Whose belief is it anyway?
I’ve often wondered should we criticise people who do not follow the same religion as we do? Whether you’re Catholic, Protestant, Jewish etc does it really matter and do we not all pray to the same God anyway?
It is often said the Lord works in mysterious ways and also that we are to ‘love one another’. In modern times I don’t believe a person’s religious inclinations really affect who they socialise and deal with on a regular basis.
There are only a few of my friends who have told me what religion they are. To be honest I care not. I am always of the belief that everyone should be entitled to an opinion regardless of what their creed. To me it would only matter to me if they treat me and others in a negative way and if their morals and attitudes were generally deemed to be in the wrong. There will always be idiots on this earth no matter what their denomination.
The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.
Richard Francis Burton
My opinion is just as great and important and anyone else on the planet and I have never felt the need to think otherwise. I respect anyone who has such a strong belief in religion and finds that whatever may happen to them that it is God’s will and they will continue to follow their chosen path.
God is too big to fit into one religion.
Author Unknown
There has to be space for all religions because that is all we are used to, variety. We like being able to have a choice of what we eat, drink and buy so why not be allowed to be able to choose what religious group we would like to be a part of.
I like to discuss religion with people, mainly because my beliefs are not as strong as theirs and I like the challenge and debate that it brings.
In the Bible John, chapter four, recounts the story of Jesus taking his disciples through a territory, thought to be undesirable, called Samaria. While stumbling upon a Fish market, Jesus was left alone to find water and discovered a woman drawing water from a well and he asked her for a drink.
She replied, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman,” she astutely declared. “How can you ask me for a drink? Jews do not associate with Samaritans.”
Jesus replied:
The time is coming — it has, in fact, come — when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God.
Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the father is out looking for: Those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship.
God is sheer being itself — spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.
The woman fled into the town centre proclaiming that she had met a man who, despite their differences in worship, was prepared to show he cared for her.
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 and is filed under GOD, Love Thy Neighbour, Prayer & the Christian life.
You can leave a comment.
Ann Says:
I agree with you on this. But as a Catholic who finds solace in my faith I don’t think my Church is being represented enough on the street- literally. We are well used to street evangelists and there is no doubting the sincerity of their witness. And since it is a well known fact that there are many people out there who are searching and willing to lend an ear, do we not, in an organised way, have a duty to face up to the courage of our convictions, to share the joy and invite them to come along to our Churches to get to know us better? Perhaps this goes on in Dublin, or maybe in London, but to the best of my knowledge it hasn’t ever been considered in the north.
August 26th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
daniel Says:
my door has been knocked by mormons, jehova
witness’s, pagans, muslims, hindus, church of england all univited but never by a catholic evangelist. catholics are so comfortable and assured by their clergy that ‘they are it’, that even almost empty churches a non compliance of their ‘doctrine’ does not awaken there ‘leaders’ up. but if they dont seem to care or show initiative and enterprise who will ? not their foot soldiers ie the
congregation for they have held them in rank and
subordination for years.
September 1st, 2007 at 6:58 pm
daniel Says:
in my opinion the catholic church is a bore. shove it
if the after life means spending it with the one true faithers i would rather not go there. bring back the old irish celtic church and the culdee, but like everything i have said on this site it is only my opinion and is said without prejudice
September 1st, 2007 at 7:31 pm
daniel Says:
good bye my last posting !
September 1st, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Matthew Says:
“I am the truth, the life, and the way”- Jesus of Nazareth
September 2nd, 2007 at 3:22 am
daniel Says:
i am glad you reminded me of that statement and i now recall all of the ramifications if i dont comply. after all the catechism was well and truley slapped home when i was at school, ouch! so hear we go again by the use of subtle psychology the appliance of science the congregation is retied by a ligament of fear. the word religion has its roots in ‘to be tied by a ligament’ ancient greek i think. well, i suppose i better play along with it and just be a lapsed catholic yknow leave me options open and grovel
like everyone else at the day of judgement!
September 2nd, 2007 at 11:48 am
Mike Says:
Religion always provides us with a platform to an opinion.
There’s a lack of belief in the world at the minute and it is very difficult with what we see and read in the world to find faith in an afterlife and existence that no one was around to see.
We may go to ‘a better place’ but no one has ever come back to tell us if that is the case.
I’ll admit i’m a cynic, I see innocence in children and see the good that is done bysome people and wonder why there are those just as likely to destroy what is created just because an animal impulse takes over.
Ireland is a country which has gone through an incredible amount of change. Mainly because we have seen a church, that the majority had faith in, disintegrate over the last two decades.
We are insular so finding the nerve to speak about any kind of change or speaking for any kind of believe other then the norm is difficult but hopefully there are people out there who will speak up more for their believes and not just in a religious context.
Love one another ,right?
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:53 pm
daniel Says:
even bin lardin ?
September 6th, 2007 at 1:23 am
L. Maher Says:
Mike wrote: “Whether you’re Catholic, Protestant, Jewish etc does it really matter and do we not all pray to the same God”
Portions of the post above sounds like the relativism the Holy Father is always waring us about. No doubt Daniel (above) is in a parish where relativism prevails and the practice there as opposed to zealous Catholicism, might be a bore. Little is more boring than relativism and a religion devoted only in the social Gospel.
It is true that there is only one God but the members of some faith groups do not understand God to be Trinity. They do not understand the incarnation and what that means. Others, especially liberal Protestantism and liberal Judaism, have so redefined their understanding of truth to the point that the natural law is brushed aside and divine revelation becomes subject to reception.
They depend on us, the blogger too- to spread the Good News. This is something we received the grace to do at our confirmation. And thanks be to God our ancestors were evangelized by Christians who acted on that grace. These missionaries too our fathers, and us with them, “from the darkness of pagan error into the light of Christian truth (prayer of SS Cyril and Methodius).”
Religion does more than provide a platform for an opinion - it gives us our worldview. Please God that we all would have a Christian - and yes - a Catholic weltanschauung (world view).
July 21st, 2008 at 5:18 pm