What do you believe in?

Christianity, Buddhism, Islamism, Atheism. Religion. I know nothing about it.

Ever since I could think for myself, I thought it was “dumb”. It made no sense for me how people could believe in the unknown so blindly. However, growing up makes you see things from different perspectives.

My parents are Catholics and they tried raising me as one as well, but that didn’t work. They were never very religious anyway. My idea of Catholics (almost everyone I knew), at the time I was a very opinionated teen (when I was a fervent atheist), was that they were either fanatics, old ladies that liked judging others or hypocrites that only remembered Jesus existed in Christmas or Easter and that only cared to go to church for weddings and funerals. The nerve of some priests, preaching in degraded churches while rocking Mercedes and BMWs; people hugging and kissing during mass and then talking shit in each other’s backs. It just made my skin crawl.

And I won’t even talk about all the infamous themes that will tarnish the Church forever, like pedophilia, casting out the lgbt community… For an “institute” that preaches that money is the source of all evil and yet is constantly asking you for it… You take your own conclusions.

Anyways, for a long time, when people talked about religion this was all I could see. Nothing else. Now, as an adult, I can comprehend some aspects of it.

Life is hard and sometimes people need someone or something to give them strength to keep going. The perspective of nothingness when you die can be scary, so it’s understandable that people find comfort in thinking of what comes next, whether it being heaven, reincarnation, or something else. Even if religion is a way to make people want to better themselves, I get it! I don’t necessarily agree (and that’s okay), but I get it and, most importantly, I respect it.

My current stand on religion is that I know that I don’t know anything and I’m okay with that. I believe in Karma, I believe that you receive what you put out in the world, I believe you make your own destiny, I believe people have different energies and I have no idea about what happens after we die, but I wish I could reincarnate as a cat. I gather strength from my family and friends, I find hope in my dreams and aspirations and that’s all I really need.

Everyone has the right to believe in whatever they want to, whatever makes them want to be a better person. Just don’t try to impose your beliefs onto others, respect each other and respect all opinions.

What do you believe in?