Let's Coexist

I am not a holy man.  I don't follow my Roman Catholic religion like when I was a child and went through Catholic school.  The thing is, I don't have anyone forcing me to study the religion and to follow it wholeheartedly anymore so I don't focus in on it like I might have in the past.

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I went to church twice this week with my girlfriend Shari.  The first visit was to get a feel of church once again, and to be apart of the uplifting community that religion tends to acquire.  It makes sense after-all; all of these people in the church seem to have the same idea about life.  My second visit was for Ash Wednesday, and as expected I received my ashes, as well as Shari.  I didn't have time to contemplate religion this second time around because we were in a hurry to get my girlfriend to dance and with our minds elsewhere.  During my first visit though, I was thinking hard about religion and the continuing brainwash I thought it was initiating from years past.  I liked it.  I enjoyed being sucked in with the feel of thinking that God is there to protect me, much like everyone else who surrounded me in the pews.  I don't mean to show disgruntlement towards religion, but I continually will think of the term "brainwash" when I'm observing one religion and one religion solely.  I'm a man of variety, options, and openness.  I need a church where individuals would gather and worship spirituality in itself, and with the intentions of coexistence.  Narrowing my visions on one religion just seems a bit ludicrous to me.

While reading, Essentials of Philosophy, I am coming to understand each religion a little more than I had previously.  I'm a firm believer in diversifying our initial thoughts with life, and to go beyond and to educate ourselves with the information that's given to us in present day.  We have religions such as; Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Sufism to go along with smaller religions not specified, in today's present-day life/living.  Coexistence has came up as a new religion to accept each religion and to not hate or love one over others.  I love the idea of coexistence, and I would preach this more than anything else because of how true it is to me.  As pupils we all must absorb every bit of information that we can, and grade school should definitely incorporate philosophy into their curriculum's because we can use more philosophizing minds, idolizing the idea of accepting others, and then to expand on collaborative ideas.  But coexistence seems more like a philosophy to me than a religion (with that term "brainwash" come back to me).  Each religion has much to offer for kids, especially when speaking of morality and virtues.  Through the discrepancies we can find a common ground of understanding with these morals, virtues, and lessons, and come to understand the core of coexistence, the fundamental factor of religion/the essence of philosophy.  A break from the religious norm from any religion would assist, as a mere suggestion of coexistence could do us all some good.  I would like to emphasize that to coexist is a philosophical suggestion and that this should not humiliate anyone's religion.  Anyone of us is subject to believe in God as another person is into believing he doesn't exist.  Accepting one's beliefs is the first step to coexisting.