Intolerance pisses me off

Ok, so intolerance pisses me off.  I have to say I am human, I have been known to be intolerant (not to be confused with impatient which is something I still haven't managed to get complete control over) a time or two as I've grown older.  Yet, the older I get the less intolerant I find myself becoming.  Maybe it's because I find myself learning that the whole world isn't black and white...it really is a myriad of color and chaos and wonder and and and and....{insert your adjective(s) of choice here}    I am learning that I am willing to listen, to learn a different way of thinking.  I may not agree with it, I may not choose to adopt your belief structure into my life, but I am willing to be respectful of you and of it.

And still Monday morning I woke up to read a relatively short post by a Christian of a different blog who basically said that I am wrong.  What I believe is wrong.  Really?  When did this person become the God he claims to follow and bow to?  Who is he to judge whether I am right or wrong in what I believe?   What makes what the writer believes any more right than I do?

This has *always* been a huge issue (when it comes to religion) for me.  I grew up in a house that had no religion (and really no spirituality to speak of).  That's not to say that neither of my parents didn't have religion in their lives as they grew up, they just didn't bring it into our house.  There were still the prayers before every meal anytime we were with family, but in our house it was every man for himself and if you were late in getting to the table - scraps was your dinner.

Instead, I find that I was blessed with the fact that I was left to sort things out on my own.  I am pretty sure that, while I have spent part of my life searching, one thing I have learned is that I have a mind of my own (just ask DH) and I am pretty capable at compiling my own thoughts on my life and my beliefs without anyone trying to convince me any different.

Just to give you a quick overview on what I've come up with at this point in my journey...

1 - I am more capable of having what I consider to be a religious experience by sitting outside and listening to the birds, to watching nature grow and develop, to die and come back to life....to see a cycle that is pure and not reliant on the hand of man to for it's continuity.

2 - I don't need a building that is bigger than my house to worship to a power greater than myself.

3 - I don't need to donate money to a group of people or religion.  DH has his own theories on why people tithe(is that even the right word, I don't have the slightest idea)  in church, but personally I don't understand it.  They do understand that the money doesn't really go to God Himself, right?

4 - I believe in ghosts, I believe in reincarnation, I believe that you can communicate with those that have crossed over, I believe in multiple levels of spiritual progression that goes beyond life, death, the angels, God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.......

5 - I don't believe that I need to have a special place in the ground with a rock with my name on it to show that I had lived.  I believe that if I lived my life the way I should - people will remember me with or without the rock.  Why take away from nature to have an outdoor morgue?  Burn me, throw me into the wind, and let me return to nature's cycle...

6 - I believe that this world (for all it's good and bad), this universe, this galaxy is entirely too big, too beautiful and too diverse that credit for it's creation can be given to one single entity, let alone created in a lowly 7 days.  Who's to say that every God(s) and Goddess(es) of every religion and faith weren't a part of its creation?  Not to mention who's to say that Darwinism isn't right to some extent as well?

I don't seriously get the all or nothing mentality of religion.  Tolerance and respect seem to be a couple of the basic tenets of most religions...and yet why is it that from one religion to another, from one religious person to one spiritual person, from one straight person to a gay person, from a person of one color to a person of any other color, or from one man to one woman can't there be some willingness to learn, to respect, to be tolerant of the beliefs of another?  To know that everyone has the basic right to believe what they believe, to live their lives in a way that is happy, healthy, and productive to society?

Always and respectfully....

Jewell  =)