First of all, I am not here trying to make anyone angry or to challenge anyone’s system of belief. What I am presenting in this piece is simply just a little food for thought.
 
Pretty much, from the moment we are born, we are programmed into believing in a higher power. Though this higher power is defined by many names, via the various cultures across the globe, by whatever name you name it, it is that grand being that we are taught to turn to in times of need and to ask forgiveness from when we know we have done something wrong.
 
I know, being born into and raised in a Christian family, from my earliest memories forward, I was taught that I must pray each night, ask for forgiveness for my sins, and to always have the thought of God in mind in all that I do. Certainly, this is not necessary a bad thing. But, what occurs from this style of schooled life-development is that one is programmed into believing. One is taught what they must think and how they must think it.
 
Hand-in-hand with this style of religious programming comes all kinds of subtitles of what you must do and what you must not do. How you should behave, what you should say, how you should say it, and what you shouldn’t say or do. I have studied this in myself, and no matter how far I can intellectually separate myself from this programed mindset, it is always somewhere in there, deeply hidden in the back of my mind. This is why when many a proclaimed atheist is about to pass away; they regain their belief in God. They need something to believe in/something to hold onto, as they proceed through the most complicated passageway of life.
 
All this being said, is what we are taught the truth or is simply what we are taught to believe? Yes, there is a difference. And, just because someone else believes it, and tells us it is the truth, does that actually make it the truth?
 
Recently, there was a horrific mass casualty event here in the U.S. A crazed gunman took his weapon to a Catholic church and shot into a group of children partaking in Mass. Some were killed; many were injured. It was terrible. An event like that should never have been allowed to happen.
 
I had the chance to speak with a South Korean-born Christian minster the other day.  I asked him, “If there was a God, why would he let that happen?” His immediate answer was, “Because they did not have enough faith.”
 
This answer made want to scream. But, I simply replied, “They were children. How can anyone judge them on how much faith they possessed? They were at church. They were going to Mass. They were doing all the right things in step with their religion. Why didn’t God protect them?”
 
His answer, “It’s all about faith. Believing, means you believe in God’s ultimate wisdom.” But, what does that even mean? Believing in a God that allows his children, his disciples, to be brutally murdered. How is that right or holy on any level?
 
I believe if we look around the world, at any place where any religion is practiced, we can see horrible things take place to all of the Believers from time to time. No one religion is safe. No one Believer is safe. And yes, there are all of the answers propagated by the pundits of any religion, giving reasons why one should still believe no matter what takes place. But, shouldn’t the entire promise of the concept of God, keep the Believers protected?
 
Religion is a very complicated subject. Still to this day, one religion hates and judges another. Even within one single overshadowing creed or school of thought there is dissension and attacks. That does not make it right. That does not make it the way it should be. But, that is the way it is.
 
Add to this, people of a lower mind. People who actually set out to hurt others. In truth, isn’t it the truth, that something like that is wrong on all levels of understanding. An individual who is a Believer in a God doing bad things to others? Yet, as in the case of the attack on the children at that church last week, it goes on all over the place all of the time.
 
Ask yourself, how much of a participant are you in the goings-on of your life and of the life and lives taking place around you that would be against what you have been taught by your religion?
 
The thing is, people do what they do, motivated by whatever self-serving ideology they may possess. And yes, maybe they believe in a God or in the religion they were programmed into. But, that does not necessarily stop them from doing bad or negative actions.
 
In many cases, religion promises forgiveness for the bad actions of its faithful. But, how can asking a priest or a God for forgiveness remedy any negative deeds you, or anyone else, has done? All that is, is selfishness. All that is, is self-thinking-ness. By acknowledge what hurtful action you have unleashed and seeking forgiveness for those deeds, in a confessional or elsewhere, is simply you (or anyone) wanting to feel better about a bad deed that you chose to unleash. But, what have you actually done to undo what you have done to the life of that someone else? To fix what you have broken?
 
People are programmed into believing in a higher power. They are taught to live by the rules of whatever religion they are indoctrinated into. But, does looking to God in a time of need always work? Does asking God for forgiveness change anything about what you have done?  And, if there is a God, why would he allow the children of his (or her) faithful to be slaughtered? 
 
Ask yourself these questions before you believe.