Disclaimer: I know this is a sensitive topic for A LOT of people. I am not against any particular religion or religious beliefs but there are issues that stem out of them and I am going to honestly state my opinions. I have had this post in my drafts for far too long now just because I didn’t want to stir controversy but here’s hoping you will read it with an open mind or just skip it if it goes against your beliefs.
Agnostic (n): a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God.
I don’t talk about faith or religion on my blog. I also don’t read blogs that talk about a particular religion or are too religious. If you are one of those bloggers – no offense meant. My journey to being agnostic is a long one. I was born into a fairly religious Hindu family. With my family being religious as well as secular – I was sent to a Catholic school to study in. My parents took me to EVERY type of religious place they could – from temples to monasteries to mosques to dargahs to churches to gurudwaras. From praying at the Vatican city to praying at the Golden Temple to praying at Ajmer Dargah to praying at Shirdi Temple to praying at Namgyal Monastery to tearing up in Sacré-Cœur (to name a few) – I’ve bowed my head and respectfully offered my prayers at them all. From looking forward to visiting temples to not believing in any religion anymore – what led me there?
- The understanding that religion is man made – something that I wish more people would understand. ( I love this quote – “Is man merely a mistake of God’s? Or God merely a mistake of man?” – Friedrich Nietzsche)
- Over the past decade I have come to this realization that all religions divide people. While some religions are less dividing, the existence of so many religions is a huge dividing factor. We are all divided by borders and nationalities – do we really need one more divider?
- If it wasn’t enough that religions divide us, within religions also there are divides like castes, different beliefs and segments – which further divide us all.
- A lot of people follow religion blindly – which is a HUGE problem. People are born into a religion, they have no say in it and most people continue with that religion till the end of their lives. What they know of the religion is passed down to them by their parents, their family, religious leaders – so basically their interpretation of the religion, their biases, their thoughts all of it is passed down. Not a lot of people take out the time to really read and research on their religion or other religions and yet have strong opinions on them all. Isn’t that problematic?
- Religion has become problematic with more people using it as a basis to do bad things and propagate misrepresentations of religious scriptures and writings. The purpose of religion was to create hope, to set people on a righteous path but instead has lead to so much violence, discrimination and hate.
- Religious superiority – This bugs me the most about religious people – believing their religion is superior to others.
- Religious intolerance – I “used” to be proud of being a Hindu because we don’t believe in a one God system and accept that there can be other Gods unlike most of the other religions which are intolerant to any God other than their own. (I want to dwell into the ‘used to’ bit but I am scared to because of rising intolerance levels in India)
- Using religion to block logic/science – I can’t believe people are still using religion to block basic rights (abortion) and basic logic. (eg: Four centuries ago, the idea of a heliocentric solar system was so controversial that the Catholic Church classified it as a heresy, and warned the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei to abandon it.)
- Conversions – I totally understand an adult studying in depth about another religion and wanting to align with it but forced conversions, inducing conversions with freebies, using power to force conversions – are all so wrong.
What is my current belief system?
I have faith, a lot of it. I believe that there is some power out there that manifests in our lives in different ways. It is manifested in nature that is all around us. Is it quantifiable? No. Is it within the scope of human understanding? No. Should we try to humanize it, give it a name? No. What is the purpose of it then? To give us hope in our darkest days just knowing something out there is watching over the entire universe. Do I pray? Not really but every time I am in nature or see the moon and stars or just touch a plant – I say a thank you to that power.
I am sure my thoughts are controversial for some – I’d love to have a healthy conversation on any views on this matter in the comments. Where do you stand vis a vis religion?
PS: I want to quickly thank Sam for reading this post before I posted it since I had second thoughts about posting it. ❤️
Check out my other recent posts here –
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I’m so glad you were able to talk about this and I see a lot of myself in your words- Praying at the Vatican to Shirdi to Dargah. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from visiting diverse religious places and embracing select principles of every religion, it is that God feels the same everywhere. It is a connection you have with the supreme soul and when receptive enough, one can feel it from anywhere, why even from home. And in fact, at the root level, there isn’t much difference between different religions. They all teach us how to live our lives and I believe we should all have a moral code for ourselves that suits US, apart from what religion suggests. I believe in God, but not in religion. I so so LOVED that you spoke about religious conversions, using religion for political gains and to ”divide and rule.” Wonderful thoughts, extremely appreciated. Thanks for taking my opinion about this post into consideration. I am more than happy that you decided to publish this.
