A Journey To Belief

Religion can be a touchy subject. Many feel that it has been misused and I suppose that's true, but whether God exists or not has nothing to do with organized religion. I say this because I've met many atheists who point to discrepancies in the Bible as their reason for not believing in God.

As very young children, my family lived in eastern Canada, Quebec to be specific. There, under the influence of my father's relatives, we went to Catholic Church. Later, when we made the move to White Rock, BC, church was dropped, my mother and grandparents being atheists.

I don't know my grandfather's reason but my grandmother said that she didn't like religion as a child because they didn't like dancing. She loved dancing and when she got older, she would sneak out her window to go to gypsy camps and dance. This was in England around 1900.

Then WWI came and my grandmother used to meet the soldiers coming home all injured. She would give them coffee or write to their loved ones for them. She didn't see why God would let something like WWI happen at all. Any remaining faith disappeared from her heart.

That was my influence and for years I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of God. But when I got out to Ontario, I started to re-think it. There were studies of people sick in the hospital who, when prayed for, got better. Imagine. And then there's the thought that all that we see is just chance. Well, maybe. But it does seem to me that there's intelligent design somewhere in the mix.

But I don't go to organized church. One thing I took away from my mother was the ability to think things through myself. Jesus was born a man, right? Why? So I thought about it and decided that if Jesus had been known as a God people would have treated him well and not given him any problems.

So he was born a man so he could go through all the trials and tribulations that we do, but since he is born of God, he can tell us the most spiritual way to deal with those troubles. So it seems to me.

My belief in God came after lots of thoughts but I find it more satisfying than atheism which can't really do anything for the heart, because if we're not supposed to work on being good and spiritual to each other, than it's going to be a very dreary world to live in.

Amen.