Okay, I am going to start tonight off with a rather longish quote by Blaise Pascal. Don't worry, although the quote is about a belief in God, I am not going to get all preachy here about any particular religion. No, instead I am going to try and tie them all together.
The quote in question is: "Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists." I like the quote. While he speaks of believing in God, he doesn't come right out and tell you which one to believe in. I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to separate my faith from my religion. In essence, I am a consumer of religion. I do go to church and I am catholic. Still I find my faith in God is more internalized and less about something I get in church every Sunday (or at least enough Sundays that it feels like every Sunday... okay, MOST Sundays!). I believe that for me to be true to my faith, I need to live my faith. I don't need a church to do this. I need respect and kindness for others; a kind word, a helping hand... I need to treat people as I want to be treated, and I need to be peaceful above all else. Sure, I have my moments where everything doesn't go as planned. It is part of being human. I don't allow that to shake my belief that there is a higher power than me out there. Marcus Aurelius said it best in my opinion. ""Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but...will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones." This is my philosophy. Live a good life and have faith in a higher power. Call it what you will, but to me, it is God.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
September 2021
Categories
All
|