Religion accepts even those who are only partly religious

When Ramona and I were talking about followers, another question came up. It was clear to us, when you say you are religious, a follower of a religion, you really believe in it, in the whole package that it gives you. In my opinion this means you follow blindly – because if you had your eyes open you would notice all the controversies of organized religion and its attempts to cheat and fool people. But is it really true that you are either religious or you are not?

In the western world I have met many people who actually have nothing to do with religion but whenever they fill a form where their religion is asked they fill ‘Christian’ and maybe even specify whether they are catholic or protestant. In their daily life however they don’t practice their religion. They actually don’t even follow the Ten Commandments which are the base of Christian faith. They even act in the opposite way!

You can find such ‘believers’ in every religion, not only in Christianity. I know about such Hindus and have heard about such Muslims, too. If you asked them if they thought of themselves as religious, they would deny or give an evasive answer. They know they are not really religious but they also don’t want to leave this label of a religion.

Religion actually embraces these people, welcoming them with an option to only be partly religion. Someone once told me ‘I am half Muslim’ and I had to laugh about it. It is true however that religion gives you this option: take as much of it as you want. 20%, 40% or 60%. Hardly anybody will go with 100% but religion does not care, it wants to have you in any way. It is like sugar-coated poison, a drug that promises you a lot and you, carefully, take a bit and don’t notice how you are drawn into it even more.

Many religions also ask you to give 10% of your income to religion itself. I was amazed to hear that in Germany and maybe other countries, too, the ‘church tax’ is so organized, it can go off your account together with your regular taxes. I don’t know how many percent it is but it just like a tax that goes towards the church, not the state! You give it to the church, the Christian institution of religion, or you donate it in Hindu temples – they have different ways but they ask you for your money. It is not however ‘give all or nothing’! If you don’t feel like giving 10%, come and give 5% or 2%, no problem!

In my eyes however you cannot really be ‘partly religious’. Either you belong to a religion or you don’t. If you have just accepted that you grew into a certain religion but you don’t follow its rules, you should consider leaving it. You anyway don’t believe in what they say and want you to believe and do, so why do you allow them to count you as one of theirs? I would suggest you to make a conscious decision for or against religion instead of just being comfortably ‘half religious’. My advice would be to decide against – but I am not like religion, I don’t want to convince you, you have to find out for yourself!