A Narrative Essay On Christianity Research Paper

I grew up in a very religious Hispanic and Irish family where there was really no way in avoiding becoming a part of the Catholic church. I was baptized at a very young age, not even knowing what that symbolized in my life. Growing up I was ushered to and from Church and Sunday school, Catechism, and First Communion classes. I was an Angel in our churches’ yearly Christmas play and once even played the virgin Mary. I was taught of the Ten Commandments and ‘reminded’ at every opportunity to follow them, and for 13 years of my life, I did just that. I stood on my pedestal of devout Christianity and looked down upon anyone not as worthy as my religion said I was. Being raised in a strict religious household, caused me to be an obstinate and contemptuous person growing up. Rules were set for my life that God had wanted all good Christians to follow, and I being told thats who I was supposed to be, followed them without question. I guffawed and shunned any possibility that I was expelling good people from my life based on the crap that I was taught to believe, and did for a very long time. I was essentially bullying people in the name of Christianity.

I was around 13 years old when what I knew or was told growing up, seemed to not feel right anymore.

How was being judgmental and closed-minded to other people the Christianly thing to do? After a long period of soul searching, I realized that I was following the words of hypocrites. Everything that was wrong, was only wrong for non-christians. Everyone deserved love and respect; if they were Christian, if they were straight, if they weren't divorced, if they didn't use contraceptives, and the list went on and on. I noticed that fellow congregants in my families church had a great ease with which they assumed they were much more important than everyone else. That other people needed to be the ones to conform to the laws of Christianity and more specifically to

Catholicism.
However, In my mind, I couldn't comprehend how treating people like they were animals or monsters was part of being a good Christian. Furthermore, I quit going to church, Sunday school, and youth group and decided to separate myself all together from religion. I chose to live my life based on my own set of rules of loving and respecting everyone regardless of their sexuality, religion, color or social status. Twenty years later, I still live my life free of any specific religion. My kids are being raised in a secular household and are being taught to be open-minded, tolerant, and loving people. As I've gotten older and more aware of my surroundings, I’ve become more in tune to the hate in this world and the awful things that people are doing to others in the name of their religion. My frustration has turned a bit into bitterness and cynicism over my helplessness in these situations and have led me to question religions purpose and the people who belong to them. That in turn has led me here, to this class.
I came in not knowing what to expect, but still thinking I knew a lot. I was of course wrong and not afraid to admit that. I appreciate the chances I was given to discover different theories of religion, when they started, and why. I found the class quite fascinating and learned so many things about religion and their methods and motivations. Some made sense to me and others seemed like complete rubbish but found myself thoroughly enjoying what I was learning regardless of whether I agreed with it or not. Freud was one of the most interesting for me I found that like a few of the other readings, I realized I was often shaking my head in agreement when reading certain parts of his explanation of religion. I had heard about Freud before, but one mostly hears his name and the comment that he was crazy. Shortly in to reading more about him I couldn't deny that I was thinking the same, especially given the Oedipus Complex. However, aren't some of the craziest people also some of the most brilliant? I realized also, that some of my sentiments about religion were closely tied to his own. One quote in particular made me have one of those moments you see on cartoons where to person has a lightbulb flash over their head during that moment of understanding. He explained religion ultimately as a “childhood neurosis.” He argues, “The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity, it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life. It is still more humiliating to discover how a large number of people living today, who cannot but see that this religion is not tenable, nevertheless try to defend it piece by piece in a series of pitiful rearguard actions.”(Civilizations and its Discontents p.49)
Another theorist I was extremely fascinated by and thoroughly enjoyed reading was Clifford Geertz. I learned of him first in a different class as this class and my Socio-Cultural theory class had quite a lot of over lap. In that class I was learning about Geertz in regard to culture and meaning via his essays on the Balinese Cockfights. Reading that and then also reading about his thoughts and ideas on religion made for some very interesting stuff. I don't know that I fully agree with his thoughts on religion as being "(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic."(302) None the less, I still found him to be one of the most interesting reads.
All in all, I found the readings and information to be quite interesting an valuable in their own way. This class did however, re-affirm that my choice to remain free from any sort of religion, was and remains to be the right choice for me. I believe in being a good person for the sake of being a good person, not for the sake of avoiding eternal damnation. I have been made to realize however, that there are many different personal reasons that one clings on to religion whether it be to skew words and meanings to their own cause or to fill a void that they may have in their own lives. It’s not up to me to agree or disagree with it, but this class has provided me with the tools and the knowledge to at least understand the motivations for it.