An afterthought

Hello to the person who is reading this. This is a short (and that may be a lie) explanation of my small story. First I suppose I should explain why I wrote it. I myself am a Christian, and I myself have faith in God.

Yet I read stories like 'Angels and Demons' and I realize how flawed as human beings we are. Not just as a Christian, who knows she is a sinner, but as a person, an individual, I know that. We are constantly arguing over how we must live, what we should do, and how everyone else is living and doing wrong. I hate that, and I know that is hypocritical, because I suspect I have told someone that they are doing something wrong recently.

I have heard on forums that the reason most atheists hate Christians, is that they are constantly met with a 'holier-than-thou' attitude. I really don't like that sort of attitude. It's disgusting. I read in a quote how Atheists don't have to love a god, but a fellow man instead. And you know what? That makes me really happy. And when I say that, I'm being sincere. If more people loved each other, the world would be a better place. I'm content with loving my God. If you don't like, don't want, don't need to be Christian, then don't be. Be happy, whatever you do in life; make sure it makes you happy. And it'll make me happy. I'm not going to preach to you, I'm just going to let you see the world through my eyes.

To the story, it is basically my view on religion after reading 'Angels and Demons'. I always thought 'Religion' was rather a vague term. What is Religion? The traditions? The beliefs? The words, the acts or the clothes? I also think there are always two sides to everything – the good and the bad. Then I suppose there's the grayish, emptyish, middleish bit. People often think one thing about religion because they've only seen one part of it. You need to see all of it before you decide about it. The characters in my story are quite stereotypical, I know. I've tried to put both sides of the argument into the story. The story is also done rather as though from the viewpoint of an outsider. I know that Atheists still have rules to live by, and that they probably still suffer the same feelings of discontent as the rest of us, but an outsider would probably see that the atheists were sitting back and watching the rest of us shout at each other, with an exasperated look on their faces. Sometimes I feel like shaking my head at those sort of Christians, though it feels like I'm shaking my head at myself.

In the story, the two brothers are in the white room, representing the concept of religion and science in the universe. At first it is just the image of, thought, belief; Faith praying to that which helps him, Science wanting to understand and know his surrounding. The way he 'stares outwards, into the blackness' reminded me of the way scientists talk of going to outer space.

When Faith is questioned, or told he is wrong, he grows angry. Logic reacts in the same way. They fight, and as they do, they move out of the light. Faith forgets the candle, and his devotion to it. Logic forgets about wanting to know and understand the universe. They simply fight, and thus, their beliefs are meaningless.

Then they see the 'world', and it is beautiful, and they both desire to have it. Today, there are wars, protests, hatred, murder, arson attacks, beatings…the list goes on. Why do we have these things? Because some stupid idiots want to get the message across that they hate someone. Someone who's different. Different skin. Different Voice. Different religion.

Faith tries to follow his religion by inviting his brother to sit with him. When Logic gives in to his natural instinct of studying everything, Faith loses his patience easily, not a good trait for a loyal servant. Allow me to quote a bible verse, Romans, chapter 7, which discusses the human tendency to sin. St Paul says 'Yes, the good that I wish to do, I do not; but the evil I do not wish to do, I do.' In other words, Faith wishes to be kind and patient towards his brother, but instead he attacks and scorns him, like many Christians today.

Then they fight, and a lot of the arguments I wrote down are ones I have heard on this very site. As the brothers fight, it is the world fighting, and as I believe is inevitable, the world is destroyed. Yet they still fight, blaming one another. They could easily sit down, and try to fix it, but they don't.

Then three new characters appear: Hope, Doubt and Atheist. Hope and Doubt, to me, and simply observers, one an optimist, one a pessimist.

Though I believe God is my guide, and my path to happiness, I cannot help but think of the Atheist. She (in this case) is often viewed by people as the blind pessimist, with such a small mental capacity, that she cannot begin to think that there is such a wondrous thing as God. I find this view rather offensive, as my mom was raised as an Atheist. I often wonder what magnetic force drew her to God.

However, Atheists are people too, and I hope they never forget it. I like Atheists, because, they don't feel they have to live up to someone. They just have to live up to themselves. And that's good. Yet they have to stand on this earth and watch the rest of us fight. That's not fair.

Through this story, the children have labels, as do people. It's like; you're a 'Christian', or 'Atheist'. Maybe you're the 'English' person, or the 'Posh' person. In our lives we are labeled, and stamped. We do it on this site, but we choose our own labels.

I would hope that, no matter who we are, no matter what we believe, we can look in the mirror, and say to ourselves, 'The labels don't matter. My beliefs don't matter. My way of speaking, my skin, and the way I walk, my whole appearance, if I'm blind, or deaf or dumb, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that I'm me. That's what matters.'

Maybe, if we starting appreciating ourselves more, and started loving people a bit more, and stopped arguing and started listening, maybe we could fix up this broken world.

I hope you understand this weird little (cough) explanation. If you don't understand anything about this story, review or email me, and I'll get back to you.

Praise and Flames, please review!