Losing My Religion
Losing My Religion
Edit: Just to make sure there’s no misunderstanding…
1) I’m an atheist but I have nothing against religion, as long as it’s your values and you don’t try to convince me you’re right and I’m a sinner blah blah blah. And I’m not going to convince you that God doesn’t exist. I don’t know that. I just don’t believe, that’s all. Can we be friends now?
2) I do think religion brought a lot of good things (art, culture etc.) and I’m always curious about different religions. In fact, I wish I had known more when I studied literature, because there’re a lot of references to major religion.
3) I’m not anti-American and I’m not trying to say Europe way of dealing with religions is best. However, I must admit religion in North America is a fascinating subject for me: I’ve never seen so many religions and so many religious believers.
4) I truly don’t understand blind faith in whatever. You’ll have to explain that me.
On top of being a borderline Communist and a proud Socialist, I’m also an atheist. It’s basically a miracle I chose to live in North America… but I like paradoxes.
Although I’m fairly sure my parents were baptized (being an atheist just wasn’t an option a few decades ago in France), I never ever went to Church and no one in my family believes in God, whoever he is.
However, the city where I grew up was pretty Catholic. I started to notice it in Junior High: suddenly, all my friends attended catechism classes in order to have their First Communion. For a year, they would periodically skip school for a couple of day and come back with brand new watches and necklaces as Communion gifts. When we studied French literature, I could tell some students were much better at interpreting classical books’ religious background. I’d struggle: who is God’s son already? Which one died first? Clearly, some of us had had a religious upbringing but it was seen as a family legacy rather than a personal manifestation of faith.
In France, religion freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution and protected by the Republic but it’s a very private matter. Religious beliefs are not to be expressed in public. I’ve always assumed Chirac was Catholic, but for all I knew, he could be a Protestant, an Orthodox or a Buddhist—as a political figure, he just wasn’t allowed to bring up his religious beliefs. France is a secular state and prides itself for being so.
As a result, North America’s habit of expressing religious beliefs publicly is weird to most Europeans. In France, no one has ever seen the President pray or refer to religion in his speech… but Bush or Harper openly refers to the Bible.
When I first came to Canada I was shocked by the number of Churches, Temples, Synagogues etc. It also seemed that everyone started its own religion. I knew Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism—and that was about it. I was—and I still am—clueless about Pentecostalism, Anglicanism, Baptists, Methodists, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Pentecostal/Charismatic, Episcopalian/Anglican, Seventh-Day Adventist, Born Again etc. And what the hell is “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”? A bunch of people who believe they will eventually end up in Heaven because they have the longest religious group name ever???
France is also very paranoid about sects… although one could argue that religion is just a sect that has grown rich and powerful. An entire regulatory system to protect citizens against sects has been developed and many religious movements are just illegal (Church of Scientology…) or barely tolerated (Jehovah Witnesses). The joke in France is that whatever banned sect is sent to North America… thus Raelianism and the little Aliens, kicked out of France, are now living a happy life in Quebec.
The way people openly live their religion still amaze me. I’ve seen countless religious blogs on the web, I read a lot of “we’ll pray for you” kind of comments and I heard the Bible quoted more than once. Not that it bothers me. But it sounds strange to me.
However, I have very little sympathy for proselytism. I believe that everyone on earth rely on a set of values. These can be religious, familial, moral, ideological, social etc. Each individual possess a unique conception of them. That’s about it. Just leave people alone. What could be more pretentious than thinking one has the right set of values and need to spread them around the world? Methods of religious propagation are often anything but peaceful and yet a small number of self-called “superior” civilizations allowed themselves to dictate what was good and what was bad throughout history.
A question remains: why is North America so deeply religious? A continent so advanced technically speaking… yet, apparently, 1/3 of Americans say that they believe every word in the Bible is literally true, the literal handwriting of God (according to Susan Jacoby).
And why is religion important to you?
