Daughter's Agnostic Friend Wants Answers: Do you have any?

I do not have a religion, but I am not atheist. Atheists believe there is no god or afterlife, I just do not know which religion is right or if any of them are right at all. God could exist, but there is no hard proof to make me believe that he really does exist. There are 2 reasons why I do not have a certain religion. The first is that I do not know about all the religions. If I ever do make a decision which religion I believe is right, It will be because I have studied extensively many religions and I have concluded that in my opinion this certain one is real and the others are fake. I dont understand how many people can be certain one religion is correct and not only not know about what other religions are all about but not fully understand their own religion. I meet christians all the time that know less about christianity than I do, even though I do not know very much at all, which is why one day I will read the bible.

I will use an analogy. Lets say for all of your life your favorite popsicle was grape. ummmm, grape sure does taste good, and you know for a fact that it is your favorite popsicle. No one can change your mind because you belive with your entire soul that grape is the best. But here is the thing. The only popsicle you have ever had is grape, you havent ever tried the other flavors but you know that even though you dont know about the other flavors, grape is by far the best one out of the rest. The main reason grape is your favorite is because that is all your parents ever gave you. Maybe if you tasted orange, or strawberry, or even the dreaded lemon, maybe you will realize that a different flavor is the right flavor. But you will never know because you are so determined that grape is the best flavor even though you never experienced others.

All right, point behind the analogy is that how do you know your religion is the right one even though that is the only one you really know anything about? You never really studied any other ones, but you know for a fact without question that they are wrong and you are right. Also the main reason why you believe your certain religion is because that is the one your parents taught you. But just because your parents believe that is the right one, does that make it right.

Somehow your parents are right but most of the other worlds parents who do not believe in that religion is wrong? You should not make a decision on which one you know is right before you have understood others to make sure they are wrong and yours is right.

I am not going to base my whole life around a religion that my parents chose for me, because I do not know if that is the right religion. I do not know about other religions than besides christianity and judaism, so I want to fully understand not only those but many others before I make a choice.

My other issue with picking a religion or not picking one at all is that they do not have any hard proof that one exists. No religion has hard substantial evidance making it appear correct and all others wrong. Sure we have books like the Torah, the Bible and Koran but how can you prove the legitimacy of them? They were books written thousands of years ago by different men. Who is to say that those men did not just make up what they saw and just lied about seeing a "vision" from god. The is no smoking gun to proove any religion correct, you must solely base it off faith. Now this ties into my first point. How can you have complete faith into something you can not prove is more right than the next one? Many people have complete faith in a religion that they dont even fully know about, which pisses me off a lot. How am I supposed to believe fully into something that I can not prove is more right than the next religion? How do I know that this is the right one and this is the wrong one? Some say you will know because how you feel inside. Is it really god speaking to me, or am I speaking to myself imagining its god so it will comfort me and vindicate my decision on a certain religion?

Basically there are too many choices and not enough proof to determine which is the right one and which is the wrong one. Just because my parents thought and taught me a certain one, it does not neccessarily make it true. Just because rascist parents teach their kids that black people are inferior does that make it true? Some of you biggots are saying yes but I will answer honestly, no it doesnt.

This ties into more stuff of what really pisses me off about life. I hate questions that can not be answered because there is no way of finding out. Like why are we here? Why do people die? Why do people do bad things? Why cant life be perfect? Without a doubt the question why are we here is the one that I have the most trouble with and I hate the fact there is no way of knowing.

I also hate it when people answer the question with that we are here to serve god. Why in the hell would god make beings just to praise him? Is he that insecure about himself that he has to spawn mortals who should praise him and devote his life to him? If he is so good to bring the joy of life to us why is he so evil and bring the burden of death as well?

If we have life forever after we pass this world, what world were we living in before we came to this one? Did I ever live in a world before this? Was I instantly created during this lifetime just to add one more person who needs to praise god because he is insecure about himself?

