God's apparently limiting nature
August 19th 2008 02:26
Have you ever noticed how Catholicism actually harms people?? It's just my opinion I guess but I couldn't help but notice as a teenager being dragged along to mass each Sunday just how limited the people the sitting the church were. What I mean is that they seemed to need so much guidance from outside of themselves, and that guidance was constantly telling them that they 'couldn't...' do or be many different things. God wouldn't allow it.
I really felt at that time that these people wanted guidance because they lived in such a topsy turvey world - they didn't feel that they could get a grasp on anything. But I also think, now, that people felt that way because of Catholicism. It's a two way street I'm sure, but how can we feel comfortable with our ability to cope with the world - which definitely seems out of control a lot of the time - when we are told that we are intrinsically bad. That God is constantly watching, waiting to pounce on us with vengeance and punishment.
Being told that we are under the watchful eye of someone, because we are sooo bad, is exceptionally damaging. (What exactly was it that we did to earn this tag of badness?). We limit ourselves so that we don't do anything more that might damage ourselves in God's eyes and, therefore, be privy to God's grace. We don't want to step out of the circle, because if we do we will be punished.
The problem is that we are all constantly out of the circle. We all have thoughts about our sexuality, for example, that just don't relate to the Church's ideals of sex being for procreation, so we keep them a secret and secretly think we're bad for having them. As a teenager I couldn't relate to what the Church said about homosexuality. It didn't seem right to be. Why would there be homosexuality in the first place - does God not create everything? And if 'He' did create everything why would he bother punishing us for using his creations? (And before you make any assumptions through this comment, no I am not gay).
Eventually I came to the idea that everyone who followed religion just couldn't pull it together for themselves, obviously this isn't particularly helpful because there were going to be times that I couldn't pull it together either. However, at that time it was my response to the Catholic Church. It was sheer stupidity to follow a faith like Catholicism so blindly!
What left with my rejection of Catholicism however, was a conceivable version of God. There just didn't seem to be any ideas out there for someone who believed in a Universal Force - a God-like being - but didn't believe that this being wanted to limit us in anyway. At least not that I came across at the time. Luckily, I believe, there are now versions of God out there that don't rely on religion. We can, believe in God without having to buy into the rules and regulations that religion wants us to... of course, I have a very strong theory that religions simply want to control us and therefore it is necessary that people buy into the idealism that they promote. However, this is a whole other blog!
My theory about God now is that we have God's grace. We aren't born into eternal sin, our being here in the first place is symbolic of this. We are actually born because we want to experience life and all that comes with it. Now, these two conflicting ideas can cause problems for many people. We know that we want to experience all that life has, all that our bodies, minds and souls draw to us. But we may also believe deep down that we will be punished for such things.
There's a theory put forward by the Church that life is a test - we are constantly being tested by God so that we can prove our worthiness of 'His' Love. This theory just doesn't relate to many people any more. For example, we know that we are allowed to have a thing called 'sexuality' and we know that we're allowed to use it.
Where the conflict develops is that we have these underlying ideas about our bodies, minds and souls being unworthy. So, we limit ourselves in ways that we can't really see. My understanding is that we are energetic beings, as such we are sensitive. We are not just a body mind and soul but are connected, through God, to the greater energetic Universe. We know this deep down (perhaps further down than most of us can actually see), and we understand that we are worthy and that we can experience EVERYTHING life has to offer. But we somehow just can't reach that place of joy because we think that God will punish us, or that life will punish us, or that we're just not worthy of getting what we want.
Conflict is a really big problem for many people - someone I know likes to refer to it as 'Catholic Guilt'. We can have sex but we can't enjoy it! It's like my mother used to say - 'You can't have your cake and eat it too." May I ask what the point of cake is if we can't eat it? To tempt us and to tease us... cake is enjoyable.
There is also a much bigger problem created for sexuality by the Catholic Church, and I realise that I can't blame them entirely, but I'd like to point out the link... if a person is sexually assaulted because she, or he, wanted to have sex, or had sexual desires, where does this leave the victim? God is punishing them, evidently... I've seen this link made by people. How do you overcome the disparity between 'God is testing us, if we step outside the line, we will be punished' and 'we are allowed to experience all of our desires'?
It takes a very strong person to overcome their religious upbringing (if they want to). The ideals about our unworthiness are so intrinsically caught up in our sensitive bodies and minds that we fall back on them when something goes wrong. It takes a great deal of soul searching, or looking deep, deep into ourselves to undo it. How can anyone truly ask us to believe that if we are harmed by another human being, it is our fault??
