My Religion | Teen Ink
  1. Home
  2. Opinion
  3. Spirituality / Religion
  4. My Religion

My Religion MAG

By Anonymous

I have a magnet on my mirror stating, “Life is not about finding yourself – life is about creating yourself.” This is the statement I live by.

Many people do not believe me when I say I am an atheist. They don’t understand that I simply do not believe in any sort of god or afterlife. I also do not believe in the devil, in angels, or in souls. I believe in myself and the strength I have gained through the help of my parents, teachers, and friends – and my own hard work.

I am not going to try to dissuade anyone from his or her own opinions either. I know that people enjoy having religion in their lives; some need their faith to help them through hard times. And some do not want the responsibility of their misfortunes weighing down on their shoulders.

I do. I abhor the idea of fate – that everything is already planned out and you have no control to change anything. If you believe in fate, when bad things happen, it is not your fault; it’s just fate. When my life is not going well, I know that it is no one’s fault but my own. When I do well in school, when I fall in love, it is not fate and we are not soul mates. I worked hard and paid attention and did the homework. My love and I simply love each other – that is all it is, and for me that is all it needs to be.

For some, life is overwhelming. How can anyone be successful and happy in such a difficult, horrible world? They need someone to help them, someone to guide them, and someone to have faith in to make sure things get better. Placing my success and happiness in another’s hands breaks my heart. I need to be successful because of my efforts. I must be responsible for my own happiness. That is what I need from my religion.

Who will ever know what the truth really is? All I know is in the same way that some have full faith and trust in God to give them hope, I need to believe I am on my own to be truly happy – for how can I create myself if I spend my entire life just looking?

© Anonymous

Post a comment
Submit your own

Similar Articles

Previous Next
Opinion
Simplicity and Serenity
By Anonymous
Opinion
This Is Not A Boring Story About Religion
By 185441 SILVER
398765, Other
185441 SILVER, 398765, Other
5 articles 0 photos 13 comments

Favorite Quote:
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. - Nietzsche

View profile
Opinion
The lord him self
By Stevennew93 SILVER
St Louis, Missouri
Stevennew93 SILVER, St Louis, Missouri
7 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
&ldquo;I set goals, take control, drink out my own bottle<br /> I make mistakes but learn from every one<br /> And when it&#039;s said and done<br /> I bet this brother be a better one<br /> If I upset you dont stress<br /> Never forget, that God isn&#039;t finished with me yet&rdquo;<br /> By 2pac Shakur

View profile
Opinion
It's the Only Way
By Something_Underneath SILVER
Ozawkie, Kansas
Something_Underneath SILVER, Ozawkie, Kansas
6 articles 0 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
I said I&#039;d fight back. I didn&#039;t say that I&#039;d fight fair.

View profile
Opinion
The Blind Man
By LadiesMan PLATINUM
Great Falls, Montana
LadiesMan PLATINUM, Great Falls, Montana
41 articles 2 photos 26 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death&quot;

View profile
Opinion
The Wind
By Mequell SILVER
Columbus, Georgia
Mequell SILVER, Columbus, Georgia
6 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
The Skies not the limit....the Stars are:]

View profile

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 764 comments.

ambnyc SILVER said...
on Oct. 6 2011 at 6:38 am
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you&#039;re in love when you can&#039;t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

