Belief and Faith

In my blog reading over the past week there have been a lot of posts and comments about having faith or not when thinking about all the bad things that happen to good people. This is something that I have thought about a lot but have no answer for. Growing up, I was very active in the church I attended until my senior year of high school. I went to college and studied religions as my second major. It really made me look at things more critically without taking into account faith. I know a lot of highly intelligent people who despite being knowledgeable about history and science still have very strong faith and are very religious. I myself have not really been able to reconcile the two. I would consider myself at this point in my life to be more spiritual than religious, and I do believe that there is something beyond just this world. I guess that is what gets me through a lot of days when this life just seems so hard to deal with. It isn't really rational, but I guess that is what having faith is all about. Not looking at the rational, and instead just going with your gut and sometimes just believing in whatever gets you through your days.

I sometimes wonder if I am doing my daughter a disservice by not taking her to church. Just because I have a problem with most organized religions, should I impose that prejudice on her. I want her to make her own choices in life and find her own faith, but how easy will that be without some religious foundation. My mother brought my sister and I to Sunday School at a Lutheran church when we were yougn, although she herself did not attend. Should I do something like that for Lanie? I do miss the community and fellowship that you find in a church, but think it would be hypocritical for me to attend just for those things. It is something that I really have no idea about what I should do, but it weighs heavily on me that I may not be doing the best thing for my daughter.

This post has kind of rambled on and not really answered anything, but instead posed more questions for me to ponder. That's OK because questioning things kees us thinking and moving forward in what hopefully will be a positive direction.