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By Mona Why are you religious? This isn’t an easy question to answer. For some, religion provides safety and structure within their lives, for others it allows them to feel loved and a part of a community. However, if you are religious simply because it’s expected of you, you might need to re-evaluate your stance as a religious person. Just like 220 million people worldwide already have.
These people are known as atheists or nontheists, and if you haven’t already guessed, these are people who do not believe in the existence of any gods. In a society as influenced by religion as ours, this can lead to a lot of subconscious discrimination. Religion provides people with a strict set of rules to abide by, such as the Ten Commandments in Christianity and Judaism, and the Shariah in the Islamic religion. These rules are often provided to set guidelines on how people should behave in society and how to live moral and god-fearing lives. Very often these guidelines provide comfort to religious people, bringing structure to their lives and reassurance that others will abide by these laws too. Additionally, providing them with an added feeling of safety. Therefore, a person who does not abide by these guidelines and has no incentive to do so would be regarded as a threat. A threat not only to belief systems but also to the safety of religious people. How can a person who has no belief system, differentiate between right and wrong? How can they be trustworthy people, without the guiding hand of religion? As previously stated religion is a guide on good and moral behaviour, therefore it can be assumed that atheists who do not have this guide within their lives lack good and moral behaviour, or are due to their lack of religion, more susceptible to immoral behaviour. This belief, even unconsciously, leads to discrimination and even fear of nonreligious people. These beliefs cause a distrust of atheists within positions of power. Atheists are very rarely elected as ministers, governors or mayors. Patients often refuse to be treated by doctors and other healthcare providers who identify as atheists. In Ireland, teachers are required to have religious training from Christian universities, in order to work in public schools. In fact, in the countries Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, atheism is a capital punishment. In Brazil, as of 2009, atheists are regarded as the most hated minority group within the country. As an atheist, I do not see myself as any less of a good person, than anybody. We all have the potential to do bad things and have bad thoughts. Resisting these thoughts alone does not make a good person, however, wanting to do better both for yourself and others, is a good start. Simply because I do not have a religion, does not mean that I am inherently a bad person or that I am more likely to do bad things. Neither does it mean that I am in search of religion or in need of conversion. For those of you who would like to learn how to be a part of the solution, here are some tips-
Attempting to shut down aggressive atheism would be denying atheists their freedom of speech. However, this doesn’t mean that you aren’t allowed to disagree with their statements. It simply means that they should be allowed to disagree with beliefs within religion and broadcast those beliefs, without feeling threatened. Religion is a cornerstone of our society, we allow it to influence our behaviour and thoughts, and in some cases, this is a good thing. However, when religion leads to the discrimination of others, we might have to re-evaluate our stands on certain points within our belief systems. After all, we live in a modern world, shouldn't we try to adapt our beliefs to modern times I hope you learned something today? And for those of you who know somebody who has been discriminated against due to their non-religion, here is some help- If you need someone to talk to
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As a young teenager, you are figuring out most of the stuff about you: who you are, what you like, who your true friends are, what your aesthetic is…what do you believe in? In this article we will be discussing the impact and importance of religion, why you need it, and maybe even why you don’t. Stay with us to embark on the journey and discover the wonders of ancient times, where and when these spectacular religions and moral values started.
First of all, what is religion? That is a tricky question, but let’s start off with the “main” religions, and by that I mean the most popular, and their own core values and morals.
