So we all know college is this cultivator for personal change and in this "transformation" many personal and important aspects of one's self may undergo some mega-changes-Political beliefs, personal outlook on life, religious views etc etc.
Many college students find that throughout their college years they gradually move away from the religion they grew up with. Either that, or they drop it first chance they get- usually after a very "collegey" experience; sex, drugs alcohol, you know, the usual... This new-found freedom and sense of liberation typically may have been frowned upon in many a religion- but dammit it's all so fun! How can this be wrong? So the logical answer of course is to drop it all, the restrictions and the guilt and the obligations. I have a Jewish friend who started eating bacon recently- she felt guilty but when I asked her about the future of her bacon-eating career she replied, "I'll probably start doing it more actually". I have a Catholic friend who stopped going to church, they felt guilty, but not enough to start going again, another kid I know changed religions all together and so the list continues. And once again I'm sitting here feeling like I'm missing something! The conversation between my right and left shoulder-angels goes a little something like this:
"Wow Catherine, the Jews are eating bacon and you're still going to church every Sunday... how many ways can you spell LOSER?"
"Shut up! There is absolutely nothing wrong with staying true to old beliefs."
"Sure, but where's the questioning? The ANGER? After 18 years of putting up with all these rules why don't you live a little?"
"I do live...I live just about every weekend thank you very much."
"That's true....."
So my right angel wins for the time being.
I've been having this debate over religion with just about everyone I know. My friends are quite intelligent. We usually talk about not-so-serious things so given that the chance to talk about something so important they jumped at it! *these are all paraphrased, so forgive me anonymous friends!
a) on why they still like being Catholic: "Well there have been plenty of things I don't like about the Catholic church, but at the end of the day, the pros out way the cons. There are just too many things about it that I can't stray from, too many things with too much evidence proving that it's right. However, the God I picture is so loving that even if this was the only true religion, he wouldn't punish anyone else for not being Catholic. "
b) on why Christianity is over-rated: "A kid born to a Hindu mother believes that his God and his religion are the truth and therefore it is superior to Christianity and Judaism, the same applies to a child born into a Catholic family. So how can we actually know which religion is the true religion?"
c) On the "meaning of life": "I think that despite popular belief, we aren't put on this earth as a huge test- if you fail you go to hell. While I do think that there is a heaven I think that we are put here to eventually get to heaven, and that the purpose of life is to help each other along the way. Whether you believe in heaven or not, I think that everyone's life is fulfilled and enriched by giving back to others."
i tell ya! that college education must be paying off...
But the following passages from E,P,L are what really got me:
-As one line from the Upanishads suggests: "People follow different paths, straight or crooked, according to their temperament, depending on what they consider best, or most appropriate- and all reach You, just as rivers enter the ocean."
- The Hopi Indians thought that the world's religions each contained one spiritual thread, and that these threads are always seeking each other, wanting to join. When the threads are finally woven together they will form a rope that will pull us out of the dark cycle of history and into the next realm. More contemporary, the Dali Lama has repeated the same idea, assuring his Western students repeatedly that they needn't become Tibetan Buddhists in order to be his pupils. He welcomes them to take whatever ideas they like out of Tibetan Buddhism and integrate these ideas into their own religious practices....Even in the most unlikely and conservative of places, you can find sometimes this glimmering idea that God just might be bigger then our limited religious doctrines have taught us. In 1954, Pope Pius XI sent some Vatican delegates on a trip to Libya with these written instructions: "Do NOT think that you are going among Infidels. Muslims attain salvation too. The ways of Providence are infinite."
But doesn't that make sense? That the infinite would be, indeed...infinite? That even the most holy amongst us would only be able to see scattered pieces of the eternal picture at any given time? And that maybe if we cold collect those pieces and compare them, a story about God would begin to emerge that resembles and includes everyone? And isn't our individual longing for transcendence all just part of this larger human search for divinity? Don't we each have the right to not stop seeking until we get as close to the source of wonder as possible?
Elizabeth Gilbert, you just might be my guru
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