Wednesday, April 29, 2009

360 Degrees: Agnosticism

I think the concept of proclaiming oneself as agnostic is really interesting, because it has so many degrees to it. Recent studies show that the second highest "religous group" ( if it can be called that) in the United States today are agnostics and atheists. Where did all the protestants and Catholics go? It's really interesting because all of the people that are my age (and a little younger) seemed to have that bit of religious ferver and zeal that the older generations still hang on to. It seems as if my generation is the first generation to not actually identify themselves with any sort of religious affiliation and i'm not yet sure if it's a good thing. I mean, most of my friends and fellow classmates seem to have this sort of "fear" of religion in general. Whenever I try to spark up a conversation about God or whether or not a certain person believes in it, that person gives me the most peculiar look i've ever seen.
Being agnostic isn't as bad as some may think. I'm sure that the older generations are looking down and frowning upon us, for we are nothing but sinners in their eyes, but in my opinion, being agnostic is better than being an atheist. Acknowledging that there is some type of God out there that has created us all and that even though he/she is unknown, we still believe in him/her because we so desperatley need to believe in something bigger than us. We so desperatley need to feel as if the fate of the world isn't in our hands, that we are not the ones responsible for the tragic disasters that happen in this world. If a person has the decency to acknowledge a higher being, I think they are smart to do so because they themselves are going agasint the status quo. They are essentially saying that they refuse to refuse any religion or diety that exists. That they refuse to be looked at and judged by a stereotype that a lot of us in this world fall under. But is this such a brave thing? I definitley think it is, in fact I think it's the bravest thing we can do as humans, refuse to be stereotyped, refuse to be judged by what we identify with religiously.
On the other hand, it is also very risky to be an agnostic. Since the beginning of time, people have needed something to believe in, to have faith in. This of course was hard to do until the concept of religious icons and names and stories were tied down to these religious leaders. If we suddenly slip and don't stick to a certain religion won't that be bad? Won't it ruin who we are as humans? I think only time can tell, but as for now, i'm thinking that if we have no bigger entity to stop us from becoming "sinners" or being "condemned" on judgement day, then won't we all just rebel and do repulsive things to one another? If not, then is there truly a way to accept one another and have peace amongst one another?

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