whatever!

Okay, having just come across some opinions of religion, I am getting INCREDIBLY frustrated. People seem to think they can just judge religion because of all the bad things that happen, because they think religion is all about living happily ever after in your own little bubble of perfection and never ever ever suffering, and doing everything perfectly - like religion is going to fix every problem and every issue you have, and if it doesn't, then it doesn't work.

Let me tell you - IT WON'T WORK LIKE THAT EVER!
And if you think it will, you're sorely mistaken. Sorry. That's the problem with religion - and funny how religion is only pertaining to Christianity, however if your religion is Buddhism,then it's all okay!

Lets go through Buddhism: If you are to move up spiritual planes in Buddhism, you must deny yourself of every material pleasure, in fact almost all pleasure, and become 'perfect'. Only when you are one hundred per cent perfect can you reach the nirvana or whatever, and come back to life as something. And you know that every single little thing that happens to you is a result of your own fault? So if you fail a test - your fault. If you were dumped as a kid - your fault. If you lose your phone - your fault. If your parents divorce - your fault. Nice and hopeful, huh? Great thing to worship, having to be perfect and do best in life. Good luck with it. And Buddha? You can go visit his grave. Go on. You can see it right there in front of you, if you go. No doubt about it - Buddha died. And he sure didn't come back. What about Mohammed? He didn't exactly come back either. You can go and visit his grave too. So a great saviour huh? Did either of those guys come BACK to life? They found their bodies.

They never found Jesus' body. You think that wouldn't have rocked Christianity and created an entirely different belief in Christianity today? Sure, people voted on what would make up the Bible. But what about the Koran - world changing stuff? Hardly - it was written a fair few years after the Bible, and there are a LOT of commonalities between them. And why? Cos Jesus had already rocked the world. People were and are just too scared to be led by the guy who died and CAME BACK TO LIFE, in a time where medicine was practically non-existent.

And why do bad things happen? You all know the story of Adam and Eve. They sinned. They were tempted and they sinned - they disobeyed God. So the second Eve took that bite of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge - sin entered the world. And the POINT of sin is that it isn't fair - why do you think the Devil uses it? Cos he WANTS to mess with your lives, and make sure you don't get eternal life, to try to pay God back for being a zillion times more powerful than him. And you know why the Devil making you sin will pay God back? Cos GOD LOVES YOU. HE LOVES YOU SO MUCH HE LET HIS OWN SON DIE. So that little you, who sits up the back being emo about life, which is all of us, can get to spend eternity with God, living it up and being able to be perfect, cos we are with God. But like Jesus said, 'The only way to the Father is through me.' So you wanna go to heaven and be perfect? You gotta lay down your life for Jesus, just like he laid down his life for you. And that's HARD. And you know what else? It isn't about 'religion'. It's all about relationships. A strong, beautiful relationship between you and Jesus, and you and God, cos God doesn't care if you don't follow every rule, if you don't do every step of Communion, or whatever, because as long as you obey what HE is telling you, and you just love him with everything you have - including your money, your time, and all that - then God's happy with you. And then you can go to heaven.

And sure - some people won't make it. Some won't commit their lives, cos they're scared. They're scared of the sacrifice, and you know what? God even says in the Bible he doesn't want half hearted commitments. He wants a full on, strong passionate relationship with you, cos he cant stand any less. So it's HARD. It takes sacrifice. It means that sometimes you gotta do stuff you don't wanna do. But the fact is - you have a choice. And if you don't want eternal life - okay. That's your choice, and the beauty of God is, he loves you regardless. However, if you decide you don't want God - if everything I've been saying is true - you won't get to go to heaven. You're not going to that eternal party - cos you decided you didn't want to. And God GAVE us that choice, cos who wants forced love? The best kinda love is the one that's given of that person's free will. And that's what God desires.

So guys - don't judge religion before you know enough to be able to make an opinion. And even then - you'll never know the whole story. That's impossible. It's about faith. It's about trust. Ask away if you wanna know anything else - I'll try to answer.