Are you religious? Thats a question people tend to aks eachother. If you say yes, than the next question that almost automatically follows would be “What do you believe in”. Does this means that you are what your religion is in the eyes of the other person?
I am sort of a comedian sometimes and once I invente my own religion. Next to Hinduisme and the Cahtolic religion would be a religion based on ME, the Ernestine-ism. A kind of Pipi Longstocking atmosphere with dance music during mass and cosy gatherings where everybody brought their own pastry. The church.. ah well… it would be somewhere else everytime, if the weather is nice.. the local park would be an excellent spot.
What does believing in something mean? It is the conviction that something is true for you. Something you can fully support. Something where you can find comfort in. I think that every religion is personal. If my neighbour wants to believe something else than i do, go for it!
It gets complicated if people start seeing their truth as the one and only correct truth and no longer respect other peoples choices or believes.
My computerhelpdesk connection has a believe of his own. He called it “the cathedral and the bazar”. Of course my face looked like a big questionmark after hearing this, because i didn’t get it.
The cathedral is for using programms developed by large companies like Microsoft. It is one form of truth. If you go to a bazar, you get to meet all kinds of people with different ideas which you could share. This is what you find in programms like Open Office. It’s an environment where people work with the programms and are allowed to add ideas to it. It is a religion that is constantly moving and changes form.
I liked this example of how a religion might work. Lets make a bazar religion. Everyone brings beautifull believes to share with others. If something doesn’t work for you, well it might work for some else.
I complete my thought on religion with a Pipi Longstocking quote:
I am the sea… the sea belongs to no one.
