I suppose I would consider myself to be Christian. It is the religion of my parents and the one I've most closely aligned myself with as I've grown up. However, I refuse to identify with any particular organized Christian religion because there does not seem to be any more agreement among them as there is with political parties.
I try to keep my mind open and seek to understand those that I may not necessarily agree with. I want to think for myself. I am a product of my raising, just like all of you. However, I refuse to remain a one dimensional person when this world is changing faster than most of us can grasp.
Aren't you tired of the fighting? Aren't you tired of always trying to prove your point of view?
Do you believe there must be a middle ground somewhere? A place where we can all find an understanding and finally find peace with each other?
In science, they say we are all simply made of particles of matter. Cells clumped together to create a human being. Well, you know how you can change some of those particles to make yourself slimmer or fatter? By diet and exercise.
Imagine changing the particles of your brain matter to be able to grow fatter with knowledge. The knowledge to help you gain a firmer understanding of other human beings.
Imagine slimming down the particles of baggage you've been carrying around. The baggage containing all those strong held thoughts and unyielding beliefs.
You feed your brain with a diet of reading, listening, and watching.
Read books about other cultures, other religions, other places, and other people.
Watch programs you wouldn't normally watch. Not with an eye to disagreement but with an open mind to honestly watch what is being shown.
Listen to radio stations, programs, and podcasts that you never listen to. Your initial reaction will be to turn it off or change the station. But give it an honest listen with an open ear. Start with at least a half hour.
Do this with all things and people that you know nothing about. All things that you may not have ever considered as something you would agree with. Your mind will expand as you gain a better understanding of those things and people that are not like you.
This is not a diet designed to "brainwash" you, unless your mind is easily bent. It is simply a way to help you kickstart your mind to think for itself and shake up those strongholds that refuse to let you view the world in a different light.
You exercise your brain by visiting new places. It doesn't have to be far. Visit a new church. Maybe one of a different religious affiliation. Will you feel weird? Most likely. Will it make you feel like you are "sinning" against your God? Well, there you have it. If your religious upbringing has such a hold on you, that you can't visit the church of a different religious affiliation for a single service, then maybe your mind has been stuck in a rut and needs the exercise to help it expand.
If you have the means, visit a different country or a different part of your own country. The USA is so different from one end to the other. We all have these stereotypes stuck in our minds about what people from the south are like, people from the north are like, and people from the west coast are like, that we will never be able to see the differences as a bonus to our own way of thinking unless we can visit that part of the country to see for ourselves.
You might be surprised to find that most people are just like you. Hard working, family loving, and just trying to get by every day.
Stop and talk to a street person. Yes. Do it. You might find that they were once like you. No, you don't have to give them money or help them. Unless you feel better about yourself if you do. I find that most charitable giving (to street people or panhandlers) is done because one feels better about oneself by doing it, not out of any real need or desire to help that person.
We all want so badly to believe that whatever we have been taught, whatever we have learned, whatever we have been telling ourselves for all these years is the "right" way to believe, that we tend to only listen to, read about, and align ourselves with others exactly like us. It takes diet and exercise to change our bodies. It also takes diet and exercise to change our minds.
