Xuen Tey Week #2: What God Do You Believe In?
Religion is undoubtedly one of the most important factors in a person’s identity. Are they Muslim or Jewish or Christian or Buddhist? What kind of Muslim or Jew or Christian or Buddhist are they? Which traditions and practices do they do? Religion is a giant factor in how someone sees themself. But when you don’t follow a religion, how are you meant to understand what it’s like? For the record, I’m not religous. I don’t go to church or pray or follow specific holidays, and neither does my family, but I grew up in a school where a lot of my close friends were Christian. They went to church on Sundays, they met with other people from the church on Fridays, they had Bible study groups on weekends. While this wasn’t a major issue or problem, it always made me wonder what does religion mean to them? Do they see it as just a natural thing they do? Do they genuinely believe in God and Jesus Christ? Does going to a church to pray and reading the Bible give them a sense of peace or enlightentment or is it just another thing one just has to do? Do they feel proud that one way people can identify them is by the god they believe in, in the actions they take? The amount of traits of one’s identity that can be pinned back to their religious beliefs is countless—do people feel proud of that? Do they find happiness in the fact that what god they follow can be seen as a defining part of themselves? Think about how people who were raised in a religion they didn’t believe in feel as they grew up and had so many people assume things about them because of that. How do they see themselves when they finally leave that religion behind? Do they feel unburdened? Do they feel empty? How does a person recover from losing something that has always been a key part of how they see themselves and how others see them?
Xuen, I too share this curiosity about religion and the aspects that come along with it. I am also not religious but since I was young, I have been extremely interested in people who do follow a certain faith; I want to understand what it brings them and how all their beliefs relate to it. Your question about the extent to which a person’s religion “defines” them is especially interesting to me; I have always wondered whether people give themselves or their God(s) the credit for their accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is being raised in a somewhat organized religious environment, this post resonates deeply. My relationship with spirituality and God is constantly changing—on some days, I remain true to my Hindu roots, venerating Saraswati, one of my family’s patron deities. On other days, I am more drawn to Christ. Sometimes, I even adopt a more agnostic worldview, wondering if God truly exists enough to be a part of our world. Spending my life in religiously diverse communities allowed me to develop this wide variety of beliefs and deepen my understanding of humanity’s relationship with God. Religion means different things to different people—to me, it’s a source of comfort, rest, and hope, or uncertainty, curiosity, and questioning.
ReplyDeleteFor my whole life I have grown up religious so this post really resonates with me. Because I grew up going to church and Bible studies, just like your friends, it has always felt natural and seemed like the obvious path for me. However, I have always wondered if I would have ended up believing in God if I did not grow up in the church. To me my religion is not something I broadcast so luckily I have never had people assume anything about me because of this. I haven't really put much thought into how I would feel if I ever left my religion but, it would definitely feel like a piece of me was missing.
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