I believe that we should all take a step back and ask ourselves whether religion really does have anything to offer us. If you believe in God, then believe in one who supports you for who you are, not for being who 'He' apparently wants you to be... the same goes for relationships. Choose that which supports you, not that which asks you to limit yourself.
I really felt at that time that these people wanted guidance because they lived in such a topsy turvey world - they didn't feel that they could get a grasp on anything. But I also think, now, that people felt that way because of Catholicism. It's a two way street I'm sure, but how can we feel comfortable with our ability to cope with the world - which definitely seems out of control a lot of the time - when we are told that we are intrinsically bad. That God is constantly watching, waiting to pounce on us with vengeance and punishment.
Being told that we are under the watchful eye of someone, because we are sooo bad, is exceptionally damaging. (What exactly was it that we did to earn this tag of badness?). We limit ourselves so that we don't do anything more that might damage ourselves in God's eyes and, therefore, be privy to God's grace. We don't want to step out of the circle, because if we do we will be punished.
The problem is that we are all constantly out of the circle. We all have thoughts about our sexuality, for example, that just don't relate to the Church's ideals of sex being for procreation, so we keep them a secret and secretly think we're bad for having them. As a teenager I couldn't relate to what the Church said about homosexuality. It didn't seem right to be. Why would there be homosexuality in the first place - does God not create everything? And if 'He' did create everything why would he bother punishing us for using his creations? (And before you make any assumptions through this comment, no I am not gay).
Eventually I came to the idea that everyone who followed religion just couldn't pull it together for themselves, obviously this isn't particularly helpful because there were going to be times that I couldn't pull it together either. However, at that time it was my response to the Catholic Church. It was sheer stupidity to follow a faith like Catholicism so blindly!
What left with my rejection of Catholicism however, was a conceivable version of God. There just didn't seem to be any ideas out there for someone who believed in a Universal Force - a God-like being - but didn't believe that this being wanted to limit us in anyway. At least not that I came across at the time. Luckily, I believe, there are now versions of God out there that don't rely on religion. We can, believe in God without having to buy into the rules and regulations that religion wants us to... of course, I have a very strong theory that religions simply want to control us and therefore it is necessary that people buy into the idealism that they promote. However, this is a whole other blog!
My theory about God now is that we have God's grace. We aren't born into eternal sin, our being here in the first place is symbolic of this. We are actually born because we want to experience life and all that comes with it. Now, these two conflicting ideas can cause problems for many people. We know that we want to experience all that life has, all that our bodies, minds and souls draw to us. But we may also believe deep down that we will be punished for such things.
There's a theory put forward by the Church that life is a test - we are constantly being tested by God so that we can prove our worthiness of 'His' Love. This theory just doesn't relate to many people any more. For example, we know that we are allowed to have a thing called 'sexuality' and we know that we're allowed to use it.
Where the conflict develops is that we have these underlying ideas about our bodies, minds and souls being unworthy. So, we limit ourselves in ways that we can't really see. My understanding is that we are energetic beings, as such we are sensitive. We are not just a body mind and soul but are connected, through God, to the greater energetic Universe. We know this deep down (perhaps further down than most of us can actually see), and we understand that we are worthy and that we can experience EVERYTHING life has to offer. But we somehow just can't reach that place of joy because we think that God will punish us, or that life will punish us, or that we're just not worthy of getting what we want.
Conflict is a really big problem for many people - someone I know likes to refer to it as 'Catholic Guilt'. We can have sex but we can't enjoy it! It's like my mother used to say - 'You can't have your cake and eat it too." May I ask what the point of cake is if we can't eat it? To tempt us and to tease us... cake is enjoyable.
There is also a much bigger problem created for sexuality by the Catholic Church, and I realise that I can't blame them entirely, but I'd like to point out the link... if a person is sexually assaulted because she, or he, wanted to have sex, or had sexual desires, where does this leave the victim? God is punishing them, evidently... I've seen this link made by people. How do you overcome the disparity between 'God is testing us, if we step outside the line, we will be punished' and 'we are allowed to experience all of our desires'?
It takes a very strong person to overcome their religious upbringing (if they want to). The ideals about our unworthiness are so intrinsically caught up in our sensitive bodies and minds that we fall back on them when something goes wrong. It takes a great deal of soul searching, or looking deep, deep into ourselves to undo it. How can anyone truly ask us to believe that if we are harmed by another human being, it is our fault??
I believe that we should all take a step back and ask ourselves whether religion really does have anything to offer us. If you believe in God, then believe in one who supports you for who you are, not for being who 'He' apparently wants you to be... the same goes for relationships. Choose that which supports you, not that which asks you to limit yourself.
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