“What’s your religion?”
In Australia or other western countries like the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom, this question may be seen as an intrusion of one’s personal life. Westerners might ask this question after knowing someone for a number of months, or they just eventually find out. But where I’m from, this question is usually asked within the first hour of one’s conversation with someone they just met. When I first arrived in Perth this question was also almost asked every time I meet someone from Indonesia the first time.
For now, I think I believe in the existence of a higher power, whatever you may call it. I like to call it Mother Nature. I don’t know what she’s capable of and whether she’s good or evil, but I can appreciate her through nature though I don’t worship her. She is grand, but I know she doesn’t have power over my free will. My faith might have been a mixture of the principles found in Wicca, Buddhism and the Church of Satan. However, it is safe to say that I have no religion.
Despite my current belief, I was raised a Christian. I had learned the Bible, I was even an active youth member of my church when I was 14. When I was 16 I started questioning whether going to church was necessary. By then, I had noticed: in the beginning, there was no religion. Man communicated with God not by going to church. I stopped going to church.
By the time I was 18, other questions surfaced: did King David attack Jebusite and took over Jerusalem because God told him so, or did he do so just to expand his own kingdom and used God’s name to justify his actions, and if God loved men so much why would he favour one nation over the others? I put down the Bible once and for all and started drifting away from Christianity.
Since before Jesus was even born, God’s name has been used to justify human actions. David went to war with the Phillistines, Moab, Hadadezer and the Syrians and claimed his victory given by God. He even “took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to Jerusalem” and “from Betah, and from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, [he] took exceeding much brass” (2 Samuel 8:7-8). Let us recall the London Riot looters. Justify their actions with God’s name; we’ve got king David.
Claiming one’s faith rightful and other blasphemous is not new. The most common example the world has become familiar with is probably the Islamic Jihad. However, kings in the Bible can also be seen as mujahideen (people engaged in jihad). The highly respected Catholic Joan of Arc went to war in the name of God. Heterodox Christian Hong Xiuquan of Guangdong wanted to establish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The church executed people believed to be witches to death in the Salem witch trials. India has seen religion based violent attacks between Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Religious wars between two beliefs had also happened all around the globe Anno Domini: the Crusades between Christianity and Islam, the French Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years War in old Germany between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
In February this year, a group of twenty Ahmadiyya Muslims practicing their faith was attacked by a mob of 1,500 hardliner Muslims in west Java, Indonesia. I watched a compilation of videos from the attack and heard the mob leader shouting, “This is heathen!” and exclaiming “Allahu akbar” meaning God is the Greatest before they started throwing rocks at the house the Ahmadiyya Muslims were gathering.
What is it about religion that is so powerful? Religion is a man-made attempt to reach the higher power and it has been used too many times to justify human actions. Do people actually think their religion’s triumph over others as a way to secure their place in heaven?
Peter H. Gilmore, a High Priest of the Church of Satan, said "the biggest threat to [religion] are these fundamentalists who want to force people into their belief systems. They want to destroy people who have sexual activity the don't think is appropriate according to their texts". But people do fall into this trap.
One’s potent faith in their religion can bring destruction to others. But, let’s face it, we’re not even sure whether God truly exists. No man can say for certain that there is a heaven or hell, or that their religion is the righteous one. But then, it is also possible to think that men are being the greedy self that they are and use God’s name to get away with everything.
In Australia or other western countries like the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom, this question may be seen as an intrusion of one’s personal life. Westerners might ask this question after knowing someone for a number of months, or they just eventually find out. But where I’m from, this question is usually asked within the first hour of one’s conversation with someone they just met. When I first arrived in Perth this question was also almost asked every time I meet someone from Indonesia the first time.
For now, I think I believe in the existence of a higher power, whatever you may call it. I like to call it Mother Nature. I don’t know what she’s capable of and whether she’s good or evil, but I can appreciate her through nature though I don’t worship her. She is grand, but I know she doesn’t have power over my free will. My faith might have been a mixture of the principles found in Wicca, Buddhism and the Church of Satan. However, it is safe to say that I have no religion.
Despite my current belief, I was raised a Christian. I had learned the Bible, I was even an active youth member of my church when I was 14. When I was 16 I started questioning whether going to church was necessary. By then, I had noticed: in the beginning, there was no religion. Man communicated with God not by going to church. I stopped going to church.
By the time I was 18, other questions surfaced: did King David attack Jebusite and took over Jerusalem because God told him so, or did he do so just to expand his own kingdom and used God’s name to justify his actions, and if God loved men so much why would he favour one nation over the others? I put down the Bible once and for all and started drifting away from Christianity.
Since before Jesus was even born, God’s name has been used to justify human actions. David went to war with the Phillistines, Moab, Hadadezer and the Syrians and claimed his victory given by God. He even “took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to Jerusalem” and “from Betah, and from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, [he] took exceeding much brass” (2 Samuel 8:7-8). Let us recall the London Riot looters. Justify their actions with God’s name; we’ve got king David.
Claiming one’s faith rightful and other blasphemous is not new. The most common example the world has become familiar with is probably the Islamic Jihad. However, kings in the Bible can also be seen as mujahideen (people engaged in jihad). The highly respected Catholic Joan of Arc went to war in the name of God. Heterodox Christian Hong Xiuquan of Guangdong wanted to establish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The church executed people believed to be witches to death in the Salem witch trials. India has seen religion based violent attacks between Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Religious wars between two beliefs had also happened all around the globe Anno Domini: the Crusades between Christianity and Islam, the French Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years War in old Germany between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
In February this year, a group of twenty Ahmadiyya Muslims practicing their faith was attacked by a mob of 1,500 hardliner Muslims in west Java, Indonesia. I watched a compilation of videos from the attack and heard the mob leader shouting, “This is heathen!” and exclaiming “Allahu akbar” meaning God is the Greatest before they started throwing rocks at the house the Ahmadiyya Muslims were gathering.
What is it about religion that is so powerful? Religion is a man-made attempt to reach the higher power and it has been used too many times to justify human actions. Do people actually think their religion’s triumph over others as a way to secure their place in heaven?
Peter H. Gilmore, a High Priest of the Church of Satan, said "the biggest threat to [religion] are these fundamentalists who want to force people into their belief systems. They want to destroy people who have sexual activity the don't think is appropriate according to their texts". But people do fall into this trap.
One’s potent faith in their religion can bring destruction to others. But, let’s face it, we’re not even sure whether God truly exists. No man can say for certain that there is a heaven or hell, or that their religion is the righteous one. But then, it is also possible to think that men are being the greedy self that they are and use God’s name to get away with everything.
