Despite our love of rules and routine, Aspies are noted for our ability to reject accepted wisdom, preferring to make our own way. That sounds like a negative, but believe me, it isn’t. Just because most people do something one way, doesn’t make it right. The US author E.B. White had it about right when he said that, “Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time”. I was praised by my tutors at university for my unique approach to various topics. In my chosen career, it helps me to stand out from the crowd. It sometimes lands me in trouble, but I have no regrets because I did things my way and I learnt my own lessons. Let me put it this way: are you more likely to remember that the stove is hot if you are told that it is hot or if you actually burn yourself on it.
It is no different with religion. I have always approached religion with a great degree of caution for two reasons. Firstly, and for reasons that I will probably never understand, nothing has the ability to piss people off more than religion (if they are your beliefs and you truly believe them, then why would you care what other people think or say). Secondly and perhaps most importantly, obsession and religion seem to be inextricably linked. As I have already explained, Aspies are particularly vulnerable to obsessions and addiction and religion is an area that has the potential to play on them. It can open Aspies up to exploitation by unscrupulous individuals and organisations. Done with caution however, religion is a highly interesting and rewarding area. For the record neither religion in general nor specific religions are my SI (Special Interest), but I have spent a lot of time exploring them. It’s more a sort of hobby that I picked up to help me further understand society and the world as a whole.
I was raised up to 16 as a protestant to a protestant father and a catholic mother. I went along with it because I didn’t know anything else. However at 16 I started to question why that was the way things were; questions such as what give the church the right to interpret Gods wishes and if God is everywhere then why do we need to go to church to speak to him. Simple questions, but it was a start. I quickly set about exploring all of the major religions of the world. I started off by incorporating Buddhism into my beliefs. Buddhism was not incompatibly with Christianity as it is more a way of life than a religion, especially Zen Buddhism. Gradually I have added and removed bits and pieces from my own personal religion to make a truly eclectic one, one that is still evolving. I don’t often share it because of the aforementioned ability of religion to make people irrationally angry, which is problematic and inconvenient in any discourse.
Core to my beliefs are the following:
There is one God, reincarnation rather than resurrection, moderation, the pursuit of knowledge, cleanliness and charity.
I don’t know whether or not it is because I was initially raised as a Christian, but the thought of no God just doesn’t feel right (I tried being an atheist, and it just didn’t work) and neither does having more than one. How can there not be a greater being when you consider the vastness of the universe and the complexity of physics, neither of which we actually know next to nothing about them as a whole. It has been said by the greatest scientific minds that we probably know less than 1% of everything there is to know about the universe (I can’t remember who exactly said that, I think that it was either Stephen Hawking or John Polkinghorne; it doesn’t matter, ask any respected physicist and they would say the same). I reject the view of God portrayed in either testament of the Bible; I believe that giving God a human personality is pretty moronic. I think God is probably closer to being the actual laws of physics than a bearded man wearing white. To give God attributes like anger or joy just doesn’t make sense. I hypothesize that we don’t know the true nature of God, but that it is somewhere out there in the universe (or everywhere) waiting for us to discover it. I guess that that equates to a rejection of one of the core beliefs of the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism), but then again, I am none of those. On a side note, I dislike the idea of building churches to worship in; it doesn’t make sense. You can gather anywhere to worship, in your homes, in the park; it doesn’t matter. Money gathered from donations could be spent helping the poor and needy rather than buying a new bell or maintaining a building. At the very least, churches and temples could be converted into schools, help centres for the needy or doctors surgeries. I’m sure that even the God portrayed in the Bible would see that helping our fellow man in a practical way is a greater form of worship than singing hymns or praying. Praying can be done anywhere, churches are simply temples to man’s vanity. Throughout history churches and temples have been built by individuals or groups as a display of their political and monetary domination/power. The resources spent on them could have been better spent furthering humanity’s cause and thus bringing us closer to God.
Reincarnation makes more sense than resurrection. I could neither prove nor disprove either of them, but I like the idea of reincarnation as portrayed in Buddhism. The idea that when you die, that your entire existence just ceases is a hard one to stomach. There must be something more even just believing that makes death more palatable. The idea that if you are a bad person in this life, then you are punished in the next is the most logical one. I like to think that if you are evil in this life then you are reincarnated again; not necessarily into a bad life though, just having to do it all again seems like enough of a punishment. For the good, heaven awaits. Almost every major religion shares the idea of some sort of heaven, so there must be something to it.