View profile
Using a hundred-year-old example is kind of irrelevant.... you could say the same thing for medicine, because after all, we bled people out with leeches a hundred years ago. Or religion-hundreds of years ago you could be burned at the stake for saying the wrong thing. Science has made leaps and bounds. Modern day science cannot simply be dismissed as "Oh, those silly scientists don't know anything." Particularly theories of evolution and the big bang, which are supported by a vast body of scientific evidence. And your statement about proving God is true... Similarly, I could say "I believe in invisible flying pink unicorns. Prove they don't exist." Because there is not, and will never be, hard scientific evidence for a "God", I choose to reject religion and ally of its accompanying fables. Of course, your personal faith is none of my business, these are just my beliefs. As for an in depth discussion of the big bang, I'd suggest talking to a scientist (or science teacher), because I am not a scientist and fear I don't have enough knowledge about it to get into a debate.
MagusEceerb SILVER said...
on Oct. 6 2011 at 6:05 am
MagusEceerb SILVER, Buttville, South Carolina
9 articles 0 photos 80 comments
View profile
First of all, if the energy that made the universe "changed its form" where did the original energy it changed from come from?  Second of all, the "laws of science" are scraps of knowledge we have pieced together with our very limited senses and tools.  Hundreds of years ago a "law of science" was that if something was launched into the air, it would go straight up at angle, reach its peak, and then sharply turn to fall at an exact angle, like a triangle.  My point is that we certainly don't know anything for sure, and it makes just as much sense logically to say "prove to me a God doesn't exist" as it does the inverse.
ambnyc SILVER said...
on Oct. 5 2011 at 7:36 pm
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you&#039;re in love when you can&#039;t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

View profile
Indeed. The energy was never created, it changed its form. And by your logic a supreme being never would've been able to create anything either, despite that the laws of science do not apply to supernatural phenomena.
JulianneV GOLD said...
on Oct. 4 2011 at 4:27 pm
JulianneV GOLD, Shamong, New Jersey
17 articles 17 photos 27 comments

Favorite Quote:
Be the change you want to see in the world. ~ Gandhi

View profile
I agree... this is kind of like Buddhism, though.
MagusEceerb SILVER said...
on Oct. 2 2011 at 4:33 pm
MagusEceerb SILVER, Buttville, South Carolina
9 articles 0 photos 80 comments
View profile
So it makes no sense, with what we know in today's scientific knowledge, that the universe just "randomly happened".  It had to come from somewhere, because according to our scientific laws, creation just doesn't "happen randomly".
ambnyc SILVER said...
on Sep. 30 2011 at 4:19 pm
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you&#039;re in love when you can&#039;t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

View profile

Erm. The laws of conservation of matter and energy state that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can change its form.

So... ?

ambnyc SILVER said...
on Sep. 30 2011 at 4:17 pm
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you&#039;re in love when you can&#039;t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

View profile

Heather, carbon dating and other scientific methods account for us knowing about fossils. Pick up a Biology textbook and you will see why evolution makes sense.

You're using the word "theory" wrong. Evolution is not a theory in the colloquial sense of the word. In the scientific world, a theory is not the same as it is in our vernacular. It means a claim supported by a VAST body of evidence, which lends itself to many experiments and hypotheses that prove or falsify it (in evolution's case, prove it), and for which there is no equal alternative and is generally accepted as fact.

MagusEceerb SILVER said...
on Sep. 29 2011 at 6:48 pm
MagusEceerb SILVER, Buttville, South Carolina
9 articles 0 photos 80 comments
View profile
Well actually the logic of a universe existing without a God contradicts itself.  The law of conservation of matter and energy states that this universe could not have been created randomly.  The only logical explanation is that something (or someone) had to have existed forever in order for anything to exist at all.  Chances are that whatever has existed forever will continue existing forever and does exist now.  For some reason that sounds an awful lot like God to me.
Confused_scheherazade ELITE said...
on Sep. 24 2011 at 12:03 am
Confused_scheherazade ELITE, Brooklyn, New York, New York
132 articles 0 photos 24 comments

Favorite Quote:
I know nothing, but of miracles.

