Make Up Your OWN Mind

I just got started reading a book called "Conversations With God" and it has been very interesting so far.  Yes, I'm an atheist so you're probably wondering why I'm reading this book.  That would be the expected question, but it also reveals that you probably don't have a very open mind.  I firmly believe that if a person thinks that they know everything and aren't always questioning what they think or believe, that they will become stagnant and life will become pretty boring.  It's always a good thing to learn and read about things that might take you out of your comfort zone.

So far, I can say that this book isn't really a "religious" book.  It makes claims that all of the religions of the world are a myth so I can jump on board with that assessment.  It also claims that all there really is in the world is love, we just haven't been able to master that yet.  I can also agree with that.

This brings me to the paragraph in the book that made me want to sit down and write a little bit. 

"Very few of the value judgments you have incorporated into your truth are judgments you, yourself, have made based on your own experience.  Yet experience is what you came here for-- and out of your experience were you to create yourself.  You have created yourself out of the experience of others.  If there were such a thing as sin, this would be it:  to allow yourself to become what you are because of the experience of others."

This is an awesome way to look at things.  If you look at the statistics, a person is always very likely to believe in the religion of their parents.  They also usually support the same political party and have the same beliefs as their parents.  They are more likely to cheer for the team that resides in their city or state, because that's what others do. 

When parents force their beliefs on their children, they are robbing them of the process of discovering who they really are.  When kids are indoctrinated into a religion (or atheism), we take away the experience of letting them figure out who they are.  If they believe something just because we believe it, then they are not really their own person, they are just an extension of us. 

I know that getting out of our current belief system is very hard, but it can be done.  I went from being a believer in God to being an atheist based on the evidence that I found.  If I found sufficient evidence in the opposite manner, I would change my beliefs again.  I also know that it is very hard for us not to push our beliefs on others when we think we have the right answers, especially as parents, because we want our children to learn from our mistakes.  But again, this robs our children of experiencing life for themselves. 

This is something that I am always working on in my parenting, to let my children make their own mistakes and come to their own beliefs in their own way.  Now I have realized that I also need to do the same for other beliefs and with other people.  Everyone needs to discover their own beliefs for themselves and stop repeating what they have learned from parents and other people while growing up.  Step back from all of your beliefs and examine them from an outside perspective.  Do you really believe them or is just what you've always believed, so it's easier to just go with the flow?  If it's what you've always believed, devour every piece of information you can about that subject and see if you still believe that.  Read about things that disagree with your stance.  Challenge yourself, force yourself to grow.  Experience things for yourself instead of letting others experience them for you.