Related articles:
- It’s Okay Not To Believe
- Chicken Buses and Jesús
- Challenge Your Beliefs
- Ogdensburg, NY State
- The Oh-So-Sexy French Myth
79 Comments »
2 Pingbacks »
-
[…] Bonus question (not Canada related): what’s the common point between a lot of my blog posts’ titles? A lot of my posts titles refer to Canada, of course. But many of them are also a quote from a song: “I’m a passenger and I ride and I ride“, “The Division Bell“, “Scar Tissue“, “Lazy“, “Don’t Look Back In Anger“, “You And Whose Army“, “Losing My Religion“… […]
-
[…] as an atheist, I enjoy visiting places of worship, temples, churches or mosques. Some are beautiful work of art. […]
Leave a comment!
This is probably one of the best blog posts I’ve read in a long time with regard to religion.
I seriously wish that Bush would keep his mouth shut about his faith as I don’t think it has a proper bearing on what he should do as President; secular states have just as much morality as anyone else. And let’s just make one thing perfectly clear: not even Christianity believes that the USA is a “Christian Nation”. Basically, we’re going to hell-in-a-handbasket because less than 100% of the people in America are “saved.” It’s all very ridiculous.
Not that it will generate much traffic but I thought I should let you know: I am going to be linking directly to this post as my latest post on [Opinionated Spiritual Commentary]. Basically, I couldn’t have said this better myself.
Plus the Latter-Day Saints thing just cracked me up (because I was raised LDS and half my family is still that way).
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback and the link !
I’m sure I offended people with the post, but the bond between North America and religion has been in my mind for a while, and I just don’t get it !
I basically have nothing against religion. I do think it makes some people better (give them values, a goal in their life etc.) but it also make other people worse. And lately, in politics, I think it made the USA (among other countries) worse.
Oh, BTW, do you have an explanation for the Latter-Day Saints’ name ?
Yeah, you probably know the LDS by a different name: Mormons. Basically they believe their religion was “lost” at some point and was found during the 19th century by Joseph Smith (most generic name ever, Joe Smith???), hence the Latter-Day thing. The Bible makes a lot of reference to saints and the Book of Mormon (the alleged translation of the “gold plates” that Joe Smith found) copies directly from the King James Version of the Bible so that’s where the Saints comes from. It is NOT like Catholic saints; totally different concept.
Anyway, my experience with the LDS religion was just a growing-up one. My parents were/are LDS so I was raised that way until I was 13. The Bishop (kind of like a Pastor or Priest) asked me if I masturbated and I decided that wasn’t any of the church’s business. True story — that’s why I stopped attending the LDS church (and really any other church until I was in my mid-20’s because I was so turned off on the entire concept).
BTW, don’t think it was some kind of weird child abuse thing; the question was purely religiously motivated. They ask all 13-year old boys whether they masturbate. Every male is “required” to go on a Mission when they reach the age of 19 (they send you to some foreign destination which might actually be within the USA or it could be China, it’s totally random and YOU have to pay for it plus Missionary Training Camp for two years) and you HAVE to be a VIRGIN to go on a Mission. Basically you have to be a virgin until after you are married in one of their Temples and then you have as much sex as you possibly can to churn out a TON of kids to all go on Missions and convert the world. That’s their game plan.
I sound like I’m ridiculing it but I’m honestly just sharing my interpretation. Of course, I’m a little bitter. It’s nobody’s business whether or not I masturbate
Oh, right, I see who the Mormons are.
I see your point. Indeed, I don’t think it’s anybody’s business whether you masturbate or not. Besides,one could argue there’s a gap between masturbating and losing his virginity (and I’m sure a lot of teen would agree !), but I’m not even gonna get into that.:D
Still, I assume it took quite a lot of thinking to quit a religion if your family was/is into it. Did you argue with your parents because of it ? I’m not trying to psychoanalyze you, I’m just curious about the extent of religion’s influence.
The Missions… this is exactly what I don’t like in religion. Keep on converting people, fight for what you think is good for a culture you don’t even know. I could go on and on about the religious missions in China for example !
Is it that North Americans are so religious or that Europeans are so irreligious? Europe has twice witnessed the absolute breakdown of religion as moral authority: WWI and II. An excellent reason to be leery.
North Americans have not had that experience.