I was born and (sort of) raised a Roman Catholic. Being at a Catholic college means that I have gone to Catholic school my whole life. Since kindergarten, Catholicism has been ingrained in my academic curriculum. I heard a prayer at least every day up until college.
Now despite that, religion never and does not play an integral role in my life. My parents, both Catholic, were very lax about religion. They never forced me to go to church every Sunday, and in fact, if we ever went, it was because I wanted to go.
In grade school, religion class wasn't really learning about Catholicism. I would like to harmlessly say it's 'propaganda.' I can't sit here and say it's wrong to instill religion into kids who go to a religious school -- that would be nonsensical. Of course parents send their children to Catholic school so that they can learn about the religion and become a part of it as well.
It's been a while since I was in grade school, so I'm not sure how it works now, but I can just remember that what we were taught was centered around what to believe. It wasn't laid out like a world religions class where you learn about what, say, Buddhists believe, their doctrines, entities, and lifestyles. You are taught what to believe, and there is not much room for questioning.
In high school, it was a little more relaxed. We were still required to take religion classes every year, but they were a little more open. I was able to take courses such as Social Justice or Spiritual Anthropology. Not every class began with a prayer, and mass wasn't held twice a week like in grade school. I think it was during this time, because faith wasn't pushed onto us so much, that religion continued to dwindle in my life. I just stopped thinking about it. It wasn't a part of my daily, weekly, or monthly routine.
It still isn't. I am a little critical of why religion began in the first place (early civilizations just didn't have the means to logically think of why or how things were) because it seems cultish and authoritative, but in contemporary society, I believe people are still focused on religion because of morality. You gotta be a good person because that's what Jesus did (getting into eternal paradise doesn't hurt either). However, I know plenty of people who flat out don't believe there is anything but the cosmos up in the sky who are extremely kind people. Just because they don't have a religious doctrine to back up their lifestyle doesn't mean they can't live with integrity.
What I believe is irrelevant. What you believe is irrelevant. I've stopped asking people if they believe in a higher power or not and why because it just doesn't matter. There are good people who are and are not religious. There are bad people who are and are not religious. What matters is that we are good to other people to the best of our ability because we are all the same. We are one species on a planet in a limitless universe. We are tiny, but so divided among many things -- religion being one of them.
I want to be good to others because they are human, not because that's what religion tells me to do. Stop associating morality with religion and start associating it with humanity.
