Hate him back, it works for me

I had a terrible day at work. The schedule was so screwed up, and we had all the newbies who can't run registers yet on... I felt terrible leaving Sam there alone, but I know that Lucas helped him out quite a bit throughout the night.

To add to my horror, Pete Wentz married Ashlee Simpson this weekend... Oh god... *shudders*

I couldn't get the Brewers game on my radio, because apparently the am part doesn't work or something. It wasn't televised and every site I went to for play by play action was blacked out. So I heard everything second hand until about the 7th inning. Bored out of my mind and needing to see someone else cynical about life, I was glad to see that there was a House marathon on.

The episode was pretty interesting and one that I hadn't seen yet. There was a sick nun who was sure that she was being tested by God. At one point House came to talk to her about all nuns being liars, trying to get everyone to believe in some unseen, supposedly all-powerful being, and that it's not the idea of God that he doesn't like but more the idea in "forcing" other people to "believe" in things with you. Mostly, he hates the believing part... Seems to be because that means you have to open up and trust something/one you can't even see. She then made the comment back to him (of course, I'm paraphrasing a bit) that you can't hate something that you don't believe in, even a little bit. That got me to thinking...

Most people assume that I'm upset with God, that everything I've been through in my life has made me bitter and closed my heart, or whatever. But that's not the case.

Having been around and helped raise a lot of kids, I know that when s/he is lonely, a child will make up people so that they feel connected, important. I don't want to compare the majority of the world to children, but it seems to me more likely that our ancestors were a product of evolution and wanted a way to explain the things around them, wanted to feel connected to and a part of something bigger than themselves.

Q. So, the questions are going to start flying in... Why be a religious studies major if you don't believe in God? If you think the rest of us are delusional?

A. First off, I don't think you're delusional or crazy. You're just the product of thousands of years of believing in something that your families passed on to you, that you accepted as truth. Or, you felt alone in your own way and found a theism that matched what your core beliefs were and are.

Anyways, to answer the question, it's a form of sociology that is more personal than most sociologists are able to get in their studies. There is just so much to study when we look at the world around us, the only way to do it is to break it down into smaller chunks. Religion just happens to be fascinating to me, considering my ideas expressed above. It's fun, for me, to see and learn about the different ways that people interpreted events. That would also be part of why I'm majoring in history as well.

Q. So why do you buy into Buddhism?

A. Short answer? Because it doesn't deal with God at all. It just doesn't feel the need to address something that further back was seen as a philosophical idea, not a religious one. Plus, it's about bettering oneself, not getting redemption through appeasing someone that controls everything.

If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask and I'll post my answers in the next entry.