Religion - The Right Of Choice

I started to respond to a forum item and decided it deserved a Hub instead. What you are about to read is an op-ed piece. So please note, you don't have to agree with me at all.

Wikipedia defines religion as: "A religion is a set of beliefs and practices often organized around supernatural and moral claims, and often codified as prayer, ritual, and religious law. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience. The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction."

I find the subject of religion fascinating because there are so many different belief structures. To me the bottom line is that religion is something that we do on the outside, spirituality is something that happens inside.

I personally honor your chosen beliefs and feel that what you believe is your choice and right; but when someone says I'm wrong or someone else is wrong because that person doesn't believe what they believe, then I feel like running through the temple throwing over all the money-changers' tables yelling "you dishonor my Father's house!"

It is my feeling (and I'm not going to push against any one religion here) that religion and its proponents try to control the outcome of a person's soul and quite frankly, I know that the right of that outcome lay with the individual and not the religion.

I strongly feel that how a person worships is his or her given choice, and anyone trying to force their beliefs down anyone else's throat is terribly mistaken.

In the Bible it is said that even the natives know god and no-one need teach them. When you think in terms of religion, religion is nothing more than a specific set of doctrine, do this, don't do that, believe this, don't believe that and interestingly enough most religions claim theirs is the only way to God (put whatever name you want here) and heaven (again, put whatever name you want here).

If you look at the world and its history you will note that the majority of fighting and killing throughout history is done in God's name (put your own here) and has been done by the proponents of religion or orchestrated by them.

In Rome about 320 A.D. or thereabouts, Constantine adopted Christianity when he saw the turn of the tides. That's how we got Catholicism, Christmas and Easter; which are really Pagan holidays by the way. From Catholicism came Lutheranism, and so-on and so forth down to the snake handlers and the holy rollers and whatever else that calls itself Christian.

Islam and Judaism come from the same branch - that of Abraham, father of Isaac, whose name was changed to Israel after wrestling with the angel and Ishmael, born of Hagar who became the father of Kedar who is the father of Muhammad.

Most of the Christian religions stem from Catholicism, except those who claim to come right from the Essenes, because Christianity from the time of Christ's death to the time of Constantine merged into Catholicism.

And we all know what wars were waged there. Hello has anyone heard of the crusades?

Now Buddhism interestingly enough doesn't have a "god" as it were, preferring self-enlightenment as the path; Hindus worship Shiva and a whole host of other gods, paganism worships the forces of nature, and I could go on here forever, but I won't.

For as many people who live on the face of this planet you have as many religions. People have been living, dying, and fighting by and for these tenets a long, long, long, long, long, long - long time.

I think it is time that we move beyond these differences and understand one thing: we are one people, on one planet with one future.

If we were invaded from space, do you think it would matter what religion we were?

Would you not fight to protect your right to live? Or would you instead refuse to fight because the guy next to you didn't believe like you did?

Since we all know there are no two people alike (even if they are twins) on the face of the earth, just like there are no two snowflakes alike -tell me this - in this great big world of diversity, how can one size fit all?