I'm supposed to be writing an essay right now so I'm on the internet. Standard.
Following on from my last serious blog about sex education I'd like to carry on with this grown up talk. So the essay I've got to write is about secularisation in 20th century Europe, I never thought I'd find the history of religion interesting but hell it is.
I am Jewish but also an atheist. It's easy for me to self-define this way because there are so many parts of Judaism that I can celebrate for purely cultural or traditional reasons rather than religious. A bit like Christmas for most of society these days. More often than not we're celebrating being with our family, presents and a massive meal. We're not celebrating the birth of Jesus.
My upbringing was very interesting, I live in a part of Manchester which is stereotypically known to be very hippie, left wing, vegetarian etc... And it is also extremely atheist. Growing up and going to primary school and then secondary school I felt that religion was dead, it was never an issue that came up and none of my friends were religious. Then I went to sixth form college and I met my first Catholic and it was weird. I genuinely believed they didn't exist in Britain anymore. But hey it turns out they do and now one of my best friends is a Catholic and an ex-boyfriend of mine was also a Christian. However, in my world they were still a minority. Then I came to university and within my block in my halls of residence at least one fifth are Christian. Now this completely screwed over my little brain that told me almost everyone nowadays is an atheist. It really shows how being brought up in a certain way or a certain place can make you believe things about the world.
Being away from home and the environment I grew up in is really helping me learn things about the world that I otherwise would never have found out if I hadn't moved out.
I realise religion is a tricky topic and often people don't like to talk about their personal beliefs in public. However, I'd like to know if you ever had any preconceptions about the world and then you were proved wrong.
I hope you all have a good weekend and you don't have an essay to write like I do.
Hannah
oh, religion is such a complex topic!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a catholic family and we went to church a couple times every year and I never really liked it. But I thought that all the people in Switzerland (where I live) must be Christians and it was very weird to realise that it's not like that at all. There were many muslims at my school and most of them were very nice.
So during the last years I started seeing religion as a thing that tears people apart because of the prejudices most have towards other religions. I'm not religious at all anymore. It made me more open-minded towards others, I guess.
Well living in Northern Ireland, where it's definitely more traditional and religious than the rest of the UK, I found this really interesting how secular your life has been. I mean...it's the law that there must be some form of Christian worship everyday in schools here. This, I am sure would seem shocking to you, but it's just the norm here.
ReplyDeleteI myself am a Christian, I grew up in a Christian home and my religion is important to me. Sometimes what I find strange about the Internet, is that people claim to be very open minded and use the fact that they aren't homophobic for example, but are very hypocritical and closed minded about religion, so that's something which is hard coming to terms with (I don't mean that you do this, just a generalisation haha)
Anywaaaay, I've only very recently started watching your videos/reading your blog and I just wanted to say that I really enjoy them :)
Emma x
I don't think its dead, I just think that religion has lost its strength within everyday society for example 50years ago a large amount of the community would go to church every Sunday in their best clothes.
ReplyDeleteI do believe theres a difference between religious on paper and actually practicing, I know alot of people who'd call themselves catholic but never go to church.
My view on religion is like, thats fine if you have a religion just don't shove it down my throat and to those who don't have a religion, don't try and critise me for having some set of beliefs.
When I was younger I watched a video about the birth and death of Jesus and it was horrifying and graphic and so I now have quite negative connotations with Jesus and religion. I am quite a logical person who likes proof so I find it hard to have faith in something like a religion. I also don't like the idea that I am a puppet or a follower of someone, I don't like that idea that one entity is in control. I have no problem if others believe in a god or gods (some of my best friends go to church every Sunday) and I am ready to listen to if they have reasons, but for me, I'm not convinced.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Christian and grew up in a Christian home, went to church every Sunday and also attended (and still do) a Christian School. When I was younger, I thought that one either was a Christian or an Atheist and was fairly surprised to find out there were many many other religions.
ReplyDelete(I also agree with what Emma said about people on the internet sometimes being close-minded about religion)
Our childhood experiences with religion were almost completely opposite, i think. I live in the Bible Belt and almost everyone around here is religious. I mean, i still remember the first time I ever found out someone was an atheist. It was sixth grade and everyone at school was talking about it all day, like "did you hear that devon doesn't believe in God?!" This was unheard of. And then we all agreed to pray for him.
ReplyDeleteMost of us became less religious as we got older (most people that i know aren't actually dedicated church-goers. they usually just identify themselves as christian and go on major holidays) and it's not as shocking anymore. But still, I can't think of one person around here who is openly an atheist. I've known that I don't really believe in God for almost 4 years now, but I'm reluctant to openly identify myself as an atheist because of the negative stigma attached to it. Also, it would break my mom's heart. My uncle is a priest too, and is like the star of the family, so it would just become very awkward. It's just strange how different our environments are.
Hannah I started watching your videos a few weeks ago and find them quite enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a post here http://metacognitivethoughts.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/thoughts-on-sex/ about some of my pre-conceived ideas surrounding sex. I usually assume that people my age haven't had sex yet,because I was raised in a culture where sex was for married people. And I usually find it shocking when I find out that people my age have had sex or having regular sex. It's so strange to me to think that people who were a part of the same culture that I was have a different version of sex.
I'm not saying that having sex is bad or wrong or shameful, it is just surprising to me that other people have a different viewpoint or idea of the importance of meaning of sex than I do.
I'm very much in the same boat as Ruby. I live in the bible belt area and most everyone is Christian. Other religions are considered an oddity to most. I've grown up in a pretty active christian home though my mother is Catholic and my father is a Baptist. I regularly attend both churches on Sunday. It pretty rare for someone to be an open atheist around where I live and there are such negative connotations.
