Happenings, and then some drawn out musings about religion

Well I don't have anything worth saying right now, but since when has that stopped me? I sometimes wish I had pictures to post because then my blog would be interesting like everyone else that has pictures to post and have interesting blogs. But I guess I'll have to make do with words.

In recent news, a hurricane blew into houston and my parents, younger sister, older sister and her family all decided to chill with us over here for a week. Rosie and Ricky took my room and my computer, so I've been sleeping on the couch and writing this post currently on Jamie's computer. But I don't really mind, I figure a while away from the computer is probably a good thing.
I finally got some new wheels for my car, it's had some bent rims for a while, still need to get them put on the car though, wal-mart won't put my old tires on new rims, they'll only put brand new ones on, but they don't sell tires in my car's size. They basically told me that they couldn't help me. It's rare but this is proof that Wal-Mart is not ALWAYS your one stop shop. (Take note of my use of the word "Always" being that it is the Wal-Mart slogan.)

It's amazing how quickly you can start seeing the world from a non-religious standpoint. It can be quite liberating to stop wondering all the time whether what you are thinking, believing, watching, reading, listening to, or playing, is "out of it" and just do something because it makes you happy. I guess some religions would argue that most things that make you happy are bad for you or something crazy like that. They would probably use parellels like candy being really tasty but really bad for you. Of course to that I would say that anything in excess is bad for you. But nevertheless, whether something is bad for me or not, life is so much less stressfull when you can just say "maybe so, but even if it is I'm willing to take that risk".
I don't think I could ever again be in a group or organization that tells me what to believe. Now you family members reading this don't think I'm trying to say that the familiy is a controlling organization that tells it's members what to believe. I'm simply saying that about all organized religion, it doesn't matter what church, what religion, what group, they've all got their own rules and regulations, their own beliefs, and really there is not much room for personal expansion and accomodation.
Perhaps you don't believe everything that you're required to, does that make you wrong? I think if given the chance to express their individual beliefs freely, without running the risk of discrimination both minor and major, very few people would have exactly the same beliefs about anything. Which leads me to believe that organized religion, or any group that demands that people believe exactly the same things, is fundamentally flawed.

Now lets just call a spade a spade here. Anyone who reads this knows that most of my references are going to be towards the family. And rightfully so as it was the organization I was involved with. That being said don't be offended or take it personally if I seem to be specifically targeting the family, most of what I will say about the family goes just as much for other religions but as the family is the one I have experience with it is the one that I'm going to be referring to.
(However the fact that I'm not capitalizing the family's name is done out of pure spite!! :P)

Now a lot of people are probably going to ask "Is it any better now? Now you aren't sure what to believe. Isn't it better to believe in something and be wrong than to believe in nothing?".
To which of course I would answer yes, it is I agree with that. But a person can believe in a great many things. A person can believe in ideals, moral values, ethics, and be a good samaritan, but not believe in Jesus. Is he so wrong?
The way I see it, a good person is a good person. There is no religious criteria for being a good person. Most of the founders of the greatest religions in the world realized this. Most educated people in these same religions realize this. Unfortuantely many of the masses do not. Many of the masses are led to believe that their twist on religion is correct and anyone who believes otherwise, while perhaps remaining a good person, will be just ever so slightly behind on the spiritual totem pole.
Not only do I see this as lacking any substantial evidence, but ignorant as well as contrary to the teachings of most founders of religious organizations.

As for whether or not I still consider myself a christian, still believe in Jesus, that remains to be seen, but what I'm trying to point out here is that Jesus never started a church....Peter did that.
John the baptist could well have started a religion (Christianity) but instead chose to wander in the wilderness baptizing and preparing the way for Christ. Most great men did not get to where they were but following the masses, by involving themselves with groups and organizations.
Most of the great christian missionaries of the 19th century had to branch out on their own, with little or no support from their churches.
Sometimes in order to do what they believed their god wanted them to do, they had to break away from organized religion. And most did not break away in order to start their own. Most ended up alone, doing what they thought was right without having to worry about anyone telling them otherwise, and they knew better than to try and convince others to follow them on their path.
Each man walks his own path, and it is for him alone to walk it. Paths might intersect and join for a while, but when the time comes for them to break apart each man must be willing to continue down on his own path.
And because that was just a little bit to deep for me I'm going to insert a goofy analogy...they say everyone walks their path because walking is something a person does alone. Otherwise they might carpool, or ride the bus. Which would indicate many people following the same path, not just a similar one or one that merges with another for a while, but the exact same one. A person that does that cannot have a path of their own.

Now I'm sure I'm going to get teased a lot for those last few paragraphs, people saying that it doesn't make any sense, that organized religion has nothing to do with taking people off their own paths and following the path of one person, but honestly that's the way I see it.

How I got onto that subject I don't know, it's just something I was thinking about at the time.
Anyway, I don't think too many people read this blog anymore anyway, so what better place for a little contraversy huh?

Stay tuned next month where I will muse about....politics!