The Church of the Greater Good (Train pt. 10)

After a day full of stories and experiences, I spent the rest of my evening so lost in thought that I was on overload, so much in fact that I missed the obvious flirting of the plastic surgery riddled cougar seated in the row next to me and the skinny 21yo brunette that I met down in the café of the lounge car.  Though I talked with the 21yo a bit about my golf book and told her to stop by if she want to hear more, my addled brain sent her in the wrong direction. 

It was probably for the best anyways.

I woke the next morning contemplating life and my place within it and found myself asking the universe for some direction.  It seems I have lost my path in this life and I wanted it back.  Curiously enough, not 20 minutes later Vickie came back to again talk Jesus and to see if I had read her verses.  I assured her that I would look into them once I had access to a bible.  Though not completely true, as I have no bible, it wasn’t an outright lie as I have decided to start doing a little more research into what causes spiritual people to need religion.

I have long been curious as to what causes religious fervor.  Though I get intellectually the reasons behind it, I have been trying to make more sense of how any person can so adamantly argue something they truly have no actual experience with.  What's more, I wonder why people seem to so easily see the differences in other religions rather than the abundance of similarities.  Due to this, I have started to wonder how difficult it would be to start, for lack of a better word, my own church, The Church of the Greater Good.  

I have come to realize that I am a very spiritual person, though this does not mean that I hate religion.  I find most religions to be positive entities, so long as people use them as a guideline to living a good life.  What bothers me about most religions is the hypocrisy.  Though they preach at their core love and acceptance, they actually focus on growing their congregation by teaching that theirs is the only true way.  

Call me an idealist but, if you do, please explain to me how anyone can condemn another good person solely because they do not believe in their god.  How is it difficult to see that most religions are founded on the same core tenets (Love, Acceptance, Understanding and a Value of Life) and most worship a loving and forgiving god(s)?  If that god is truly loving and forgiving, how could they spite anyone who has lived a good life simply based on a choice of gods? 

This topic was the core of my conversation with Vickie.  I wanted to know why she believed that I would I not be accepted into her heaven even though I was living a life that she admitted to being "Christlike".  Was not the purpose of Jesus' teaching to get people to follow his example?  Wasn't his example simply one of a person living a good life, one in which concern for others was more important than for self?  

I then asked her how she would feel if she was wrong, what if Christ was not the way?  I asked her how she would feel if, at the end of her life, she stood in front of another god.  Would she be scared, or would she hope that the quality of her actions be used to judge her rather than who she believed in?

These are the conversations I love to have, and convincing someone to take a step back and judge people based upon WHAT they believe rather than WHO is what I love most.  I truly believe that there is something at work greater than just evolution, and that we are all a part of it whether we choose to be or not.  Any religion that mandates an acceptance of its beliefs is a scam.  Religion is not about separation, rather it is about acceptance.  

No matter what god you believe in, everyone can live a life helping others.  If every person in the world cared more about those around them than they did themselves, how awesome would this world be?  If every person took advantage of opportunities to help others rather than just taking advantage of others, how safe would you feel?

Though a long shot, perhaps this is my path.  If I can convince a devout Christian to question how she thinks about religion, why not start a movement.