Religion is an illusion conformed to a concept, claiming the morals of life. It’s a belief, a perspective of purpose. Misunderstood and misconstrued by a society that knows nothing more than what is told, religion is exploited by the propaganda of politics sullying a beautiful notion towards Happiness; a concept whose only proof is speculation; a vise that holds a traditional theory within each people; an over exaggerated faith in something greater. Within a religion there resides a theory of morals ultimately resorting in the ideal individual. All religions base themselves on this common Nirvana. Every religion build off the universal passion of treating everyone with good morale as defined by the individual. Why is there such a void between religions if there are only small differences causing big disturbances?

Over time I have evolved. I have questioned and learned, stumbled and fallen, grasped opportunities and never let them free. I accepted what I had in my head and swallowed my “why”s with a grainy representation of my Christian-born faith. As a child I was raised a Catholic-Christian and a proudly religious one at that. Proudly religious of what, however, I could not say. I always trusted what I was told about Jesus Christ and the Saints and my God without proof. Never once did I challenge the Bible or the priest, but I did not believe them either. The Bible reality and the real world were always separate realms, constantly in gravitational pull and in perfect sync with one another, but never making atmospheric contact.

If someone believes in a religion in full, born and raised a truly religious man, preacher to the population, but no practice takes place within his life to better the world as his religion suggests, is he truly a member of his religion or kindly, religiously polite?
The Almighty, the Great One, and the Power of Life. Well where is He now, in Iraq, in the midst of religious incongruency where suicide is a respectable gesture in the name of sacrifice, jeopardizing the precious lives of a liberal territory from half way around the world? Within a faith lie a million rules of mortality and morality which both derive from a solid base of goodness and lose the meaning of faith in an intricate system of perspectives. Which side does He endorse? Whose cause is legitimate? When will He come/ come again?

I feel as though I deceive Him as I type my thoughts, and I wonder if I will be lost later on in life, of if I am lost now. I dream of Him as I wander through heavenly dreams So within myself I attempt to fill the voids and justify the difference in order to build bridges of understanding over rivers of the technicalities which ensue between us. Still, I do not feel intellectually fulfilled. Where does my religious stance hold true? Hindered by temptation, I innocently nibble at the apple of curiosity while cautiously meandering through orchards of maturity and possibility. I hold the hand of adulthood as we brave the sunset of faith in my future.