Religion and State

The idea of religion has been around as long as humans have been walking this earth. The definition of religion is the worship of any superhuman controlling power, often a personal God or gods. What makes religion interesting is how everyone has their own idea what religion means to them. Across the United States, there are people who dedicate every day of their lives to worship and there are people who worship nothing. Because of how diverse our country is, state and religion should never be paired together. A good example of a conflict caused by this can be found in any Amish Commune.

The problem with religion and state is where the state draws the line as to where religion is involved. Children are required to attend school until they're 16. But in Amish communities, it is believed that the youth needs no further schooling beyond 8th grade. As you can see, this can cause many conflicts between the state, the first amendment, and citizens right to freedom of worship.

Technology v. Solitude

After giving a group presentation in different forms or religion and practice, I’ve spent a little more time thinking about meditation and solitude. As I’ve said in my previous post, I was raised Catholic and quickly lost interest once high school came around. Religion was never really something that made me feel better or put me in touch with myself. Often times it was quite the chore to even get out of bed and attend mass. The thing that’s always been important to me is time for myself. Being able to have an hour or two each day where I can relax, day dream, listen to music, and reflect on my day/week really helps me feel grounded. It also helps control the stress a bit too.

While I work pretty hard to make sure I have this time each day, I feel that our society (specifically Gen Y) is having a lot less alone time as a whole. Technology here is what’s to blame. Everyday I walk around campus and everyone is either on their laptops, PDAs, cell phones, texting, or actually interacting with others. Don’t get me wrong because I definitely participate in all of the above while on campus, but with these technologies it’s becoming harder to actually get away and truly be alone when all someone has to do is send you a text or IM. I really enjoy technology and how much easier it makes life. For example, I’m writing this right now away from my apartment on my laptop while simultaneously texting a friend. Technology allows me to keep my friends and family only a few buttons away no matter where I go. But this constant connectivity makes it hard to really be alone. I found an interesting video on Youtube by Dina Rudick and Scott Helman-

Sea People Suicide Bombers

I was thinking of what to write for this post and nothing immediately came to mind except for my mothers side of my family. When I was very young, my mother would bring me to church every Sunday and I never really thought much of it until I was in middle school. Sure, I hated waking up early and getting dragged out of bed, but for a while church was a time for me to think and let my mind wonder for an hour or so on the weekends. Some days I would listen to the priest and sermon, but that was rare. I usually ended up thinking about the bigger picture and of how much I really believe in it all. More importantly, church was a nice time for me to dedicate to letting my mind wander a bit.

Even though I was never really an active participating Catholic, I still went through the motions and got Confirmed in 8th grade. I was around this time that I started to question the fraction of faith I had. I started hearing about corruption in churches and many other disturbing stories; I couldn't look at the priests the same anymore. I'm not trying to make blanket judgments here, because I always had a lot of respect for my parish's priests-they were good people and told great stories. It's just that I never really identified myself as a full-swing Catholic, I sort of dabbled and lost interest. 

The more I thought about religions and how many there are, it just reminded of how everyones worshiping the same sort of idea, just in different context. It's a little bit like different languages, people just have different interpretations depending upon their faith. But ultimately, religion fills the same purpose in everyone's life. It's there to answer uncertainty and fill a void in many peoples lives. The shame here is that religion can often turn people against each other over such a simple conflict. How can anyone be certain they're right? And is it really about being right? I definitely don't think so. 

I remember watching South Park a while ago and this one episode really illustrated some of my thoughts on religion in a simple, but also pretty goofy way. Here it is.