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i disagree with my parents religion
ok, my older sister Julie is letting me use her account to ask my question.
14/f
my parents are really super religious and stuff (catholic, we go to church every sunday morning at like the break of f-ing dawn) but i don't believe in God at all. i mean, he created us but who created him? he couldn't have created himself. that's impossible, it doesn't make any sense, and he couldn't have just always existed, cause, like, you have to be made first to exist at all, right? but any time i try to tell them how i feel thay flip out on me and ground me. how the hell do i make them understand that i dont believe in their stupid religion? they wont listen to me. I mean, when Julie brought it up, they listened and let her quit going to church and stuff when she was my age. but, i guess, could it be because she was always sort of...idk, i guess they just knew that if they tried to force her into somethin she wasnt into that she'd flip out on them and probably, like, run away or something. she's just always been true to herself and has never allowed anyone to control her. so what do i do to make them stop, to stop going to church when i dont believe in it, it seems kind of hypocritical and shit. so, what? do i just start acting like Julie, or maybe i could lock my bedroom door sunday mornings so they can't get in. what the hell do i do?
Carry P.
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Want to answer more questions in the Miscellaneous category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
Hmm.
I understand where you're coming from. I'm trying to figure out how to explain it without insulting you.
The things you hold as true are only true from human perspective.
Think about a fly. Flies have a very short lifespan. There are literally billions of flies worldwide who were born after you were born, and died after you had died. The dinosaurs lived for MILLIONS of years compared to humans estimated fifty or sixty thousand.
You have existed for longer than entire generations of flies have been around.
Your questions have basic things wrong with them. Humans understand that everything has a beginning, and we pick points we can relate to as "the beginning"
Take the Big Bang. Humans generally consider that to be "when time began". But all the mass that was part of the big bang and became "the universe" existed before that. Before we consider time to have began.
Thats a very good example of how when humans don't know the entire truth, we'll create an arbitrary point that represents our best guess and consider it fact until we learn more.
Another point few people think about, is that scientists consider the universe to be infinite. There is no end to it.
If thats true, then everything that is possible is real. When you watch a movie, somewhere in the universe that movie actually happened. Superman lives, and Hillary Clinton is president right now. Infinite space means that there are an infinite number of worlds exactly like ours, and an infinite number that are almost like it, but with differences.
Concepts like this are the best we can do towards understanding. Humans intrinsically have difficulty wrapping their minds around the concept of infinite. Within our world everything is finite, but thats because WE are finite. We exist, and then don't exist. We live, and die, and everything we are capable of relating to is something that we can relate to.
What if there was a being that was not finite. A being with no end. Would that being have to have a beginning? We honestly cannot answer that question. Until we encounter it, theres no way to prove it.
And thats another human fallacy. Without evidence, something cannot exist.
Do you have any idea how many things we did not have evidence of until recently? For Christ's sake, we once thought the world was flat, because we had no evidence to think otherwise. People were killed for going against this belief. Now we orbit satellites around it to bring TV to people's homes.
I don't know that God exists. I can't hold something in front of your eyes and say "Here! Look! This is God."
But I believe. I've had experiences in my life, close calls, moments where I felt my life was touched by something greater than myself. Life is too beautiful to be an accident, and while I was raised Catholic I don't always think that their concept of "God" is correct. But I have nothing better to relate to.
I can't describe it any better than, if nothing else, I feel that the universe desires good. There is bad, every light casts a shadow, but I feel that at all times there is some benevolence gently trying to tip the scales in favor of the kind of things that bring joy into people's lives.
Is that "God"? I don't know. Is there a single specific being behind the scenes? What if there actually is an ancient advanced civilization responsible for turning humankind into something more than beasts. Some ancient people who have passed so far out of selfishness and greed that they seek to create other races of beings who naturally strive as a group towards that point.
As if we were the children of their civilization.
We may never know as a species, we almost certainly won't in our lifetime.
You know, unless we hit the apocalypse. Or the sun Explodes. That'll be enough of an answer for us.
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Hold your tongue, and sit tight.
Arguing with the kind of faith and poor logic that would allow a parent to ground you because you disagree with them philosophically isn't going to get you very far.
Your parents are adults, and they have heard it all before: Criticizing the 'first cause' argument and all isn't new to them. They have ignored that sort of argument before; they aren't going to change their mind about it now. So stop trying.
If it is REALLY important to you to not attend church anymore, put your foot down and refuse to go. Let them ground you and punish you. They are your parents and you can't stop them. Sometimes we have to suffer for what we believe in (or, don't believe in).
Maybe you should ask Julie for some advice on how to deal with this, but I’ll tell you now that you don’t need to ‘flip out, or run away or something’; those are just childish ways of throwing temper tantrums. Just stand up for yourself and accept the consequences! Don’t lock your door, just don’t get dressed. Read a book in your room and tell them to have a pleasant time, but you wont be joining them. You don’t have to be a brat, or threaten them, or argue with them, you just have to say, over and over again “I’ve made a choice. I’m not coming.”
They will probably punish you. Lord knows my parents did. The choice I made was to quietly sit in church and fantasize about sex: I choose to attend to keep the peace, but they can’t force me to believe anything I didn’t want too.
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