By: Sam Francis Lokanata, Secondary 3

Do you fully believe that someone is up there, watching over us?

How would you know God exists?

You might say, 'Oh, I fully believe that God exists', or something along those lines, but do you not have the slightest feeling of doubt in your heart?

Ladies and gentlemen, you might think that what I'm saying today is all about atheism, or an argument as to why God does not exist. Well, you'd be mistaken. I'm here today to talk about THEISM.

So, what is 'theism'?

Theism refers to a broad group of people, but I have decided to talk about a select part of theism. These theists are people who do believe in God, but not religion. It could be any God as perceived by different religions' Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, or even Hindu' but the main concept is that there is at least one God up there.

Personally, I lean more towards Catholicism, which is the belief in God and the Holy Trinity.

Why?

Well, first of all, I was raised by Catholic parents, so that was the first religion I was introduced to but there is a more interesting idea. Let me tell you of Pascal's Wager: the argument that we, humans, wager with our life and with the existence of God. If God does not exist, it does not matter whether you believe in Him or not, because nothing would happen. However, if He does exist, there are two ways this would go:

Firstly, generally, many think that if you believe in Him, you would be granted entry to Heaven. On the contrary, if you do not believe in Him, (they would say), you would be sent to hell.

Even though you might not believe in a God, would you' or anyone, for that matter' want to risk going to hell? Personally, I do think that part of the reason that we do good things is out of the fear of God. We help others not only because of our personal moralities and beliefs but subconsciously because we do not want to suffer in eternal damnation.

You might think now that you're only believing in God because you want to avoid going to hell. While it may seem like that, I do feel like God is worth respecting for some of the things that He has done. I do believe in the Lord, but let me tell you the tale of the Blind Men and The Elephant.

The story goes this way: that 6 blind men stumbled across an elephant and each of them felt different parts of the elephant. The first felt the trunk and assumed that it was a snake. The second touched its ear and believed it was a fan. Another touched its leg and thought it was a tree. Although the original had 6 men, I will only be talking about three for the sake of this article's length.

This can be taken as the way I interpret religion. Like art, God is a painting and each of us has different interpretations of Him' or Her' that may or may not be so similar to one another. So, does this mean that all religions come from the same God? We cannot be so certain, however, there is no proof that says it is or is not.

This brings us to agnosticism, the belief that there is no proof that God exists, and no proof that He does not. Just like most people, I do not 100% believe in an idea alone. While I agree with the concept of Theism, there is a possibility that God might just not exist at all. This wraps back to Pascal's Wager.

You might think that I have lost faith in God.

How could a being so kind and Divine ever allow such horrible events in history to occur? Things like the two World Wars, outbreaks of diseases, and other disasters.

No, I was simply too bored one night and thought much about how the world works.

I'd like to think that our life is not prewritten. If there was a God, I believe that He has planned out certain events in our life, but not what happens in between those events. Our choices are our own, and the responsibilities that follow after are by our own actions, so you cannot just blame divine intervention.

Another thing that I would like to point out is how I dislike how people often 'offer' themselves to their 'god'. It is honourable and admirable to commit yourself to this ideal. However, I do believe that you do not need to force others to do the same because it is 'good' and it is "unholy" if you don't do it.

This also leads to one of the problems I have with religion. Our Creators often say that we must follow their word. If you don't, you're called a sinner. Now, obviously, some actions obviously are wrong, but some simple actions are deemed evil. I dislike that idea, because to me, what makes God different from a tyrant if we will believe those words alone, usually in a literal level?

Lastly, I would like to end this article by saying that this is not a call to reject religion. I do not believe I have the authority to change what you believe in, nor do I wish for a world without religion. I'd like to believe that our God is Great ' flawless if you will' however, I believe that we, humans, are not and should strive to change how we believe in our religions. We must stop using religion as an excuse or to justify some of our actions.