Faith vs. Religion
I`ve recently seen an episode of Da Vinci`s Demons, that had a grim scene: the Turks (who conquered an Italian city) aligned all the prisoners and made them choose: they accept Islam as their true religion and keep their lives, or they keep the Catholic faith and lose their heads.
I instantly put myself into their shoes (conscious living is my middle name 😉 ) and I realized I would`ve chosen my life, no matter what! Why? Why not?
I am a soul that decided to experiment life and evolve here, on this marvelous planet, or having a dead body doesn`t help my “mission” at all.
There are a lot of people that consider my statement a blasphemy (offense toward church, its representatives, God) but I can assure them that faith doesn`t “live” in our mouths, in our words, in our churches, in the gestures we make when we pray, in the food we are eating, but inside our hearts!
No one can access that part of ourselves, but us.
Faith and religion are two different things, but people confuse them all the time; moreover, they see them as synonyms. They aren`t, really.
I think our society problem starts here, as a result of this confusion. Religion is practiced in churches (why only there?), where people are gathering to pray, they keep all the religious celebrations, they fast, but all these things are done on cruise control, “because that`s what the priest said we should do”.
Faith, on the other hand, is lived every second of every day (or how a wise being once wrote: “every gesture should be a prayer”).
Not once I`ve seen religious people becoming “monsters” in their day to day lives, forgetting their holy book`s commandments. We`re not defined by the religion we practice, but by our character, the choices we make in every situation, our reactions to anything that life throws at us.
I believe that a human being should be born with two essential rights: the right to choose its first name and its religion. This way it will be authentic.
One of the wisest man of our times, Mahatma Gandhi, said it simple and beautiful: “God has no religion.”