Where's Your God Now

While stumbling earlier, my girlfriend came across this picture, which we both found entertaining. I think its clever and funny.

Let Go and Let God... No Thanks.

I took this picture several months ago while driving on a local highway. Upon seeing this, I felt an overwhelming need to turn around and snap some photos of this seemingly pointless church sign.

After googling this phrase, I was surprised to see it is common among the religious. The ultimate meaning is this: we should let go and allow god to shape and mold us, as well as our lives.

What ever happened to the idea of free will? Why should anyone feel the need to turn their lives over to god, and in some cases, rely on godly miracles to fix worldly problems. Why do people credit god with common place occurrences? Here is a brief quote from the link above:

You see, the Lord never helps one person when He can help more. I've had the wonderful blessing of being able to earn a living doing what I love, but my husband has not. He's been stuck in a dead end job that he hated and that wore on his health. The Lord took the last four years to teach me principles that would build up my business to a point where it could support our family. Then he delivered my husband from his miserable job-- a job he would have been to responsible to have quit on his own - and set him on a path for doing what he really enjoys doing. In the process the Lord lined up a series of financial solutions to move our mountain of debt until it is no longer a burden upon our back or an obstruction to our progression.

I'm assuming her husband lost his job, hardly an act of god. As for god removing their financial burden, did he call the creditors and order them to clear her debt? Perhaps god gave them the winning lottery numbers... Why do certain people feel the need to credit anything good in there life as a work of god? We are responsible for our lives and what becomes of them, not some daddy figure observing us from a cloud.

I would rather handle my own problems rather than placing them in the hands of a fictional character.

A Bit About the Author.

As you likely have guessed, I do not believe in god, however, that was not always the case. As a young child, I was baptized into the Catholic faith and attended several Catholic schools from 5th-12th grade. Throughout most of my youth, I accepted god without much thought. Attending Catholic schools most of my life, I had religion class daily, mass weekly, and confession once a month. On top of my religious schooling, my parents and grandparents all believed (and still do) and continued my religious education outside of school.

When I was younger, I viewed the non-believers as ignorant. I didn't understand how anyone could deny the existence of god, when it was so obvious, at least in my mind, he existed.

I continued on my path of blind faith until around 10th grade. About that time, I began thinking some things my teachers and parents were teaching me didn't add up. For the first time in my life, I actually enjoyed religion class. I enjoyed debating with my religion teachers on issues of contraceptives, the bible, confession, celibacy in the priesthood, and in some cases, playing devil's advocate simply for the fun of debating. For the first time in my life, I actually began thinking about god, rather than blindly following. I still believed in god, however my faith in the Catholic Church was wavering.

It wasn't until around 12th grade, my faith in god himself began to falter. I began to realize the truths I'd been taught weren't necessarily true. I started researching the subject outside of school and read some material from members of other faiths, as well as those of the non-believer. I truly wanted to believe in god, unfortunately there was nothing I found that gave reason to believe in his existence.

To this day, I consider myself an agnostic-atheist and am happy with my belief structure (or lack of.) I hope this blog will be read by members of different faiths as well as those who consider themselves agnostic, atheist, or both. I enjoy debating, and encourage comments, both agreeing and disagreeing to any post I make.