Religion as a Belief - Essay Example

I grew up in a relatively religious household and was sent to religious schools for most of my educational life. So I grew up thinking that the lessons taught to me by the faithful religious representatives of the school were in fact true and to be believed in without question. However, as I began to experience life, I also began to question the validity of the lessons that my faith had taught me.

Being bullied all throughout high school and having to constantly defend myself. Wishing that it would stop, praying that I would just become invisible to the bullies, praying hard and asking for divine intervention so that I could pass the tests and achieve passing marks in classes that I knew I was going to fail due its difficulty, wishing that things would get better for my personal life and asking for the guidance of the spirit in order to see where my path truly lay... these were things that I was told should be left up to my faith to solve. Yet no solutions came my way. Life did not get better. It seemed to just continue to get worse.

Until one day, I decided to take charge of my life and throw out my religious beliefs. I said, “I am in charge of my destiny, I will create my own path”. Guess what? Life got better. I took charge of my future and chartered the path I wished to take. The improvements were remarkable. All led me to question what exactly religious belief is for. All religion does is sell a person of a bag of goods, then leaves you holding an empty bag. Life has nothing to do with religion. Religion has no influence over a person's life. That is how what I used to believe was finally changed into something that I continue to question to this very day.