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And oh, sorry for spamming, I love the quote: Is man merely god’s biggest mistake or is God merely man’s biggest mistake? It’s thought-provoking. I don’t know if we created God or God created us, but I know that we created religion, one another thing to divide us.
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One other*
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I’m so relieved by the response to this post. It’s so amazing to see that other people feel the same too!!
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I love how you have expressed exactly my own sentiments, Although I would suggest I am an Atheist rather than Agnostic? 😊
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I’m so glad that you resonate with my thoughts. I was so nervous to put this out there.
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I love that you are able to talk so openly about this. I’m also agnostic, I can’t say there isn’t a god, but I also know there’s nothing proving there is one. I believe religions were made up by people to control the masses and make money without forming an actual government.
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Yesss! I’m so relieved to read the responses to this post. Over the past few years I’ve noticed how messed up things have gotten across the globe because of religion – hate, violence, discrimination and spreading of propaganda. It’s just sad
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Religion is a very sensitive matter, and somehow so risky as well. You’re quite brave to put this up, lol.
I’ve never spoken about this anywhere, but I feel my religion is more forced onto me. I only follow a religion because my family does, and because I’m expected to. Yes, I do believe in an ‘almighty’, but I’m not sure orthodox-ifying it is a way to do it.
This is a wonderful post! Have a great day!
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I so get you! I still don’t understand why you need to go to a religious place to pray if “God is everywhere”.
I hope once you’re older, you’re able to have healthy conversations about this with your folks.
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I am an Atheist
Been an atheist from the day I learned to read
Words.
I do NOT sugar-coat it.
Love your post though.
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“Agnostic’ is just a cop-out.
Spell it out!
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Ath-e-is-um….
Done!
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Visit my blog.
We are of like mind
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I LOVE this article!! And agree with all of it 💯. I’m super scarred by friends in high school who judged my sister and I for having no religion (our dad raised us with a general belief in god/faith in something higher than ourselves but nothing really defined) understanding and I relate to the “there’s something but I don’t know what”. For me I don’t really need to know, although I personally do find it helpful (and maybe fun) to personify entities and humanize them a bit, like goddesses, fairies, angels. But it’s half playing and half it really helps me. I can’t really ever be friends with religious people bc at some point they always ask me to convert and I realize the whole friendship was based on them trying to “save” me. Organized religion is so frightening to me. The only time I’ve witnessed good is when I see the fellowship aspect of religion, where a church will ban together to support a family who just lost a loved one, bring them food, pray for them, and other things like that. But I love that you shared this and even if it’s controversial, people need to hear healthier perspectives. Thank you!!!! 🌺❤️😊
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THE GODDESS ATTAINABLE ,
I love your well thought out and wonderfully written comment.
Bravo!
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I am non religious. I choose not to participate in any church because my two experiences with deeply religious born-again Christianity almost broke me and my daughter. I choose to pray to God, and the heavenly host, mostly through thankfulness and gratitude.
For me, Being non religious isn’t about being anti- religious, for that would entail expressing negative energy which I don’t wish to have in my life! I’m not an Atheist, for I strongly believe in God, the Angels and other spirit entities. I just choose to pray and celebrate privately.
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I’m so glad I’ve taken the time in my adult life to step outside of religion and re-think some aspects of it. It’s just taken me a long, long time to get through it and finally stop keeping it a secret from only part of my family. I got exhausted of a religion that was trying to convert people, trying to insert their beliefs into U.S. laws, or being kind of hateful towards others. I’ve missed the community of having a church family, but I am starting to find some groups that match my beliefs or needs better. I’m glad you’ve been able to find what works best for your spiritual life
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I am an athiest. I am not ashamed of saying it. But it is something I can’t tell to my parents because they believe in God and even if they won’t hate me they will be disappointed and hurt about this. I totally understand what you meant. There are so many bad stuff happening around us that it’s not easy to believe in something that is supposed to look out for our well being. I believe that religion has become messy and it has a way to isolate people from basic facts about the world. I don’t judge people who have faith in God as long as you use it for good without any gain but those who use it to judge people and meddle with their lives are not something I can get behind.
