Do I believe?

​Do I believe in God?  Yes, I do, but not because it was instilled in my by my parents or any one person. I believe because I see His works. From miraculous to minuscule, I see things that I can’t explain. 

     What do I see?  I see a beautiful world full of plants and animals, and I don’t believe lightning over a puddle of primordial ooze created. 

     I’ve been told that genetics prove that I am the descendant of apes. Houses are made of pine, drywall, screws, and many other things. They use the same building materials, therefore, they evolved from a common ancestor.   That sounds kind of asinine, doesn’t it?  Unless you consider that it’s common ancestor is knowledge of what it takes to build a house. 

      Why does evil happen?  Why does good happen?  Someone chooses to be good or evil. Free will comes into play every moment of every day. If do something dangerous, then you are taking a risk. Our bodies are fragile and susceptible to injury. The risk of injury is your responsibility.

     We can run into evil from someone else at any moment. Objects are not evil, the people that use them for evil are. A car used to get to work, the doctor, or a grocery store is a good thing. Put a drunken human behind the wheel, and that car is no longer a good thing. It is a potential killer. Not because it exists. It is a potential killer because someone who knows better than to drink and drive made a terrible choice to risk their life and the liveus of others. 

      My biggest problem with organized religion is people who tell me what religion should mean to me. I listen to what a preacher says. If what he said doesn’t make sense, I don’t ask him to explain it to me again. I ask God to help me understand His word, because ultimately, it is God’s word and not the preacher’s word. What the preacher believes God’s word means and what God wants me to gain from it may be two different things. 

     Religion should be yours and no one else’s. You have to live with what you do and believe, and you are the one that makes those choices. 

      Separation of church and state does not mean you can’t say a prayer when you gather for a government sponsored meeting. It means that the state is not supposed to tell you can’t pray, or you that can pray only if they choose the prayer they want. 

       Religious freedom doesn’t only mean Christianity. It means all religions including Pagan religions. You can’t ask for religious freedom only for those who are Christians. Christians have fought to be recognized by pagan religions for over 2000 years. Once Christianity was mainstream, Christians forgot about their own struggles and decided they were the only true religion. They systematically began converting heathens to Christianity by force if necessary. 

     I do not believe that God wants anyone forced to believe or follow Christ. He wants us to come to Him on our own. 

     I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ as I understand them. I will talk to anyone willing to hear my testimony, but I will never tell you what God’s word should mean to you. Only He is authorized to do that.

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