If god loves us so much, why cant he kill the devil? Why cant he make it where everyone goes to heaven? Why did he make it where people are bad to one another? If he could create this world with humans, couldnt he create another world with some other form of beings? If so why did he make those beings? Why did he make those beings and then us or us after those beings? Why do people even need to live on worlds?

See there is just too many endless questions that need clearlity which can not be answered. Sure people have their own answers to them, but that does not make it fact, thats just their opinion.

Was religion just made up to comfort us about these endless questions that cant be answered. Was religion just made up so we will not be as scared of death, since it gives us a hope of living afterwards. That is one reaon why I cant be atheist. I am too scared of thinking there will be no life after death. It scares me into looking for an answer. That is what I believe caused people to create religions.

There are also many things that make my think that there really could be a creator but that goes into more and more unanswerable questions which I do not want to bore you with.

Religion to me is not something that is able to be proven. Religion is a theory. Theories are some times correct and some times wrong. I just dont know how I can fully believe one theory over the next.

I get annoyed sometimes when people try to preach to me like they are trying to put my on the right path. That their religion is the right one and all others are wrong. Like when people invite me to go to church and I tell them that I would not like to because I am agnostic, they usually tend to give me a dirty look like I am corrupted or something. And it pisses me off that after the fact some people try to make it their goal for me to realize I am wrong and they are right.

2 things that I do not understand about christianity is church and prayer. What is the need to go to church? To learn about God? I will let you in on a little secret, all you need to know about God is in that little book called the Bible. I promise you the preacher does not have some other little additional books that only preachers have, so you are compeled to go to church to learn about this new material. Just read the bible. Church is not needed. Do not listen to someone elses interpretation of what the bible is saying and what God is all about. Read the book for yourself and you decide what it is actually saying. Dont wimp out and take someone elses opinion as fact. You become closer to God be learning it yourself, as apposed to someone elses teachings which are opinionated to their likings.

Prayer..... I dont understand. What is the need of prayer? What does it accomplish? Prayer is you talking personally with god, right? But god is all powerful, he already knows exactly what you are thinking about and how you feel. You do not have to actually say thank you out loud or in your head during prayer. If you are truely thankful for his actions than he already knows it and you do not need to actually come out and say it. If he exists, God knows everything about you, putting your hands together and talking to no one gets you no where because you are just telling God what he has known about you all along. The only need I see that comes from prayer is comfort that it brings. Its not talking to God that makes you feel good, its getting all the stuff that has been troubling you or stuff you are thankful for off of your chest. Prayer is a state of meditation that calms you. You do not need to pray to talk to god, he already knows, you pray because the meditation has a calming effect. So why not just call it meditating instead of praying?

I have only one time in my life actually prayed to God and meant it. Of course I have prayed at the few times in my life I have gone to church ( when I was smaller ) and I have prayed with my family before sometimes before we eat, but even though I went along with praying, I did not truely feel it in my heart that what I was saying is what I really truely felt. The only time I really prayed was when I was 10, in the first grade and it was because of family troubles.

So those are my thoughts on religion. Basically to sum all that crap up I am agnostic because there is no way for me to choose a religion based on the evidence that is available. There are too many questions that cant be answered that will make me truely know that a specific religion is right.

I would like to know what all you guys think about this because the only thing that I like to have a debate on more than politics, is religion.

Just to let you guys know though, that pretty much no matter what your opinions are, it probably wont affect my belief, even though it will affect my thinking, because I can believe a certain religion for sure without having some of the unanswerable questions answered. And since I know you cant answer them it most likely wont do anything. I hate the fact its like that though and I wish to god or to whoever that my thinking and beliefs werent like that because I wish to have the comfort religion brings, but I cant trick myself into believing in something I dont actually believe in.

For all of you who made it thise far down the thread I would like to sincerely thank you. This is by far the most troubling part of my life. And it angers and scares me because the more I think about it, the more I conclude that I am farther away from finding an answer and finding a truth. Pretty much to some up my life........ The more I come to know, the more hopeless I become.

So what do you guys think?