What I Believe

I have a tendency to sit and think a lot about things, in fact its one of the reasons I seem to have a problem with insomnia so often.  I have a mind that doesn't shut down easily as I try to put the world to rights in my own head.  I often wish it was more like a computer where I could place my mind into sleep or hibernate mode.  But, that is not an option so my mind continues to wander over various topics and over the last few months I’ve been focused on what I believe, what exactly are my belief systems.  Its been like an exercise in learning who I am at this point in my life, because our belief systems can change and alter over time as I’ve come to discover that mine have.

I believe in the supernatural, the paranormal, the unexplained.  In fact it goes beyond a belief to more of a fascination and a need to learn and understand about those things that are unexplainable.  One of my dream jobs besides being a writer of course, is to hunt the unexplained and paranormal.  Ghost hunting would be fantastic and its one thing I actually plan to dabble in more this year.  I also believe in big foot, the lochness monster, and other various cryptozoological anomalies.  However, I do not believe in aliens; how's that for a little bizarre, here I am believing in all these other weird and wonderful things and yet I don't believe in little green men.  I do believe that Unidentified Flying Objects exist, but I don't believe that they are alien aircraft.

I believe in God or a higher power, I don't think it matters what you want to call it as its the belief in something out there that is the most important factor, I just choose to refer to it as God.  I believe every “religion” has something important to teach us in order to help us on our journey of life, so I choose to take the things from various religions that speak to my core.  But, here is the kicker, I don't believe in organised religion.  I believe that your chosen religion or belief system can be anything that speaks to your soul and makes you strive to be something wonderful.  As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post I feel that music is more my religion than anything else, if you haven't read that particular post yet I encourage you to in order to understand my rationale better.  You can find it Here.  For me it doesn't matter that people have different belief systems from me, we are all entitled to our individual ideology, what really matters is that we have faith in something.  One of the main reasons I no longer believe in organised religion is because of the trouble that is often caused in the name of religion.  So many wars have been started in the name of whatever they believe in at the time.  The Catholics fight the protestants, the Muslims fight the Christians, we burned witches or pagans for their beliefs.  How is all of that a good thing, shouldn't we be concentrating on loving our fellow man and accepting them despite the differences in belief.  Isn't religion supposed to be about peace, love and acceptance.  And yet the moment you disagree with someone's beliefs they turn their backs on you or persecute you.  I refuse to be a part of something that encourages those reactions and behaviours towards people.  I chose a path of love and acceptance no matter what you believe in.

I believe that individual culture is what keeps us feeling like we belong and at no time do we have the right to judge another persons culture.  Ethnocentric minds sets are what have systematically destroyed many cultures around the world.  Westerners especially are guilty of such behaviours, our ancestors have travelled to the ends of the earth and raped many people of their culture and sense of self.  I believe that is why so many indigenous cultures have issues with drugs, alcohol and committing crime.  When you lose your culture you lose your sense of self, when you lose your sense of self you lose your place within society.  When we are lost we turn to various vices in order to makes us feel better or to numb the pain.  As people we need to stop trying to change everyone's culture in order to make us feel better about ourselves.  We do not necessarily have to agree with the practices within other cultures, but we must respect them and allow them to continue their practices.

I believe it is our responsibility to look after this earth and all the creatures on it, which is why I am passionate about fighting the cause.  I believe that we have already damaged this earth enough and that if we don't do something about it soon, this earth will destroy us in return for our actions.  I believe wholeheartedly that this is the reason natural disasters have increased, we have created a knock on effect through global warning and the destruction of this planet.  I believe that because animals do not have a voice, we must stand up and act as a voice for them.  If we don't then creatures we take for granted will one day no longer wander the earth, they are disappearing before our very eyes and we must do whatever we can to stop this.

I believe that when we figure out our belief systems then we begin to know who we are as a person.  I believe that when you know who you are as a person, you can find peace within.  So, what do you believe?