go through a process? What if everything is different to what we all think? I would like for people to consider the possibilities.

Hard core religious people are very reluctant to accept the idea of paranormal manifestations of people that are no longer in this physical state with us. However, if they believe in eternal life, and considering the idea that not everything is from point A to point B, I see no conflict or contradictions of this to be integrated in their believe system.

A few months ago I made the mistake of renting a movie without taking the time to read the synopsis. The movie was called "Unidentified." The content was beyond the point of absurdity (to say the least) from beginning to end. It showed how sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects were related to the Devil from a Christian point of view. "Repent and pray to make those evil sightings to away!"

It's kind of scary for me to think in the idea that people with such a regrettable line of thinking are out there. Religion doesn't posses all the answers and I personally think that the bible is highly symbolic in its content (one of them being the Genesis book). It wouldn't hurt for them to be more flexible and open-minded on what science has to offer about evolution based on their findings.

I think the church should learn from their atrocities committed in the past. Critical thinking is part of human nature and the world doesn't need to see more of their intolerance towards knowledge and people who think outsidethe box.

ATHEISM:

On the other hand, we have the other side of the coin: Atheists. Some of them are scientists and some of them are not. Although this doesn't apply to all, I have found a very particular characteristic among some of them. They love to attack people that dare to differ from their belief system, which is something I find odd and highly immature.

A well-known scientist that sometimes can be seen on the Science Channel posted on his Twitter account something that (according to the family member that replied to me) was a "jibe" and not an attack to creationists (as I thought). Since he is a public personality in the world of science, I was baffled and disappointed. I always expect a more intelligent attitude when it comes to professionals of that magnitude. But I tend to forget that they are also simple human beings with a lot more flaws than most people I know.

I have also seen how other people call themselves "critical thinkers" by being 100% skeptical towards everything related to religion as well as the paranormal and UFO sightings. They usually state their reasons in an aggressive manner by trying to ridicule other people.

I consider myself a critical thinker and believe in objective skepticism. Personally, I don't believe that the planet is 6,000 years old however, in no way I feel the need to disrespect people that believe this to be truth.

Science gives us a better understanding of nature and how things work. However, this knowledge is always limited to its time. This is something that scientists have a hard time accepting. Ego ends up taking over and, even if they know that science doesn't have all the answers, they prefer to obsessively criticize people instead of assuming a more professional position.

CONCLUSION:

History shows the many mistakes that science and religion have done throughout time. And the one thing that both sides show in common is that, at any given point in time, they always think they hold the absolute truth! Both sides are close minded, highly intolerant and won't even consider anything different to their belief system.

I was reading an interesting article the other day and this caught my attention:

"The two kinds people who believe that religion and evolution can not coexist are extreme atheists and extreme religious fundamentalists. Everyone else doesn't really have a problem. [A majority] of Americans believe that a†belief in god†is compatible with evolution."

In the end, both radical positions end up having more things in common than what they think.


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