I am a Catholic, a branch of Christianity. I love being a Catholic. I love my God, and I love my religion with its impressive core values. I was baptized and went through all the training of knowing what a Catholic is all about, like Confirmation and Eucharist. I have started reading the Bible and knowing the stories ever since I was little, and I haven’t appreciated the Bible until now that I am 16 years old. Even when I was an atheist, I still loved the teachings of the Bible. To me, religions teach you good moral values about how to become a better person to yourself and to others. Religion also teaches us discipline we must have for ourselves. For example, in Buddhism, a good moral value story is “The Buddha and the Hungry Tigress”: Once, in one of his past lives, the Buddha was born as a prince. While walking in the forest, he saw a starving tigress struggling to feed her cubs. The prince felt deep compassion, realizing that if she died, her cubs would suffer as well. Unable to bear their suffering, he sacrificed himself to feed the tigress, demonstrating ultimate selflessness and kindness. Moral: True compassion means selflessly helping others, even at great personal cost. Discipline story of Islam “The Patience of Prophet Muhammad”: An old woman used to throw garbage on Prophet Muhammad daily, but he never reacted with anger. One day, when she fell ill, he visited her with kindness. Touched by his patience and compassion, she embraced Islam. Meaning: Discipline in Islam means controlling emotions, responding with kindness, and staying patient even in hardship. In conclusion, even if you do not wish to pursue any type of religion, I suggest you read and maybe even listen to its teachings to help become a better person. Religion is here to show humans the moral way and show us core values such as kindness, discipline, respect, patience, compassion, and most importantly…love. Being introduced to another type of religion was incredibly interesting. I've never really done any research into the many other types that are out in the world. My friend Marina introduced me to the one she has followed for many years as in her own words, "saved her and changed her life". So, I wanted to see what she meant by that. The first thing she explained to me was that becoming a Buddhist means you open your mind to new worlds, to new people and to new opportunities. At this point, I was intrigued to learn more about how being a Buddhist affects her daily life. Marina had many books on other people's perspectives of Buddhism which I thought was very informative as it shows she accepts other people’s opinions about her religion. She then introduced me to different types of podcasts and Youtubers that have inspired her. She introduced me to her religion because she knows about how I suffer from my mental health daily: she believed if I were to try the ways of Buddhism and explore it, then I could free my mind to hopefully get better. How did I feel about this? Well, don't get me wrong, I was scared at first but then once I explored the ins and outs of the beautiful religion it opened my mind. My favourite part about learning about the religion was through tarot cards. These cards are a healing tool to help us explore the light but also dark parts of our lives. They are also used to help you find guidance and your inner strengths. What I found so interesting about these cards was how they used nature to find self-healing. I've never been one to believe that nature has a cure for everything but I do not doubt it either. I'm very open to listening and learning about how nature can heal us naturally and it's quite magical! Marina also explained how she uses these cards every time she has to make an important decision or if she questions something in her life, she turns to the tarot cards. They help her to justify what to do and how to deal with the current situation. To continue the research into Buddhism, Marina is taking me to her local temple to discover what it's like to be inside one and to meet with the people who look after the temple. I'll get to ask them questions that I've been wanting to find the answer to for a while like; - What inspires them every day to look up to Budda for guidance? - How did they discover the religion? - What would they recommend I look into for guidance? Just by exploring the inner depths of a different religion has been beautiful and it has opened my eyes to the inner beauty of our world. Reading the tarot cards that were picked out and put in front of me tells me how my mind and body need healing. How I should not focus on the past anymore but here and now. As you cannot change the past so what's the point in stressing about it? But what you can work on is your future but most importantly right now, work on your happiness, your inner being and your mind and soul! Healing is a process that takes time but it is possible! So, from here I will take the next step to find more help. For my mental health and well-being, I have a strong belief in how these tarot cards and the religion can help me guide myself through recovery and hopefully, one day be able to live my life again with happiness. - Mel MELMy faith has been something that I have had a very complex journey with. It is a journey filled with lots of suffering, tribulation, confusion, immeasurable joy, great peace, pursuit of truth and answers, and a journey that I’m still taking to this day. Honestly, this feels very big for me because, for the first time ever, I am going to do what the church calls bearing witness which means talking about how Jesus changed my life. My journey starts all the way back to when I was a baby. During that time period, my mom and dad were with the Catholic Church and baptized me in it when I was one. However, due to numerous ideological differences, my parents chose to leave the Catholic Church and set off to enter a relatively new church called Buckhead Church. My parents really liked and connected with this church and as a small child, so did I. I continued to attend Buckhead Church for many years enjoying the way it related the Bible to the modern day. I believe a lot of this enjoyment came from the fact that during that period of time, my religious views were not challenged at all. Doubts started to arise however when I was in 7th grade, since some of my friends were atheists who were very open about their lack of belief. This was the first time ever that I felt like I had my beliefs challenged and not knowing how to react, the first seeds of doubt were planted. Entering a Catholic high school didn’t help either. There I was taught things that seemed directly opposed to my middle school and church. Where my middle school and church taught me to love and accept all people regardless of background, my High School was more conservative and some of their views felt like they contradicted and nullified what I had learned previously. Also, I had a huge falling out with all of my friends during my freshman year. These events ended up causing me to lose my faith in God at the time because in my mind, “How could it be possible that God is an all-loving being but at the same time be homophobic and religionist as well as allow me to lose everyone that I thought was close to me at school?”