Heaven Is A Place On Earth
A Religious Self-Examination Experiment

STATE OF CONFUSION

At present, I am 19 years old and when people ask me if I am religious I do not know what to say. Religious means that I am going to church and I have accepted God into my heart. My usual response is, "Well I grew up in the church but I do not know where I stand right now" What I mean by this is that I grew up going to church and participated in religious activities and rituals. Presently I do not know what to believe, I have all sorts of information that comes in to my mind about the topic of religion. My friends classes, parents, and my inner-self all tell me different things. I do not know where to turn to. I think this is a natural experience though. I think that my image of myself will constantly change throughout my life as I go through various experiences. Also because of the many different cultures that exist it is hard to be so narrow-minded and believe that ours is the best. Each culture provides a different reality for that person. I notice this especially in Hawaii where there are people from all over the globe. I feel that religion and culture are closely related and that we need to be aware of the other cultures and religions.

SCIENCE OR RELIGION? (CHOOSE ONE)

It seems that since I was a child in grade school they, the teachers, did not show us the scientific view of religion. I was not presented with the theory of evolution till I was in high school. I didn't have much of a decision in what my beliefs were. I was just expected to be a Christian and uphold their beliefs. I was never in a class that presented me with both beliefs until college. In my social psychology class, I was introduced into the concept of dualism. I found this very interesting because it parallels science and religion.

SCIENCE: BEHIND THE CURTAIN

As I remember throughout my school years a lot of teachers we reluctant to speak about science and religion together. I especially found this to be true in my six-grade class. I remember seeing a film in which they show how man evolved from apes. My teacher made a comment about it and turned the sound down. He said to ignore it. I think that this prompted me to explore religion even more. I could not take just one view. I was in total conflict Nobody ever gave me an exact answer. The church would always tell me what was right but I would always disagree with it.

INFLUENCE OF MY PEERS

My very close friends come from different backgrounds and all believe different things. Because I closely associate myself with my friends this led me to become even more confused. Some are atheists. They do not believe in an after life. Some are deist. They believe in a higher being. Some of them are "born agains". They strongly believe in God and try to convince others to do so. My peers have a great influence on me. A lot of them are very smart and intelligent and I respect them. I never tell them that they are wrong and that I alright. We all treat each other very well This makes it hard for me because everyone has different views on the subject I can't even conform to a belief. We often get into discussions on religion but we can’t settle on anything. We often discuss heaven and hell, afterlife, homosexuality, pre-marital sex, if there is a God, extraterrestrial beings, and other concepts. I feel that it is good to argue and express all of our views. It keeps us aware of each other and we tend to learn from it.

RELATIONSHIP TOWARD SOCIAL COGNITIONS

I believe that religion is a benefit to everyone. I do believe that there is some higher form of being which is God. I think he is everywhere. Everytime we do a good act we feel good about ourself, It is doing these actions in the name of God that we sense him. He provides us with a sense of freedom. We are able to feel very safe in our world. There is nothing to fear because He is always there to protect us. We are virtually dependent on God for everything. When we are depressed and hurt I hope He will give me the strength I need. There is no fear in death because if you believe in Him you will go to heaven. I think that a lot of people do not really cares what happens to them. Especially in such a fast paced society no one has time to contemplate such ideas. Religion decides how we look and view the world. It tells us who made the trees and who made the animals. There is no question to this. I tend to view the creation in a scientific way. I just do not think that everything was just put there in a neat and orderly fashion. Religion also tells us where we are from. They say that we are all children of God and that we are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. I believe that all of our actions are done for the sake of God. It takes place throughout the day. When you be nice to people and helps them when needed this is what God wants us to do. I do not believe that we should necessarily go out and preach on the streets and read every page of the bible. I have seen people in Waikiki do this. I think it is fine to do but I don’t think this makes that person any better than me. I feel that especially as a student is natural to be placed in situations in which definitely goes against religion. Drinking is something that the church tells us is wrong but especially a college student this most often becomes a ritual like behavior. This is why there is so many drunk-driving related accidents in our age group. Reality is something we need to understand. There needs to be morals and guidelines and religion provides us with some of these. Another example is premarital sex. There are a lot of unwanted pregnancies among teenagers. Religion has an effect on this. Some religions do not believe in abortions and so there is not much a decision that can be made about the situation. Religion does shape the world in which we live as our individual lives. It gives courage, hope, and a reason to live.

REIATIONSHIP TOWARDS ALTRUISM

I believe that religion had a great effect on social attitudes and behavior. The saying "Love your neighbor as your self" is a common among many religions. I feel that altruistic behavior is part of human nature, We all have the innate desire to help others. When we do things because God wants us to it we are practicing religious behavior. The Bible says that we should also love our enemies. I think that this comes from God. We should love our--enemies and this comes out of doing things for God. It is Gods will that we do this and therefore we should try and do it even though it is hard. The helping behavior drive to care for something comes from God. I believe that this altruistic attitude comes from the heart and that you do it for the good of it and not for something in return. It comes from inside, there is a will and a desire. It involves love, empathy, caring, trust, and many others. I believe that religion gives us this feeling toward expressing this kind of unconditional love. It is something that begins at a very young are and continues to grow. Altruistic behavior is of great meaning to me. It can be seen in both our personal lives and our social relationships.

REIATIONSHIP TOWARD MENTAL HEALTH

Religion does provide us with good mental health. It gives us a sense of security and love. There is nothing to fear because God will always provide the answer. It gives support when needed and satisfaction for our acts. One thing that people do that makes me upset is that they turn to the church for answers without rationalizations. They seem to accept beliefs just because; and they do not pay any thoughts to them. Cults are an example in which this type of thinking, can occur. I believe that you should express your beliefs and concerns if there are any. I think being open-minded, the ability to accept and discard new infDrmationlis a sign of maturity and is good. I like to remain open about my religious beliefs. I enjoy to learn new information and adapt them to my beliefs. Awareness for me is important. I believe that it is healthy to be open to different views, the struggle to achieve a self-realization. Sickness comes from when you finish the struggle and accept thing as it is. You are persuaded very easily and take things as they are. People need to see a deeper meaning of God, the bible and their spiritual self. At times we all need to think about our spiritual self. We need to imagine the world without all the material conveinces and see how we really are what God made us to be. Right now we are governed by society. I wake up in the morning get ready and go to school/through the use of a car. I then enter an air-conditioned room which blocks me off from the outside. I leave that room and enter another room for an hour, then I leave. The basic structure of my day is always the same. I feel that we need to break the monotony and expose our self to new things. We need to step back from the material world and look into our inner selves. I fell that the lack of understanding brings about bad behavior. We become mad when something does not go the way we would like it. The bible that we reached ores conflicting that there is confusion aggressive behavior is produced. Mental Health is a result of religion and has a direct effect in our lives.

COMMENTS ON ASSIGNMENT

I thought that this assignment was very interesting. It made me realize things that I didn't think about before. I thought it was very hard to organize my thoughts down into categories. I was not sure if what I was writing made any sense, but I tried to organize it in an easy way. I really enjoyed the lectures that related to my topic science and religion. I especially liked the lectures on E. Sweedenborg. I thought he was very interesting.

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