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My Religion MAG
I have a magnet on my mirror stating, “Life is not about finding yourself – life is about creating yourself.” This is the statement I live by.
Many people do not believe me when I say I am an atheist. They don’t understand that I simply do not believe in any sort of god or afterlife. I also do not believe in the devil, in angels, or in souls. I believe in myself and the strength I have gained through the help of my parents, teachers, and friends – and my own hard work.
I am not going to try to dissuade anyone from his or her own opinions either. I know that people enjoy having religion in their lives; some need their faith to help them through hard times. And some do not want the responsibility of their misfortunes weighing down on their shoulders.
I do. I abhor the idea of fate – that everything is already planned out and you have no control to change anything. If you believe in fate, when bad things happen, it is not your fault; it’s just fate. When my life is not going well, I know that it is no one’s fault but my own. When I do well in school, when I fall in love, it is not fate and we are not soul mates. I worked hard and paid attention and did the homework. My love and I simply love each other – that is all it is, and for me that is all it needs to be.
For some, life is overwhelming. How can anyone be successful and happy in such a difficult, horrible world? They need someone to help them, someone to guide them, and someone to have faith in to make sure things get better. Placing my success and happiness in another’s hands breaks my heart. I need to be successful because of my efforts. I must be responsible for my own happiness. That is what I need from my religion.
Who will ever know what the truth really is? All I know is in the same way that some have full faith and trust in God to give them hope, I need to believe I am on my own to be truly happy – for how can I create myself if I spend my entire life just looking?
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This article has 764 comments.
More a Wiccan thow. I hope you can discover a religion and belive in something more powerfull then you.
God bless you and may god and the lord and lady show you the way towords the right faith what ever it may be.
It amuses me, faintly, when people ask me, "So what do you think happens when you die?" or "Then how was the world created?" They act as though these questions completely destroy my whole belief system because I can't possibly answer them, when there are so many that shoot gaping holes in their own beliefs. It's frustrating, to me, that America is so taboo about atheism; there are times when you can bring it up - like now - but most of the time you just keep quiet about it. A lot of people really attack you for it.
Anyway, this was a great article! I'm glad someone had the courage to write this and submit it to Teen Ink.
i new nothing for 40 years then decided to check it out gave it a chance now i believe .
Humans are born with a natural craving for knowledge; I think I was born with a true philosopher's brain XD I'm glad you posted this. I'm always up for learning something new.
corynn we must be in a foxhole because im atheist, and the number is growing and although you and many religous people decide to discriminate us, would you like me to lokk down on you?