This is my response to the comment my cousin's husband posted on my entry entitled "Religion". I find that religion was always a constant battle in my family but that it's not about the religion as much as it is about the inflicting beliefs on each other, e.g., anti-gay marriage, people who hate Muslims because of 9/11, using stereotypes to base judgments of certain religious groups, etc. My orginal post (read it) was about me & my fears and experiences in dealing with cancer as a non-religious person.
Dennis- First of all I don't think you understand that this blog is intended for me to express the feelings & thoughts I experience during my cancer. You may consider yourself rational but I have never believed anyone can be truly rational and still believe in any god. How do I seem intolerant of others? Everything I stated here is how I felt & that I worried I might fall into some belief system that goes against everything I've ever believed in simply to gain comfort. The whole point was that I was raised with some idea that there was a god but I never agreed with it, and there's no reason I should. I have survived cancer and fought my ass off on my own-- with no religion or god and without my family nearby, especially without my mother. I don't feel like you read what I wrote as anything besides something going against your religion. I respect people have religion & I stated clearly that I understand humans need comfort, but that I have discovered time and time again, even after cancer, that I do not subscribe to that and that I do not need to. That is mine, and that belongs to me. Of course I have issue with organized religion and with certain things that people preach in the name of god or jesus, like intolerance toward gays, or people who hate a certain religion based only on one version of it. If you believe in what Jesus taught about loving everyone than you would not support discrimination against anyone even if you don't agree with their lifestyle. These are the issues I have with religions, not necessarily religious people. As far as being religious, that's individual and not up to me. I stated above that I am content with my understanding that the universe happened at random and there is no plan. I get that. You can believe what you want and it does not matter to me, but you really do not have the right to judge how I feel about my beliefs or how I state these feeling based on my experience with cancer. I was raised Catholic and chose to believe differently, as did both my brother and sister; as do so many others. It goes both ways. Bad things happen and people "find God" and I feared I might, but I did not. It would be against my nature. That is mine and no one has the right to diminish it. Nothing in what I stated is expressing intolerance. Intolerance would be me trying to take away your rights or demean what you do in your life because I do not agree. I respect you regardless of what you believe in.
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