. For about two years of my life, I became pretty atheistic, untrusting, insecure, and very resentful toward myself. In fact, I began to hate myself so much that I ended up doing something that I really really regret now: I started to sink pretty deep into a porn addiction. I didn’t care how evil it was at the time but I just wanted pleasure, happiness and anything that could get me to forget how horrible and depressed I felt. As expected, it brought no joy whatsoever. On my 11th-grade retreat, however, I heard a testimony from one of my school missionaries about his journey to Christ and his battle with his own porn addiction to get there. I related to his story so much that I decided to cut it off once and for all. Little did I know that this was the first step to my journey back into the arms of the Lord. It wasn’t until I read the Divine Comedy at school that I felt that I wanted to reconnect with my faith. The book had a lot to say about the spiritual life and I ended up finding that very interesting. While reading the book, I decided to communicate with God again through prayer. It started out as kind of scary at first but after a while, it became pretty comforting actually. It was at a retreat that my small group from Church and I went to that things really started heating up. It was right there that I had what I’d call an ‘Aha!’ Moment. I really bonded with my small group and really felt the presence of God radiating all over during that experience. But still, there was a long journey ahead of me. It was the end of my spring break and there was a lot of talk about this “COVID” thing escalating quickly. Little did I know, however,that my entire world would be turned totally upside down. When the lockdown began and everything went online, I was completely hurt, scared, and lost because I had always been one to try to look into the future in order to find a likely outcome based on everything going on and this time around, I couldn’t find a likely foreseeable thing that I could be certain will happen. I scoured everywhere for answers but all around me were nothing but clueless experts, scientists, and politicians. All of this eventually led me to seek the answers that I craved from the only person who I knew wasn’t clueless at all: Jesus Christ. It was during the pandemic that I felt that I truly accepted Jesus as my lord and savior. -Alejandro P.S: To be honest, my choosing to finally say yes to Christ was only the beginning since before me was a road that involved much more struggle and confusion after that. This is a road that I haven’t finished crossing yet but I continue to walk vigilantly. I hope this article may provide you with comfort and hope after reading it. AlejandroReligion is a very passionate concept. Many people base their lifestyle on their beliefs and spend their whole lives worshiping or aiming to please/idolise one, or many, or nothing. Meanwhile, others will have beliefs but only follow the basic codes/morals of said religion and not throw themselves towards it. Religion has a huge variety of cultures and beliefs. There are many religions in the world, some examples being Judaism, Hinduism, Wicca, and Asatru. All these religions, and many more, come with a variety of passionate and part believers/followers, plus a huge amount of ‘rules’, rituals and services. Sometimes there can be clashes between religions and sometimes there can be harmony. Nevertheless, there is an abundance of faiths to choose from. However, a huge problem can lie when you want to officially convert to a religion when you are already considered part of another. I was a Catholic child by my own decision. Admittedly, I went to a Christian school, but when I was seven I decided to be Baptised at my Church. I became a server, made friends (old and young) from the Parish and really enjoyed myself. But years later, I discovered Wicca, a modern Pagan religion, which I clicked with right away. I read books and researched its holidays, traditions, morals etc. and fell in love! Then it hit me: I was still a Catholic who was meant to pretty much go against a lot of the Pagan traditions and follow the word of God. I was on two different sides of the spectrum and had NO idea what to do. I still had an attachment to Christianity but Wicca was the way forward for me. I kept it from my family as I knew they would, unfortunately, laugh at the idea of Wicca, but spoke to some friends about my conundrum. It was a mixed reaction and by the end of it, I still didn’t know what to do. Did I still believe in God? Did He know I was considering becoming Wicca? What if the Wiccans laughed at me? What if I’m judged by anyone and everyone? What does it all mean? I was convinced that I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. This lasted until I followed a witch on TikTok who posted a video preaching about validation for Christian witches. CHRISTIAN WITCHES!! I was elated and had never felt more at peace with myself. Through this one amazing women’s ability to share love and peace, I found myself very unexpectedly. I learned from this experience how hard a conflict in beliefs can be. Luckily for me, no ceremonial conversion was needed, but I know in many cases it can lead to arguments between friends and family (for example, a Jew wanting to convert to Islam would be rather difficult to do, depending on the family of course). I think the best thing to do is to always trust your gut instinct. If you are stuck in a religion that you do not believe in, it can lead to difficulties in the future and sometimes make you quite miserable and drained. Don’t forget that if people don't think your beliefs are valid or do not support you in your endeavours, then they are not worth the friendship! Here are some simple things you can do if you are unsure about your beliefs:
