All my life I’ve been told I’m a Roman Catholic that I should believe in God, Jesus, and Mary and all of our Saints. I come from a very “religious” country, for example people are often proud when they say they visit church every Sunday (which isn’t necessarily true). All schools here have a religion class where they shove Christianity down your throats. Even public ones. There are more Catholic churches than any other temple (in my country) put together, and sadly if your an atheist you are bound to be told that you will burn in hell for the rest of eternity.
My father was born a Hindu but converted to Christianity to marry my mother. My grandmother, no matter where she is, she will always pray at three o’clock the rosary. My sisters and I were baptized at an early age and later had our first communions, I was supposed to start lessons for my Confirmation but decided to wait until I explored some other religions (thankfully my parents are really open-minded). It’s sometimes quite a shock, even for me, to see the devotion of some people and the bad people (for lack of better word) who call themselves followers and are caught with mistresses in their beds.
Recently, since I’m still only fifteen, I’ve begun to see the church with a different light, I’ve noticed their greed, their discriminative view of women, how contradictory their views are, and the power they have over many things that they shouldn’t be involved with. How they “claim” to help people but I am yet to see the progress in my country, since all our presidents are always Christians.
With all this in mind, you can imagine what a shock it was for me to visit Europe. I took a two week course in the French part of Switzerland. There were people from all over the world except from Latin America I was the only one. All my friends were my age or a little older and they were mostly atheist. It was indeed quite a shock to me since I’d never met an atheist before. But they were all so kind; I had a hard time believing they would all burn in hell. And then it hit me. The church simply spoke ill about them because they didn’t have the same views. And from what I recall the Bible says (in my words) you should love and tolerate others. I don’t think the church or at least the priests that I know are doing a very good job.
When I returned home, I told my father about my friends and he said that was completely normal most teenagers go through some sort of “intellectual awakening” which I found very interesting and I think I’m beginning to experience. Have you noticed how the church says you shouldn’t worship images or figures but they sell in the church itself? On that same note didn’t Jesus throw out the people who were selling things inside of the temple? I know Christians were persecuted for hundreds of years but after they went into power, weren’t they the ones who were killing supposed “witches” and pagans?
I choose to believe in God, Jesus, and Mary but I don’t believe the church since its an institution or even a market rather than a place of worship. If anyone reads this I sincerely hope to hear your opinions on the subject.
Thanks for reading.