View profile
Thanks. It's to know that someone believes in thinking about the harder topics in life. I can't say that I'm strongly into religion. I believe that people should act kind and warm for themselves, not for someoneelse. Great article. Can you read mine, To Hell and to Heaven.
Heather C. said...
on Sep. 23 2011 at 8:44 pm
To msoccerm, I think you explained the Trinity perfectly. Though in itself it's a hard thing to put into words. And I'm with you, God all the way.
Heather C. said...
on Sep. 23 2011 at 8:39 pm
I don't understand how evolution makes any sense. I mean, if dinosaurs died out before humans walked the earth, how did we know? We weren't there yet. Who recorded it? And why does the theory, and I repeat, "Theory" of evolution keep changing? I'm glad the Book never changes.
Heather C. said...
on Sep. 23 2011 at 8:32 pm
Sorry, didn't mean to post the same thing twice!
Heather C. said...
on Sep. 23 2011 at 8:26 pm
I am a Christian. I believe in a supernatural being. I don't believe in Him because I don't want the responsibility of my actions to weigh down on my shoulders. Believe me when I say that when I do something I shouldn't, I know that there is no one to blame but myself. I can empathize with many of your points, but I love to believe that there is my heavenly Father looking down on me with love. I quote, "I would rather live my life believing that there is a god, and die to find out that there isn't, than to live my life believing in no god, and die to find out that there is."
Heather C. said...
on Sep. 23 2011 at 8:21 pm
I'm a Christian. I believe in a supernatural being. But it's not because I don't want the responsibility of my actions on my shoulders. When I do something I shouldn't, I know that there is no one to blame but myself. I can empathize with many of your points, but I love to believe the I have a heavenly Father looking down on me with love. I quote, "I'd rather live my life believing that there is a god and die to find out there isn't, than to live my life not believing that there is a god and die to find out there is."
ambnyc SILVER said...
on Sep. 14 2011 at 8:37 pm
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you&#039;re in love when you can&#039;t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

View profile
Could you link me to this study?
alexandria1124 BRONZE said...
on Sep. 14 2011 at 8:24 pm
alexandria1124 BRONZE, Nowhere., Kentucky
1 article 0 photos 28 comments
View profile
Oh, okay. I understand what you're saying it was pretty confusing... haha. But, my first point would be - so much salt goes into the ocean each and every year right? Well, they've measured it up, and have concluded that if the world has been around for 600 billion years, then the ocean would be like walking on a salt block because so much would have been deposited into it.
alexandria1124 BRONZE said...
on Sep. 14 2011 at 8:22 pm
alexandria1124 BRONZE, Nowhere., Kentucky
1 article 0 photos 28 comments
View profile
To lovetildeath, I agree completely. Our world is not perfect because sin entered our world with Adam and Eve. Also, if we were created from random science (which is quite depressing...) we would look more like clones than unique individuals and we wouldn't have a built in since of right and wrong.
ambnyc SILVER said...
on Sep. 14 2011 at 8:21 pm
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you&#039;re in love when you can&#039;t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

View profile
"Not willing to believe" is not interchangeable with" not willing to listen, discuss and learn." In my prior talks with Christians, they have failed to make me" believe." I am "unwilling to believe" unless sufficient evidence is provided that a "God" exists, for which there is none, nor will ever be (of the scientific sort.) I am willing to listen and discuss with you, if so given the opportunity.
alexandria1124 BRONZE said...
on Sep. 14 2011 at 8:18 pm
alexandria1124 BRONZE, Nowhere., Kentucky
1 article 0 photos 28 comments
View profile
Scientist recently found a dinosaur fossil that still had bone marrow in it, which proves that it is more along the lines of 3000 years old instead of 30 billion. In Job 41, a beast is described that resembles a dinosaur and could very well be one. If you're wandering when they died out, it could have possibly been the flood. To understand the Christian point of view, start with Genesis 1:1, and the rest will make more since than most evolution theories.
alexandria1124 BRONZE said...
on Sep. 14 2011 at 8:15 pm
alexandria1124 BRONZE, Nowhere., Kentucky
1 article 0 photos 28 comments
View profile
We can't because you're not willing to believe. Nothing I say would change your mind right now unless you were ready to listen and discuss and learn.