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Is There a Problem with Religion?

Not So Much of a Problem As an Identity Crisis

By Noel WillettPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Growing up in a household that held to religious beliefs without practicing actual religion was confusing. It made more sense when church was finally attended on the regular. But it never clarified anything within me.

I can't say that I'm an Atheist. I can't say that I believe in nothing, because deep down in me I believe in something. When I say that I am Agnostic though you get the looks, and the scoffs, and the eye rolls. You get people telling you that you are just Atheist and don't want to admit it. You get people telling you that you are confused and should thus try religions out like you are shopping for a sweater at the mall. Trying religions isn't the issue though.

There is very little about any religion that isn't able to be found with some interested online searching. There is very little against any religion that isn't able to be found with some interested online searching. I can only blame that for some of my lack of defined religion however. If you, like me, follow bits from multiple religions it is hard to stand up and identify yourself as one. You cannot say "I am some" either though because then a war is started among the people about how one is better than the other. If the goal of all of these religions is to give peace and save souls, you would think they would all match up and get along better. This is a false assumption though, and we all know what people say assumptions make people. Religion doesn't seem to be about peace and saving souls lately though. It seems to be a numbers game from the smallest of churches to the largest of them.

From the outside looking in, you would almost want to say the people as a whole do away with most churches and places of worship. From the inside looking out, you would almost want to say that the people as a whole need more churches and places of worship. The problem arises in the fact that the latter believe only one type of church should stay prevalent: theirs.

There is no truly combined effort to do good will. There is trying to be better than the other people who share your denomination. There is trying to show that your denomination is better than other denominations, to the point where churches have become more political than the states they are in. Famous quotes are always quoted that preach on the separation of church and state, and yet the first thing most do when running for office is to declare their religion and to let the people know how much more weight their religion holds over the vote and the voice of the people.

There are very few people without religion though.

There are so few people, in fact, that one who is recognized as a sinner by one denomination could be a wonderfully blessed person in another. Someone who has separated their self from any one religion could be mistaken for the holiest of people too, however.

The ability to work in good will is not limited to the religious after all. Often the charity that comes to those in need is not from one religion or another, but from people. Maybe that is the problem. Religions started looking at people as scores to win and not as people like them. Noses began to be looked down and the corners of lips began to snarl. The church became a place to gossip about what those outside of the church's favour did and the steps of the church began to be used to collect charitable debt from those who needed the charity more than the debt.

The problem with religion is not the fact that it exists. The problem with religion is the fact that it has been so embedded into personalities that when you are not sure what religious belief you would care to focus on, you do not have a personal character to focus on.

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About the Creator

Noel Willett

I fancy myself to be a writer of all trades. So long as those trades are all opinion pieces. I do have varying interests though so my opinions vary too, and every once in a while I have advice. Follow me on twitter @no_ellawillett

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