Tuesday 25 March 2014

What Do People Believe In, If They Don't Believe In God?


Warning: Contains swearing and Hannah getting grumpy, but mostly in the latter paragraphs. 

As usual my title is one of naturally stirring the pot and getting people talking. But I am religious. Am I a Christian? Nope. Am I a Jew? Nope. Am I Hindu? Nope. Am I a Pagan? Yes! I have been for seven years now, so don't start giving me the 'It's just a phase.' spiel. And while we're on this point, no I don't worship the Devil, I just don't worship your God(s). My particular choice in gods are the Greek Pantheon. I'm also a Witch (not a Wiccan or a dance naked round a campfire, ride a broom, have the devil suck on my tit witch), but this blog post has less to do about that.

One of the questions that I keep hearing, more so when it's Christians asking Atheists/Agnostics (sorry, it's just where I live and who I happen to be friends with, etc, I'm sure if I knew more people of other faiths, I'd also hear them saying it), is 'What do you believe in, if you don't believe in God?' Which, I always find a really strange question, even though I have a religious faith.

Perhaps it has more to do with Paganism than I think, that my religion teaches me this life is just as precious as the one beyond it. That everything has reason and validity to certain people, but just because one set of people don't find joy or purpose in something I do, that doesn't make it any less important. But we all exist on this earth, we should all make the best attempt we can to protect it and protect those we love, we should give respect and safe guarding to strangers who do us no wrong, even if they have different opinions or religions.

However, I would feel tempted to argue that to me, having a sole purpose in life is both unrealistic and a waste. My Gods don't give me purpose, my friends don't give me purpose, my family doesn't give me purpose, my reading and writing doesn't give me purpose. I give myself purpose. And all those things, altogether give my life purpose. I could easily believe in my gods, sit on my arse and do fuck all with my life. It wouldn't give me purpose. I could easily be an Atheist (I once was), make great contributions to society and have a wonderful family life. And it would be the most purposefully driven life I could live. Death wouldn't frighten me, because I would know I'd already done everything I could possibly wish to do.

That's why I find this question strange, because to me, life is not about one thing or the other. Is anyone solely a Christian? Or solely a Jew? Or solely a Muslim? Etc? No, I'd doubt that highly, unless you were completely fanatical. There's much more to everyone than simply belief. Are you a Mother? Or a Father? Are you a Student? Or a Teacher? Are you a Reader? Or a Writer? A Poet? A Singer? A Scientist?

Humans are all too keen in labelling things, putting them in boxes and stacking them neatly on the shelf. But hey, sometimes the corner of the boxes bend, sometimes there's too much stuff in a box and parts of it fall out, sometimes the person labels the box wrongly. And by believing that someone who has no faith, has no belief, is as detrimental to them as it is to you. If we all assumed based solely on one human difference, that there was no way to create a friendship from that, none of us would be able to get along in any way.

I used to be a Christian, and stupidly, I did think myself in some ways superior. I don't speak on behalf of all Christians and there are plenty of people who don't think this way. But I had this crazy belief that I was holier than most people, my closeness with God meant I was better than most people and in a way, I was kind of taught by my Church that not having God in my life would mean my life was a wasted effort. That nothing I did would have any real value. By having God in my life I had validation for everything I was going to do.

BOLLOCKS TO THAT!

For anything to have any real value or purpose in the first place, you, as a person, have to believe it has value and purpose. Why do I write? Does anyone really care what I have to say, either in fiction or non-fiction? Will it ever be published or produced? Will I achieve a form of national or international success? Fuck only knows. But I don't ever write with those things in mind. I write because I need to write. Because it's like breathing and eating and sleeping to me.

Generally, doing anything with a 'I'm doing this because...' in mind is a way of dismissing your work and achievements. It happens so often when Government education programs dismiss the arts, because being creative, working within a team and researching apparently adds nothing to society. It made me want to scream during A-Level Drama, because apparently knowing in detail about historical periods, psychology/sociology, literature, music, politics was completely useless according to Gove and his cronies. And we constantly end up having to explain that 'No, Drama is not a soft subject.' and that I had to do ten times more research in Drama, because it focused on how I would interpret a staged production, what I would do differently if I set it somewhere else. I had to research all of the above subjects and not only with a focus on drama, I explored Elizabethan society in depth and Greek mythology. Yet, apparently, according to people who want my A-Level to be meaningful to them, all I did was fuck around in class and pretend to be a tree.

So many people get put off from doing something, because they have to explain it and validate it to other people who don't care about it, aren't interested in it and never will be. Fuck validation and fuck purpose, fuck belief and fuck value. You shouldn't have to explain why you like crocheting or studying geology or baking or not worshiping any God. Belief is important, only when it is belief in yourself and things beyond yourself that are important to you. We don't need other people or a higher power to validate the work we do by accepting it. You can have a belief in God, there is nothing wrong with that at all, but you should always have other beliefs beyond that.

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