ReplyDeleteProbably closer to 2 or 3 years ago my best friend told me she was an atheist and I thought she was totally bonkers! How could someone not believe there was a God! I told my self it was impossible and that she secretly believed because I just thought it was impossible not to believe.
I tried to stay open minded about it and tried to talk sense into her because it was my idea of "fixing a problem". I still at that point associated atheism with being a terrible thing. Despite the fact that I had no problems with people being gay etc.
So a few months ago I came to the conclusion after much debate and inner turmoil with myself that I was agnostic. It was extremely hard for me to come to this conclusion and reach the point that I accepted that I don't believe in a God and that I am in fact an atheist. I've only told a few people that I'm really close to and no one in my family. They would be crushed and probably think I was a horrible person who worships Satan even thought I don't believe there's a Satan either...
-Lynnette
i dont think religion is dead
ReplyDeleteim the only atheist in my school i get a lot of shit for it but its all good. My mum is muslim dont know about dad. P.S. look up mithras i think u will fined it interesting
PPS Jews r toooooo cool just saying
This was a really interesting post and I feel totally compelled to respond.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I was raised Jewish but essentially consider myself Atheist. I didn't realize we had that in common. I still feel very strongly connected to my Jewish roots and I appreciate the holidays and family and friends. I also feel a kinship with most other Jews I meet.
I have had way more of a relation to other religions though. My dad was raised Catholic, my mom Jewish (but they didn't do anything). We spend Christmas and Easter with my dads family. My family doesn't go to church and it's really about getting together with family but growing up I have always felt religion was kind of unnecessary.
I have seen so much fighting and arguing and pain and its all because of this crazy faith you learn from your parents. RANT RANT RANT.
Yeah, I just wanted to say that I enjoyed this post and am glad to sort of have another Jewish friend.
There really aren't a lot of religious people in many places anymore. I only really know 2 religious people, a Hindi girl from Nepal and a girl who isn't quite sure whether she's Roman Catholic/Greek Orthodox/Ukrainian Orthodox from Ukraine. The general consensus in my school.sixth form seems to be that we think that everything in religious texts does have real origins, but barely anyone would actually describe themselves as religious.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I did go to a CofE Primary school, my mum only sent me there because it was the best school in the town. It did seem to be the norm there to be Christian, and to have been Christened, but I wasn't alienated for being from an Atheist background. Actually, I did go through a period of believing in God, but that didn't last long. I do have to say, though, when the local reverend is coming round, as has people put their hands up if he Christened them, and you're the only one who doesn't have their hand up, it is a little sad. Oh, and they made even the non-religious folk pray too, and the 2 Hindi girls who came in the last 2 years. Whilst I get that it was a Christian school, it didn't really seem fair.
We didn't pray at all once we got to Secondary, and even in RE classes, it wasn't really discussed if you were religious or not, which did help me feel like I fit in a little more. Even though the main focus of RE was Christianity, it wasn't like we were being lectured on being religious or anything.
I'm doing AS Religious Studies and I am planning to carry it on to A2, and we had a discussion about being religious the other week, and the only religious person in there was the Ukrainian girl, and the rest of us did seem to have quite similar ideas about religion. It does seeem like, on the whole, England isn't a very religious country anymore, which I honestly don't care about it, but it is interesting to see people that are, and how they behave differently. Side note - the module we're doing right now is entirely on Judaism.
I wouldn't say religion is dead about but at the same time I wouldn't say you're wrong about quite a lot of people being atheists these days.
ReplyDeleteI live in Ireland and I'd say about 98% of all primary schools here are Catholic (I wish I was exaggerating) and, as far as I'm aware, all secondary schools are Catholic. Very few people I know believe in God and even then very few, even if they identify as Catholic or Christian, would actually practice their religion regularly.
So even if there are less Atheists around than you thought originally in my experience very few Christians are practicing Christians and identify as Christian in the same way you identify as a Jew. Religion may not be dead but in my opinion it is dying.
i am a religious Jew myself - but i can completely understand your point of view. i live in Israel, and what you may not know is that 80% of the Jewish population in Israel is not religious. so Hannah - your not raising anything new. Judaism is way more than just believing in god. its an entire life style - a strong, powerful and rich heritage that goes thousands of years back. i love being Jewish. im proud of my fathers and ancestors. and you can be too - without believing in god. ain't nothing wrong with that.
ReplyDeleteReligion is definitely not dead, and it's highly unlikely that it will die.
ReplyDeleteJust the other day I was talking to my R.E teacher about this. He says, that the Catholic church church has almost given up on Australia (and a number of developing countries) and have instead focussed support, and teaching and all religiony things on more developing countries, including China and India and most countries in Africa. And that they would be hoping for a revival after a few years (or decades).
For me and in my experience, most people (that are my age, 17) that I know, will classify themselves without really thinking about it, or without thinking about why they think what they think and where that fits in with religion. (This happens both for Atheists that I know and other Religious people I know).
When it comes to classifying myself it becomes really quite uncomfortable, because I think that you shouldnt really "pick and choose" things that suit you in your religion. A prime example of this would be if someone called themselves Jewish, but ate pork (and ate it frequently). Something like that, that one would say they are of a certain religion and believe it, but then not follow all the Religion's rules or customs. I think it should be taken to mean that they believe all of it, and respect ALL their religions customs and beliefs. And so that if one is Jewish and eats pork that one is, not sort of, I don't want to say not Jewish or not as good of a Jew, but I don't know, maybe not able to classify themselves as a Jew. Which sounds really harsh, but it would seem weird that you could, maybe, use your religion to your advantage or to justify somethings sometimes, but then just ignore it at other times, when it doesnt suit you. That you can't just be a certain religion when it suits, is basically what I'm saying.