About Religion:

What does it mean to be alive? 

How do you measure your life? 

Is it by the amount of breaths you take? Or the different foods you eat? Or the amount of lives you take or safe? 

At the end of the day, will it matter? 

Are we kept here for a reason or is this just a prison and when we die we escape it?

Is there really a God out there? 

All these questions, yet we're left with little answers. Honestly, I don't think we're even supposed to know all the answers to these questions.

The reason I'm talking about this is because I'm going to talk about religion. It's one of my favorite topics to discuss because of how fascinating it is but I refrain to do so on the internet because... well, you should know why. 

As most of you know, I am a Buddhist. I wasn't always though, I grew up in a very christian family and go to a Catholic school. I never really felt comfortable with it though because I didn't agree with a lot of what Catholicism stand for. And another part of me was extremely rebellious and the more my parents pushed towards it, the more I fought back. 

I am one of those students that asks questions in class. Especially in religion class because the teachers are always (obvious) very biased and so they conveniently wouldn't know the answers to some of my questions like "how come Lucifer punishes you in Hell if you're doing exactly what he wants you to do?" and "All Lucifer did was question God's power, just like we do with governments, what makes him so different from us?" and the whole thing with the commandments about obeying your parents no matter what (which I found it to be quite harsh because what if they abuse you? kids might get confused about it! My teacher didn't agree of course). 

So, you could say I was always quite suspicious and disbelieving about the whole thing.

I didn't like to wait and see what "God's Will" was for me. I wanted to make it my own, I want it to be my choice in the end not God's. 

I know how that sounds like and I'll explain myself. 

I know a lot of people (like my mom) who say things like "It's all in God's Will" or "Let's leave it up to God" and I never liked how that sounded. I know some people use it when you can't possibly do anything else and you have no choice in the matter, I get that. But sometimes people use it as an excuse to give up. And I've never liked it. 

I also believe quite a bit in luck. That most of the world in one giant random machine and there's no specific reason why you got what you got unless you make a reason. 

I think you get the general theme here. 

The thing that I like about Buddhism that isn't in Christianity is that  it's all about you! 

You have the power, you have the choice. It's your life and you make it as you wish to make it. You give it as much meaning as you wish to give it.

I know Christianity is supposedly all about your choice and free will and all, but not really. If you think about it God isn't giving you a choice at all. It's either go to hell or go to heaven. And with the image that Hell is painted as, no one would want to go there. So there isn't a choice at all. 

All I'm saying is that Christianity isn't for me. Maybe the thought of having a higher being protecting you or "watching over you" comforts you. But not me. As always, this is just my opinion, no one has to agree with it.

I'm really happy with what I believe in, and I believe Buddhism is the perfect religion for me. 

xoxo,

- Merzy