05 March 2011

'I am Stardust!'

A woman who is a friend decided at the age of about 13 or so to start going to church. She 'gave' herself to Christ and received encouragement and praise from her relatives and peers. Her devotion to 'God' was so intense that she even spent a year in a theology college in Scandinavia, taught young children about the love of god and all things Christian.
Her life moved on with the normal ups and downs that people experience and some poignant tragedies, divorce, premature death, etc. Her faith was almost intact and her 'rebel-mindedness' started her thinking about life, the purpose of life and why and how we are here.
We worked together for a short period and then lost touch. Our lives collided again and we took the same journey living in another continent, trying new things and lifestyles, wanting to get away from being a 'wage-slave'. This woman is the craziest, wackiest, bravest woman I know. We would talk about any and everything without fear of judgement or put downs from each other, oh except once when she unceremoniously told me at high volume to 'fuck off' out of her house!! (We got over that one!! - and the rest!)

My dear friend is now a non-believer. She is going through it as I write and she has given me permission to write about it here, to share it with you. She is crying, distraught, depressed at the number of people she has 'converted' to Christianity over the years. Her part in their indoctrination is causing her immense grief. She has come to the decision that this idea of a god or gods is bogus and should have no place in the rational, reasonable, wonderful and magnificent world that we live in. 'I am stardust' she said. Astonished at the thought. 'I am stardust. We are stardust'. Her words. We are all connected, we are all one and that makes the world more exciting and amazing than any botched, badly written, cobbled-together story in any of the so called 'great religions'. Science has helped us to discover only a minute part of all there is to know. What has religion helped us to know in comparison?

My friend is in pain and I am doing my best to support her on this journey as she has been hit by a mega-truth: we humans have been conned into focusing on the life after the only one we know. We have created rules which have prevented us from being true to ourselves. We have focused on rules like: you must cover your head, mustn't wear trousers as a woman, mustn't eat pork, must not eat red meat on Good Friday, must not wear jewellery, must cross yourself in a particular way after saying prayers or before eating, must wash parts of your body 5 times per day, must not eat prawns, must not eat cows, must face a particular direction whilst praying, must give 10% of your earnings to the religious institution you attend - and the list goes on. I'm sure you can think of at least 10 more.

Humans have hampered their own development.

My friend has begun to free her self from the shackles of faith and to use her own words, ' I am free. I feel like a weight has been lifted off me. Do you know before I would go to church and come home depressed? Now I know I have responsibility for myself and it makes complete sense that we are born and then we die and that is it. I feel at peace and am annoyed that it has taken me so long to reach this point.'

My response: 'But at least you got there. So many people won't.'


8 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes, humans have hampered their own development. Most humans are wretched, lazy creatures. It is so much easier to follow the pack. I suspect even lemmings have more sense!

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to thank you for this blog. Its alway makes me happy to find people of color like my self who do not Subscribe to the idiocy of Religion.

C Woods said...

I enjoyed this post. I'm sure your friend is going through some withdrawal symptoms, but her story is uplifting.

She might enjoy this post by Rechelle:

http://www.rechelleunplugged.com/2010/01/former-christian-apologizes-for-being-such-a-huge-shit-head-for-all-those-years/

In the end, your friend must realize we all do the best we can do with what we know, or think we know, at the time we do them. I've been a non-believer all of my adult life, but there are still a million things I would like to do over or do better. But all we can do is the best we know how to do now.

colleen said...

It is such a shame that the real beauty of spirituality gets lost in the human institution of religion.

I agree w/you that rules for the sake of gaining brownie points and spying on eachother to see if anybody is breaking them and generally making ppl miserable is a curse. I also agree that focusing too much on the afterlife takes us out of and insults the beauty of this one. I want to fully live each moment in this life and if I do that the afterlife will take care of itself when the time comes. Why should I waste this life speculating about something that all religions tell us is un understandable by us creatures of the flesh.

Unknown said...

It is really sad to think that humas will attach themselves to something that is not actually helpful to us and in the end bring depression and a feeling of being lost. I wish your friend the best in her journey.

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Norm said...

It sounds to me like your friend found religion and not Jesus.What you think is truth and freedom in atheism is the real deception.One spiritual experience will cure a life time of denial which l pray you will all have,until then keep searching.

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During this period, it is necessary to minimize entertainment and fun as this is a very tragic event for every believer.