What do you say?
If you read my blog with any regularity, you know my feelings about God. If you don't, here are my feelings:
I don't believe.
So, I find myself throughout each day saying, when someone sneezes, "Bless you". And it bugs me. Each time I say it I think, "Well, I don't mean it, but if I don't say it, I'll come across as rude."
But that's not even the point of this post. This weekend, as I was walking away, someone said, "God Bless." I understand that they mean it in the nicest way possible, but my problem with that is this: Because "you" believe in God, it doesn't not mean everyone does. I don't believe, however I understand that most do. In fact, most people who don't intimately know me, would probably be shocked to know my real beliefs. However, on a daily basis I hear people make assumptions about my faith, directly and indirectly, and while I have no problem with theirs (well ok, I do a little), I do not like it when people assume, nor do I like it when they flaunt their beliefs, because I know people would think differently of me if I flaunted mine. I don't tell people I think their belief is ridiculous, nor do I think they would appreciate it much if I did. So why do I have to put up with them flauting their beliefs?
Ok, so maybe I'm a middle class white guy who's been fortunate enough to live a for the most part easy life, but this is one thing where it truly bugs me for people to make assumptions about who I am and what I believe by the way I look.
If you don't believe in God, what do you do when someone says something to you under the assumption that you share the same beliefs? If you do believe, why do you assume everyone does?
I respect your right to believe, why do you not respect mine to not believe?
I don't believe.
So, I find myself throughout each day saying, when someone sneezes, "Bless you". And it bugs me. Each time I say it I think, "Well, I don't mean it, but if I don't say it, I'll come across as rude."
But that's not even the point of this post. This weekend, as I was walking away, someone said, "God Bless." I understand that they mean it in the nicest way possible, but my problem with that is this: Because "you" believe in God, it doesn't not mean everyone does. I don't believe, however I understand that most do. In fact, most people who don't intimately know me, would probably be shocked to know my real beliefs. However, on a daily basis I hear people make assumptions about my faith, directly and indirectly, and while I have no problem with theirs (well ok, I do a little), I do not like it when people assume, nor do I like it when they flaunt their beliefs, because I know people would think differently of me if I flaunted mine. I don't tell people I think their belief is ridiculous, nor do I think they would appreciate it much if I did. So why do I have to put up with them flauting their beliefs?
Ok, so maybe I'm a middle class white guy who's been fortunate enough to live a for the most part easy life, but this is one thing where it truly bugs me for people to make assumptions about who I am and what I believe by the way I look.
If you don't believe in God, what do you do when someone says something to you under the assumption that you share the same beliefs? If you do believe, why do you assume everyone does?
I respect your right to believe, why do you not respect mine to not believe?
3 Comments:
At 7:50 PM, Scarlett said…
Hey Russ just surfed by and your blog caught my attention. You have great taste in books, I've read several of the same ones.
I do believe in God but I totally understand your point of view. Honestly, I think people say "bless you" after the sneeze purely out of habit.
Some of those who say "God bless" may be trying to communicate something to you in which case you have to choose to accept or ignore. But in day to day life we have to put up with all kinds of thing that we don't neccessarily believe in.
Congrats on climbing San Jancinto! I live near SD so am very familiar with it.
At 11:37 PM, green LA girl said…
I'm a diehard atheist, but I say bless you when people sneeze. I think of it as myself blessing the sneezer :P
At 7:19 PM, zenmoonstar said…
Russ, maybe what you don't believe in is what people have done with God. They've built a religion around God and charged a price for Truth. God has become big business.
When I left the church many years ago, I knew that God was not for sale. I never stopped believing in a Loving Power, a Universal Intelligence - and finally found what I was looking for when I met my spiritual teacher.
He taught me that we are each encoded with a true knowledge of Reality and that when a life-and-death situation comes, we will automatically shout for God's help whether we believe or not. So a 'God bless you' is one way that humans invoke the healing power within each person.
Imho, the path to God is not about belief. It's about knowing the difference between the illusory and the Real - as the saying goes, , "painted cakes do not satisfy hunger."
So it will be your life experience that will bring you to an understanding of That One we call God. It's an experience that cannot be denied. It can't be contained in a book, a theory, or a dogma.
That's what I was looking for even though I didn't know it. I discovered that God is not only in the churches, mosques or temples but in the human heart - in the qualities of patience, tolerance and loving kindness. Justice and Peace are other names for God.
So is Goodness.
You have a compass within you, deep within your consciousness, which will always point to what's correct for your life at any given moment. That is God talking to you saying 'right, go that way - take that road, don't get caught in intoxicants, drugs, theft or murder.' You can think of God as your Highest Self, your Ideal Man, your Wise Elder within - who will never forget you even when your parents forget you.
You may not believe me but that's OK - cuz nobody else can tell you about God - you have to find It for yourself. So keep an open heart, an open mind...and ask your inner Wisdom to teach you about your true history.
There's an ancient Chinese Proverb which says: "Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come."
if you build a house of Goodness, Goodness will have to come and live there.
Wishing you all the best.
~ zenmoon
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