Religion is not a salad bar

Religion is a salad bar, it is a choice and it is a freedom. It is one of the things in life that was not bred into you, it is not hardwired into your brain. Though most religions believe that a faith is born into you, (usually that of the mother bearing the child) the fact remains that if one day happens to come along, and you all of a sudden realize that your faith is not the right one… POOF. You make a conscious decision and change it. Just like that. Piece of cake. Religions are out there literally advertising their themselves. If you pick a new one, they will certainly assure you that you have been forgiven for your previous mistakes and that you’ve done the right thing.

If you decide that your faith is misplaced, or that having any sort of faith whatsoever is a complete waste of time… it is a choice, you can pick another and you can pick none. People have done it plenty of times before and will do it many times again. It may be a move condoned by your family. It most certainly will be frowned upon by the clergy of your previous faith, it may possibly alienate you from your life as you know it. But religion remains a faith on the part of the individual. It is a personal devotion to a higher power (or powers) and it is something that no one can force upon you or take away from you.

And don’t get me wrong, whoring yourself out to whatever religion may be popular, or seem appealing to you at any given time, is not a reason to jump back and forth. Your devotion and faith in the eyes of your god will be acceptable to her (or him, or them) no matter which faith you choose, if any at all. But it should be a conscious and intelligent choice on your part. Not just spin the bottle and pick one.

Making a choice to change your religion from one faith to another is not an attempt to inflate yourself or make yourself godlike. It is simply a search to find faith, your faith. And if you believe that a temple is the more appropriate place for you to worship than a synagogue, or a church, or a mosque, or to simply plant yourself somewhere and face Mecca, it is something you must discover for yourself. If you have your religion and devote yourself to one your entire life, there is nothing wrong with that. That, too is your choice. To blindly accept your faith without agreeing to its principles or questioning its intentions would be the only stupid act upon one’s part.

The fact remains that this node simply like any other, it is just an opinion. No one yet knows the answers to any of these questions and to assume to do so is the only thing that would be an attempt to raise yourself to a godlike existence.

Religion is a salad bar. It's all about making oneself happy and contented, snug in your own little world which is safe. Pick and choose as you please - this is a way to find faith that can guide you through life.
If you don't like one bit of a certain religion, what's to stop you taking the bits you like and stuffing the rest? If we look at religion as merely a set of moral and ethical guidelines to guide you through life, then surely one can simply take what seems right?

Sure, if you're a hardcore Christian, or Jew, or whatever, you'll disagree with this. That's fine, if you want to accept the whole and nothing more of a certain religion, then that is your choice and I commend you for it. But if you want to pick and choose, and that makes you happy, so be it.

Religion is all about faith and has nothing to do with reason, rationality or logic. We, as humans, have a need to believe and I think this is something we are born with and will have to accept. Even an atheist believes in something (namely that there are no gods) and this belief is mostly based on faith rather than reason. And conversely, some of the most rational men in history were deeply religious.

Well, what I wanted to add to the subject is that two different religious faiths that would seem mutually exclusive doesn't have to be. We are capable of believing the logically impossible and if you think about it, the basis of all religion is blind belief that goes against against all reason. Most of the christians in Europe during the last few centuries also observed old pagan and folkloristic traditions (although we prefer to call it superstition nowadays). The Japanese see no problems in being both Buddhist and Shinto at the same time. Zen Buddhism and Taoism is quite popular even among christians (some of the anyway).

Well, I can certainly understand that some practitioners of organized religion feel threatened by the concept of people making their own decisions about what to believe in, but for me the act of believing is more important than what you actually believe. That some religions also provide you with a set a morals and ethics can be both a curse and a blessing.