Thoughts

To be honest, my first ever acquaintance with the Bible, in any form, was for a class assignment this past year. Sure, I’d heard stories and seen bibles in hotel rooms before, but never had I actually read one.

With that in mind, I am also not a person of faith.

 More so, to clarify I am not a person of faith in the traditional, Christian sense. Without fear of retribution, I am not a believer in God. Granted,  I haven’t encountered a situation in which I would be exposed to such teachings, but my family has never been one to believe. Several times I attended church with different friends, always with an open-mind, but never has the experience left me a new person. More so, it made me look at things through a different perspective. And appreciate differences among people.

 

Instead, I believe in Karma. I believe in a Higher Power, yes, but not one that is a single entity such as God; more so an essence founded by our own doing. We are the ones in control - only we have the power to save ourselves.

 

This said, I found my first experience with the Bible to be one rife with confusion. I crave logical explanations and that is one aspect which the Bible failed to illustrate for me. How can one man have founded the earth and the universe and the heavens? From what or who was he founded? If there was no earth or heavens, where was he when he created those things? Where is he ever? When praying, people look up to the sky and heavens as if God is up there, expecting their prayers, but how can they be sure? There was also confusion for me hiding in the details: how did God take a rib from Adam to form Eve? Who’s rib did he take to form Adam in the first place? Was it his own, in the sense that Adam is merely just an extension of God? Does that mean that the Bible implies we are all an extension of God, through bone? To me, there is no logic in that. I am not insinuating these things or questioning anyone’s beliefs, I am merely looking for answers. I was speaking with a good friend, rambling about my inability to comprehend these deeply rooted beliefs and I asked, “In our day and age, how do these stories make sense? And how do people find them true?” Looking at me with a straight face, with a casual shrug of his shoulders, he uttered a single word, “Faith.” Then it made sense.

 

I was not founded on these beliefs. My origins lie elsewhere. I lack the ability to comprehend the complexity of the bible because I was not taught to think that way. I am not wrong to question the things I do not understand. But, neither are those people for believing those things to be true.