I hope that this advice helped you in your struggles, and may you have a wonderful life being comfortable and at peace with your beliefs. IngeI feel like I need to preface this article with a disclaimer. I have nothing against Christians; these are just my experiences and not many of them are positive. I’ve grown up with two moms and being queer myself, in the Midwestern United States. I have religious trauma that I work every day to recover from. I’ll also be talking about my experience in a cult, which will remain nameless for the sake of the people still trapped in it. There is a trigger warning for talking about religion and mild mentions of abuse. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into this. I’m extremely pleased with where I am spiritually, but it hasn’t always been that way. I hopped from church to church to try and be satisfied in a faith that hated my very existence. Growing up in a religiously saturated midwestern town gave me a fair bit of religious trauma that I won't go into detail about because I have just come to terms with it myself. I started in a small nondenominational church in Nebraska. I stayed here for five years until I moved to Oklahoma. While at the surface level it seemed to be a very positive environment, I only saw it that way because I was a small child. One day in Sunday school we were forced to walk around the basement carrying multiple chairs on our backs, with the justification that this is what our sins were like. Please remember that the majority of us were four to eight years old. This was one of the many times I've realized something that happened was wrong, but this is the one I've chosen to share. Then I joined a cult. Well, it was more my Grandma joined and I got dragged along. It was disguised as a small family church run out of an abandoned gas station. It seemed innocent at first, though that was due to the way it was run. The leaders would slowly phase you up until you were either brainwashed or realized it was a cult. I was in their youth program considering the fact I was 7-10 years old. When we misbehaved or questioned what they told us, we were sent to our “spiritual guide”, who would most of the time punish us physically. That is as far as I’m willing to go into my experience there. I’m still trying to reconnect with the child I was before that experience. I left after I was told to wear a skirt and “boycott” pants or go to Hell. My grandma is extremely spiritual and was desperate to find another church, so after a while, we found ourselves in a Catholic Mass. I was ushered into the youth group, where I started crying asking to not be taken to the guide because I was in pants. The youth pastor then looked at me with a puzzled expression, whispered something to her assistant, and I was ushered off as sobs racked my body and I had my first ever panic attack. I was dragged to a separate room where I was told to step into the small pool, and I was forcefully baptized to “get rid of my demons”. We went to that church for about a year where I was baptized a total of ten times because my mental illness and trauma were seen as demons trying to possess me. I was 11. After the constant torment, I was done with religion. I was an atheist for a good two years, with pent up anger and trauma. But then one of my friends invited me to her church, and I sucked in a breath as I saw a gas station up ahead and we turned into it. It was the cult. Her mom parked the car and I tried to say something, but nothing came out. What was said to me that night was unforgettable and traumatic. I cut her out of my life and I never went back there; in fact, I moved right after that happened and was dragged to another church. This was a megachurch, and I’m sure anyone from Oklahoma can guess which one it was. I went for a year until I broke down to my mom, who is agnostic, unlike my grandmother who is ultra-Christian. I was told I was a sin for existing because my mom had me out of wedlock, and their homophobia and transphobia had become apparent. That was the last time I stepped into a church or looked towards the Christian faith. I’m happily a Pagan witch and I’m healing from what organized religion has done to me. So here’s a list of signs I’ve compiled of when a church/religion is becoming toxic:
As for leaving your parent’s religion, there are a few things to consider. If your safety will be in danger, don’t do it until you are independent. By independent, I mean financially withdrawn from them, moved out into a place you rent or own, and fully prepared to cut them out of your life. If you won’t be in danger, start with excuses to miss religious services and break them in slowly. If you are accepted then feel free to practice your new religion freely. Please remember that these are just my experiences. If you are happy in any of these religions, please don’t take offense to this, it’s just my experience. Religion means a lot to many groups of people, which means it is one of the easiest ways to be manipulated. Be safe and love yourself no matter what and you’ll be fine.
Islam has been wide-spreaded religion for centuries. One of the countries with the majority of muslims is Indonesia. In islam, there is a month called Ramadan, where Muslims around the world must refrain from eating and drinking from morning before sunrise to falls at sunset for 30 days. Muslims also must refrain from doing bad habits, because this is a holy month. Instead they are encouraged to do considerable good deeds, because of the huge rewards will be given. While it may seem ordinary, Ramadan is a most awaited month. It is common for nonmuslims join to enliven the month. Every Muslim around the world has unique habits or traditions only during Ramadan. Here, I’ll explain several traditions that make Ramadan very meaningful to its people.
Those are several traditions or habits during Ramadan. There are still plenty of traditions Indonesians do that aren't enough to write. Also, during pandemic, there are several traditions restricted to avoid any burst covids’ cases in certain places, such as visiting extended family.
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Teenagers With Experience is an online organisation created to provide teenagers worldwide with an online platform to share their own experiences to be able to help, inform and educate others on a variety of different topics. We aim to provide a safe space to all young people. You can contact us via email, social media or our contact form.
Please note that the content on this website is created by teenagers. While we strive to provide accurate and helpful information, it is important to remember that we are not professional experts. If you are experiencing a crisis or need professional advice, please reach out to a qualified mental health professional or a helpline. |