My Perspective...

Does something have to be true in order to be beautiful?

No.

Don’t give me any of this “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature...” nonsense. What kind of human being are you anyway, Mr. Marx?

You don’t have to believe in the existence of Zeus and the rest of his merry (or sometimes not so merry) pantheon in order to appreciate the Greek myths. You don’t have to believe Christ died on the cross for you sins in order to feel the majestic exhilaration of an ancient hymn. You don’t have to believe in any kind of goddess or tree nymph in order to experience the harmonious energy of a pagan ritual.

Religion is beautiful. Religion is art. Religion is a part of who we are as humans—it defines us. Take away religion from us and you might as well take away music, drama, literature... Eliminate the entire concept of beauty while you’re at it!

I can’t tell you who is right or wrong when it comes to religion. I don’t know. Nobody really knows, do they? Sure, I tend to think there is a God out there, and I have some philosophical reasons for believing it. (Namely the question of the origin of the universe) But that’s not really my main reason for believing in God. I believe in God because I want to. I find the whole concept of God to be incredibly beautiful; and while I don’t think one religion has got everything right, I think they each provide something to be learned. But they provide more than that—they provide beauty.

Yann Martel, author of one of my favorite books—The Life of Pi— puts it this way: “I can well imagine an atheist's last words: "White, white! L-L-Love! My God!" - and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying "Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain," and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story.”

I agree with Martel; I think God is the better story. Atheism just seems so bland to me, so lacking. It’s like comparing the wild landscape as seen from the top of a mountain on a bright, crisp day, to the endless stretch of a concrete tarmac glazed with the red-hot spit of an angry sun.

Sometimes I think I’m an atheist, but I try not to be. I try not to “lack imagination and miss the better story.” And yet, I still am committed to reason. I believe there's truth out there: I'm no relativist. I still thirst for knowledge and truth, even though truth is hard to find, and pretty much impossible to prove. But as long as nothing can be proved about the existence of God, I’m going to believe.

So here’s the basics about me: I grew up in a Christian home, and I became a Christian when I was about 8. Recently though, I was confronted with a slew of doubts and questions about Christianity and ended up realizing I couldn’t believe it anymore.

Now that’s an extremely long story made short, and I will elaborate later, I promise. But for now that will have to do.


-Monica