How My Views of Religion Shape My View of the World

¶ … Religious Beliefs

I was raised Catholic. I still believe in the Catholic Church, though it appears that the Church is going through some sort of identity crisis today -- and especially since the 1960s. I define religion as that which unites man to God -- so religion is something that reattaches, so to speak, us to our Creator, whether through thought, word or action. I define faith as belief in that which has been revealed by God, and I define spirituality as the habit of transcending the earthly and material in contemplation or meditation of some aspect of God.

I view the role that religion and personal faith plays in the world as very important. In the West, it seems that religion is not as important as it once was. Modern ideas and philosophies have taken hold, which are very earth/man-centered rather than God-centered. This, to me, appears to indicate that we in the West have lost our perspective. A strong faith is imperative in being a good Christian (which is really the only religion that I can speak of). Other cultures, such as the Hindu culture in India, have different beliefs which are manifested throughout that society; the same can be said in the Middle East, where Judaism influences Israel or Islam influences Iraq. Religion can shape entire continents because it plays a crucial role in how people behave. It offers a guide, a belief system, a worldview, a set of principles, a code of law, an ethic -- and if an entire community believes in this way, that will affect the way that the community governs itself. In America, there is a freedom of religion, which essentially means freedom from religion. There is no truth upheld within the community because such is exclusivity is deemed to be offensive to the "freedom" that Americans are supposed to enjoy. The problem is that one must either choose such "freedom" or religious truth.

Because I was raised Catholic, I was taught to pray as a child and taught what to believe regarding the Person of God and the Holy Trinity, saints, the Church, etc. When I became older I questioned these teachings because I saw that many others did not share them, so I wanted to know why. Today, I have reaffirmed these teachings but it is something that I must continually do because it is easy to lose focus of what one believes if one is not mindful of it daily.

I do not think that I hold any biases in the area of religion because I first and foremost go to the truth. I believe the Catholic religion is based on truth so that is why I adhere to it. This may seem like a bias to some, but I do not view it that way. I think all serious persons should go to the truth and that we should all encourage one another to go this way. We can engage in dialogue with one another and decide together which way the truth is leading. We may not always agree but men of good will are able to recognized the truth when they see it, no matter what culture they come from and no matter what religion they adhere to. I believe in the Catholic religion because I believe it is true that Christ is the Son of God and that He founded the Catholic Church, with an apostolic lineage that goes all the way back to St. Peter. I do not think that such a view will prove to be a significant obstacle in the study of world religion because I am very interested in people and how everyone views the world and reality. I think that, like Athanasius Kircher, I can see a universal strain that runs through all of our ideas which, links all of human experience to God (Woods, 2005). It is one part mystical, one part intellectual, and one part willful. It is perhaps the will that is most important of all: after all, Christ called men of good will to Himself, so to really know what God is about it is necessary to cultivate an understanding of goodness and truth -- the transcendentals of which the ancient Greeks (Plato, Socrates, Aristotle) spoke (Sheen, 1951).