I am not religious, though I was brought into the world on the premises that I would be a Christian. When I was brought up, there were no signs of Jesus paraphernalia accessorizing the walls of the house, but there was a golden Buddha statue situated on a coffee table that had a belly so rotund, I couldn’t not touch. My mother praised the coveted Lord Jesus, and my dad, an atheist, knowingly married a Christian woman, and then by the power of God, became agnostic a decade later. As for myself, I went along with my mother but viewed the church system as an outside party. As I matured, I started to see the hypocritical and manipulative ways of the church, specifically speaking, the Asian church community. Due to a series of unfortunate events where my parents and I were the main characters, I decided it was best if I separated myself from the church, despite my mother’s disapproval.

After reading Siddartha, I think if I ever were to become “religious” or to really practice a certain belief, it would be Buddhism. In the belief of Christianity, it’s all about rules and God telling you what you should or should not do, (and I do not abide by the rules). The bible tells you what is good and bad, what kind of a man a woman should attract, and how you should act to gain respect. In Buddhism, it’s all about questions. The Buddha proposes questions to the Self, asking you to seek them yourself. You search for the answers instead of being given them. The Buddha asks questions that make you question what you’re doing with your life, what path you’re taking, and what you want out of your life. The religion isn’t focused on Buddha, but on the Self. In Christianity, sure God is “selfless” in a twisted way that he made his son kill himself in order to save us all. From the first book in Genesis 2:22, it was deemed, “then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love–Isaac–and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Honestly, I don’t think I can “trust in the Lord” if He made his son sacrifice himself to save humanity. I mean, have you seen us? We’re vicious animals. My faith in humanity has ceased to exist. Take John 3:36 for some kicks and giggles, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” God’s wrath? I would say that God was playing russian roulette with people, only too bad it was the first pull that held the bullet. Is God selfless? I beg to differ. Take the first commandment, “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other God before me.” Really? Does God cater to the “white folk?” What about other cultures? To say that those who don’t believe him will go to Hell, only makes me that much more willing to say, “yea, I’ll probably go to Hell.” What about Hinduism, what about Buddhism; the people of those cultures, will they automatically go to Hell because they don’t believe in the God? That’s blasphemy. I remember there was this lady that came to speak one Sunday morning and as mundane as her sermon was to her monotone voice, the only thing I gathered from the unnecessary sixty minute spiel, was when she exclaimed, “if you don’t believe in God, you will go to hell.” Oh really? Say “I won’t.” This phrase is overused and overrated. You hear “preachers” say this repeatedly to the point where it becomes so expected, that it has lost its purpose. Hell itself seems like a complete fabrication to me. I don’t want to die, but to imagine one’s death is exciting, but once a cadaver, that is the true state of boredom and I’m not ready to be bored quite yet.

Christianity is like a poorly done advertisement in attempt to promote the religion through the tactic of fear. They try to scare the non-believers into believing, because who wants to spend their after-life in Hell? If anything, religion hurts more people than it claims to help. Sure there is missionary work that plethora of Christians take part in year round, but I rather preach the gospel when asked, instead of coercing strangers to believe in the ethereal world. One of my favorite comedians put the topic of Christians profanely eloquent by saying,

The rest goes… “did you shit on them??” Ah, bless him. Even though this excerpt is pertaining to environmentalists, you can substitute anything for environmentalists and still able to generate the same response.

Then with the ten commandments, Louis CK brings up another solid point: “It’s in the Ten Commandments to not take the Lord’s name in vain. Rape isn’t up there, by the way. Rape is not a Ten Commandment. But don’t say the dude’s name with a shitty attitude.” Preach.

Babies are the only ones that are pure- free of sin. Once they turn the solid age of one, they automatically turn into sinners. The parents say don’t touch that, and they touch it, sin=1, baby=0. (I’m exaggerating, of course.)

It seems as if God wants an Utopia, but an Utopian society is merely a dream, a fantasy, a slight hold of the great American story of The Great Gatsby.

I am in total agreement with Siddartha. I relate a lot to him actually. I believe it is necessary to sin, to lust, to experience despair and nausea, in order to learn not to resist them, but to learn to love the world, and to no longer compare it with some kind of desired imaginary world. I also like to think that I have the same mindset as Louis CK in that I have a lot of beliefs, but the difference is that I do live by a select few of them, not none of ’em. I believe that the path that we’re on is a spiral, but we’re not going in circles even when at times it seems like it. I agree with Sid in not believing teachers. Wisdom comes eternally, whereas knowledge is gained through communication and when you try to make wisdom communicable, it is then when the wise man sounds foolish. I too, have little faith in words that comes from teachers based on previous encounters, but not all teachers are manipulative and apathetic towards their pupils. I do however, believe that there are teachers out there that try to the best of their abilities to instill knowledge in their students in hopes that the student will find their wisdom, live it, and be fortified by it. 

In a way, I see a connection between Louis CK and Siddartha. Both find words to be completely worthless, yet powerful; believe that by having too much knowledge is a hinderance; and believe in the great quality of the nature of time, of patience. And in a way I’m like the two of them. My brain functions like CK- “here’s how my brain works: stupidity followed by self-hatred and then further analysis,” and my life ways are like Siddartha- “I am not going anywhere. I am only on the way. I am making a pilgrimage.”

So I relate to a Buddhist and a crude, enthusiastic masterbating comedian. Alright.

So if you were offended, in the words of MIKA, relax, take it easy. In the words of Siddartha (or really Hermann Hesse), opinions mean nothing. Everything will be fine and you will go to Heaven and I to Hell. I’ll play with fire and you can… play with marshmallows. We can make s’mores together! Team work.