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Thank you for posting this, I enjoyed reading it. I, personally, am a Christian, but one of my dear friends is agnostic. This post helped me appreciate their beliefs a bit more. Thank you, and I must say that you are quite brave. Keep this up, we should all be able to share what we believe.
Have a lovely day.<3
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Thank you for sharing. I love your list of 9 points of how you got to where you are. I’m agnostic too. My Mum was raised in an Irish Catholic family, which she rebelled against. So, I grew up learning about how religion can be abused. I do think that there is some things that are truly spiritual and beautiful, and that’s okay. It’s not for me to degrade it
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Thank you for posting this. I’m agnostic too, and I can clearly relate myself to your thoughts. It’s a great post 🥂
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I am happy that you went ahead and decided to post this. Religious people don’t seem to be embarrassed or ashamed to post about their beliefs and I don’t think that agnostics or atheists should be embarrassed or ashamed either.
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I’m very glad you decided to publish this post in the end as it is very interesting. I relate very much to your point of view and opinions, and even though I have never thought of calling myself “agnostic”, maybe I am! 😊 I think that religion has the potential to be an amazing thing, but it actually brought more divisions, wars and hate in the world and to me this is the worst part: all the religions (that I know at least) are about loving others, caring about those around you, keeping an humble position in the world… and instead people are fighting and hating each other. This doesn’t make sense to me and I just don’t understand how we came to this. I still think that some values that are promoted by many religions are really important though, but I just can’t relate to religions that have killed people just because people thought they had the only truth… Anyway, congrats for this amazing post!!
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What a wonderful post! Thanks so much for opening up and sharing your journey with us. I really enjoyed reading it. I just started a book blog, and I really wanted to review a religious book that I just read, but I was hesitant, and after reading your post, I’m totally going to go for it!
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Moksha, I’m so glad you took a leap of “faith” and posted this. I feel the exact (EXACT) same way as you from the cons of religions and the supreme belief in a spiritual existence beyond our understanding. I have nothing against religion until it segregates, spreads hate or, spurs dangerous false and harmful rhetoric. You writing about it is normalizing it just a bit more and that’s appreciated!
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Humans & their made up theories to gain control over many things. Those theories involves, religion, race & culture.
There’s a lot to take.
Friedrich Nietzsche was an excellent philosopher. I follow his many ways.
Wonderful post.
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Good post- I think your thoughts healthy. As an agnostic you profess lack of knowledge and that’s a good place for all of us to start. ‘In the beginning God’ is where I started, and continue. What does God say?
I added 3 words to your definition:
Agnostic (n): a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God [apart from God].
I believe God wants to be known as he knows us, yet our prideful independence shuts him out. If God is a person like you and I, “faith and religion” are also “apart from God.” They’re distractions to knowing God himself.
What does God say? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.. that you understand and know me, that I am the Lord.”
Will you take that beginner step? To fear God, to take him seriously?
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On the contrary I think I profess that I have gained enough knowledge to not believe in a man made God. 🙂
Also – what you have mentioned isn’t what God says – it’s what some people say that God says.
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Fair enough.
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Really well-written post. I agree with everything you said but rarely have the patience to explain it to people.
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Me too!! Hence this post that I wrote partly out of frustration and partly to be able to share with people in the future that annoy me about religious stuff.
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Thank you for this well written post! I am 100 percent with you as a fellow agnostic.
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This is a well written post! You expressed yourself perfectly.
Just putting it out there that I’m Christian. However, there are some things I don’t agree with, in terms of how people do things when it comes to religion.
For example, using religion to excuse bad behavior or justify terrible actions. Also, I have a problem with people not wanting to know more about these things for themselves. People not wanting to ask themselves why they believe certain things and just going with the flow.
I do agree with most, if not all of your reasons for staying away from religion. It can be messy. Religion has been used for so many negative things and that’s just terrible.
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