"Religion divides people..."

While most other people are doing things like opening presents, spending time with their families and generally being happy/merry, depending on their particular denomination, I'm doing none of the above. And yeah, it's a little upsetting.

D.C. has essentially become a ghost town. Anyone with any connection to the federal government has disappeared and the college students are all on winter break. There are a few good things about this, I suppose. For one thing, when the government isn't at work, its capacity to screw things up is substantially limited. For another thing, there's ample parking. Not that it matters, because it's not like I'm driving anywhere. But it's nice to know that it's there if I need it.

Meanwhile, I'm in my apartment doing such festive things as laundry, dishes, playing video games and contemplating my own mortality. I mean, I generally consider myself to be a loner, but this is ridiculous. I suppose one thing I have to look forward to is that I get to play with fire after the sun goes down. But I digress.

As I mentioned before, one of my New Year's resolutions is to get more involved in my religion. Of all the resolutions I've made, I can foresee this one being the most difficult. Truth be told, I'm quite resentful of religion in general right now. This has been building for quite a while now, but it's just recently been boiling over.

Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying I'm becoming an atheist. I still believe in God and all those other quirky things I believe. This isn't about God. It's about the people arguing over how we're supposed to worship said deity.

Religion, as I understand it, is supposed to be a source of comfort, happiness, unity and all of that other sappy sentimental stuff. At least in my own life, however, it hasn't panned out that way.

There’s a line from a cheesy, cliché B movie that goes ‘religion divides people, but belief in something brings them together.’ I couldn’t agree more. That said, there’s an undercurrent of opinions in so-called intellectual community that religion is for the weak-minded, the stupid, or the gullible. I usually have a burning disdain for such people as they are usually pompous and arrogant hedonists that would much rather the world be free of moral judgment of any kind. I do not, in any way, wish to associate with this school of thought.

As I said before, I believe in God. I also believe that there are moral absolutes of right and wrong. But as far as ‘religion’ goes, I’m perfectly willing to entertain the idea that I could be wrong. Most people, it seems, are not. And this ranges from the most religious person of faith to the most adamant atheist.

Maybe I just have weak faith, but I’m not going down in flames for a religion that I’m not 100 percent, no-questions-asked, drop dead certain about. And to my knowledge, there is no such religion. But don’t try to tell that to several people I know.

As far as I’m concerned, God has given me more in my life than I likely deserve. On the other side of the coin, religion has taken more from me than it deserves. Not to bore you with any details and to avoid revealing too much personal information, I won’t go too in depth, but suffice it to say that religion has done more to tear my family apart than it ever has to bring us together. Along the same lines, religion has played a major role in the destruction of some very important and meaningful personal relationships I’ve had. Something just seems inherently wrong about that and it’s severely disillusioned me.

If there is a God, as I believe there is, I find it hard to believe that he/she/it would be pleased to see the extent to which religion has divided people. I realize it probably goes against stereotypical conservatism to be saying all of this, but I’ve never been much for stereotypes anyway...unless of course they’re funny stereotypes.

Anyway...that’s just something else that’s been rattling around my brain when no one else is around.