Saturday 12 November 2011

.......2 God............I'm Happy You Don't Believe in God...........

............really I am...................... but can you please understand and respect my choice TO believe??....

.......A very sad side effect of being a person with Faith these days is that Fundamentalists / Extremists / Hardliners / Ulta-Orthodox / Fuck-knuckles have made it very hard to be someone who publicly lives their faith. And I don't mean those annoying people how go around door knocking and pushing their little pamphlets at you.......... (I used to answer the door with no pants on for them - they don't come round no more :)) I mean being an individual who does / believes things that may differ from those around you - or make you different from those around you.

.....I find myself challenged by people who either don't believe or believe that people of a religion ALL are alike.... I often get the whole "You're occupying Palestinian lands!!" thing thrown at me... Then people like to point out the whole hardline Jew thing to me....

.....Mainstream believers of religions get a bad rap coz of the corruptors of their religion. Before I go on though - there are some who will puff their chest out and say "Well *my* religion doesn't have people like those Muslim's who fly planes into buildings, or those terrible Israeli politicians who order the slaughter of defenceless Palestinians, so how can you say that!?"

  • Christian Extremists blow up abortion clinics and have assassinated doctors
  • A Jewish Extremist enouraged by other Jewish Extremists assassinated Rabin when he was *this* close to bring peace to ALL peoples of the region
  • Catholic Extremists had a little party called The Inquisition - and now live as an organisation called Opus Dei
  • Scientology - don't get me started
  • Indian Hindu and Pakistani Muslim extremists keep the Kashmiri conflict alive
  • Saudi Arabian Muslim extremists fund Radical Islam
  • Radical Yahweists in the United States believe the Lord commanded them to form militias and to gain enough strength to overthrow the government..... hyuk hyuk
  • Mormon extremists pscyhologically and physically torture their children and the children of others to de-gay them....
Shall I go on?

Now........ back to me............. I am a person of Progressive Jewish faith.....I believe in HaShem - the god of Abraham......I am Jewish through belief, faith, practice and knowledge...

....I believe in the concept of Tikkun Olam - wholistically translated as "Repairing the World"... This means I try to live in the world by example. This by no means signifies a belief in self-perfection, rather that it is a journey to being a BETTER person.... a journey and task that I recognise is an ongoing and life long one........

.....I believe in the concept of One G-d.... One creator....

..... I believe in the concept of Tzedakah ... often translated as "Charity" although most Jews prefer to refer to it as "Good Deeds".......... I believe this to be a beautiful practice in Judasim and can be something as simple as buying someone a coffee without them expecting it - to giving someone who has been having a hard time of it a handful of cash or several bags of groceries.....

.....Someone said to me upon hearing that I was a Jew was how do I believe in a Divine Creator when science has proven evolution and even NOW has proven the birth of the universe was through the big bang. My answer was simple... they actually HAVEN'T proven the Big Bang Construct. They have an excellent theory - and even then, if it is proven, it doesn't go against my faith. Why? Because of the beautiful symmetry of the Universe. Nothing exists on it's own. And that is MY belief...... irrespective of any scientific theory that is proven or disproven. Faith and science can actually exist quiet nicely side by side - it is only fundamentalists / extremists that try to corrupt one with the other.

....I believe........... and if required, I will go to arms to protect YOUR right to NOT believe..... all I ask is that you respect MY right to believe..... difference is diversity and diversity is strength.....

.... Shalom to you all.........

D..

PS.......... this piece of music is apt for me as I believe HaShem is my shadow - a constant companion - not of judgement - but of strength, support and love.....

May HaShem bless you all with health, hope and happiness..........


7 comments:

Martin said...

I know it's probably going to be seen as pedantic but I wish less people would use the doubly negative non-word "irregardless". I think it's a confusion of the two synonyms "irrespective" and "regardless" that people have picked up somewhere. The "irr" would negate the "less" so it would be effetively saying "regardful" when you're actually intending to express the negation of rather than the having of the regard.

Martin said...

I mean of course effectively.

Damien said...

Thank you for your vocabulary Martin.

Now if you can just point me in the direction of YOUR blog - I'll go proofread yours and ignore the CONTENT of the interesting and personal article that is written.

Shalom.

Jason Shaw said...

Interesting and well put together article. I enjoyed reading it. I respect your right and freedom to believe.

I have a feeling all religions are a matter of personal choice, you pick which bits you want to believe in, of what the scriptures tell. Which is all well and good, until the extremists take one bit of the 'book' and believe in that more than any other.

I am pleased I don't have a 'faith' I respect those that do.

The Mistress said...

Amen.

cb said...

I guess I believe in Tikkun Olam too. But from a buddhist perspective.

Plus, I identify as Buddhist because you never see them killing other people to spread the word of their faith.

Charles said...

Actually I can name one religion albeit a small one that has been around for over 500 years that has championed respect and has never imposed their will over others, and certainly never participated in an act of terrorism, Unitarianism. I am happy and grateful I was raised as one