Moderation too seems to be a recurring principle throughout the world’s religions. Anything when done to excess is a bad thing. Alcohol is good for you in moderation. The forbidding of pork or shellfish was a great idea before the advent of quality control, but is out dated now. Pigs (and a few others on the blacklist) will, if allowed, eat anything and can carry any number of parasites and diseases which can be transmitted to the person consuming them. Shellfish can pick up pollution and concentrate harmful natural substances in their bodies, not to mention the hazards of food poisoning if not correctly cooked. So in the days before humanity understood the nature of bacteria and viruses it was a good idea to simply not touch any of these foods. Now however there is no rational reason not to. Vegetarianism is an interesting concept and whilst meat consumption should be moderated for health reasons (especially red meat), we are by design and nature, omnivores. Meat is vital for building and maintaining a healthy body. Obviously there are moral reasons for not wanting to kill and eat another creature, so I believe that it is up to the individual to decide, not to simply ban it for everyone. I do agree however with the banning of cannibalism. Not only is it biologically dangerous (CJD anybody?), but I personally find that consuming another human is morally disgusting. An absolute no for me though I don’t know about in an extraordinary survival situation; that at least, is debatable.
As I have hinted at above, I believe that knowledge, not prayers, will bring us closer to finding God, both individually and as a species. We don’t know everything yet and to claim that there is no evidence of there not being a God is as ridiculous as it is to claim that there is evidence (I’m looking at you Dawkins). We just don’t know yet. However, I believe that in time, as our knowledge of the universe and our place in it increases, we will come closer to knowing the answer. Every new piece of information that I absorb gives me a greater understanding of my world. To me, learning is a form of worship. The written word is of monumental importance, and I can see why the Confucianists of China revered and worshiped it. I wouldn’t go as far as worship, but reverence is close to describing my own views on it. I revere not just the written word but also the spoken word. Again, Confucianism comes the closest to describing my thoughts as it preaches respect for your elders. That makes a great deal of sense. With age comes the wisdom of hundreds of thousands of lessons learned from experiences had. Even if an elderly person suffers from senility, they are still a fount of information and should be treated with respect.
I also believe in cleanliness. This could be part of my OCD left over, but to me cleanliness is next to godliness. If I’m clean, then I feel pure. I am not just talking about being clean on the outside, but clean on the inside too. My body is a temple and I try very hard not to abuse it. This kind of links in with moderation, as excess caffeine and alcohol etc. makes you feel less pure and pretty terrible (a hangover is nature’s way of telling you that you almost poisoned yourself). I don’t smoke or do drugs and that is not just because society discourages them, but because they make you feel worse. I like to keep my mind clean and focused, and illegal drugs would counteract that. Green tea is the opposite. It makes me feel clean. Sleep too is important for taking good care of your body, as well as giving you an insight into your subconscious through your dreams. Eat healthily and you feel great. It’s just not worth living on fast food. I always listen to my body. If something feels wrong then it is very likely bad for you and you should avoid it.
Charity is a principle shared by almost all of the major religions. If someone is less fortunate than you, then you should help them. I’m not saying that you have to, but out of the kindness of your own heart. I hate charities that aggressively pressure individuals into giving almost as much as people who never give anything. You have to want to help, or what would be the point. Charity isn’t just giving money to organisations, it is simply about helping others be it monetarily or simply by providing a shoulder to cry on or holding a door open from someone. Recent studies have shown that giving someone else a gift makes us happier than receiving one. Helping in general feels good so why ignore it.
Some of the Ten Commandments from Christianity and their equivalents in other religions provide a pretty good guide to life. Namely:
· Don’t envy what others have whether it is a new car or an attractive partner. It’s not doing you or them any favours. You’re just going to make yourself feel bad for no real reason. Focus on what you have instead.
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Don’t kill other people. I don’t need to explain this one. It is never really justified, no matter what they have done. How can you snuff out another’s life and defend your actions.
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Don’t steal. That just causes more hurt and misery and is plain wrong. Try and be content with what you’ve got (it’s always more than you think) and you will be happier.
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Take a day off every so often but work hard when you have to. Take pride in your work.
The Three jewels of Taoism are also really useful. They are: compassion, moderation and humility. I try and live according to all of these guides. Any religion that promises to wipe away all of your troubles if you live by their rules is lying. For there to be happiness in the world, there has to be sadness. Everything is relative. The Tao Te Ching describes this and Ying and Yang, whilst in the laws of physics ever action has an equal and opposite reaction. In Buddhism, it translates as karma, which is just common sense; if you act like a jerk, people will treat you like a jerk.
I believe that religion is down to the individual, and any organisation that tries to tell you that what they say about what God/the gods/universe wants you to do (and that theirs is the only way), is not to be trusted. Organised religion is open to abuse by individuals or groups of people (think fundamentalists) who try and steer it towards suiting their own twisted visions. Done right, it can be beneficial and do a lot of good in the world; we just have to be careful. This is just the tip of the iceberg with regards to my views, and I wish I could jot them all down. Who knows, maybe one day I will. I believe what I believe, but I am always ready to incorporate new ideas into my beliefs. People often ask me what religion I am. I always say eclectic and leave it at that.
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