Fact versus fiction verus yourself.

Something that I've thought heavily on of late is the thought process of a person living in this time of society. When I think about it, it's troubling and somewhat disturbing. What people live their lives by and base their opinions on anymore is nothing but fact. You're probably asking yourself "Why is this such a troubling discovery?"

Because there is a lack of faith. There's a lack of people living their lives by the way that they interpret it. There's so much ignorance in society that once people find the keys that fit in their own personal key holes, there's always something or someone keeping them from turning that key and opening up that door. So much skepticism. So much criticism. So much overwhelming factual information that people can't seem to take in and digest at the same time.

Neither science or god can determine what's right for you. Only you can decide that for yourself. Which is why part of being a liberated individual is the ability to make the choice between the two. Neither science or god are the key to unlock your door. They might be what's behind that door but I look at life like this:

Life is just like any adventure. There's more to it than reaching the end and having all of your conclusions drawn. Life is about experiences. It's not about doing what you're told from books or magazines. It's not about being threatened into living a lifestyle a certain way to avoid possible damnation. It's about finding yourself and expressing yourself.

No one comes out of life unscathed. There is no perfect answer to every philosophical question out there. It's a matter of choice based on what you experience and what your morals and beliefs and values are. In order to live your life to the fullest, you need to fall down. You need to faulter in your steps. You need all of those scrapes and bruises. You can't do everything based on fact or fiction, right or wrong. You don't need to think so much and just live.

Everyone experiences life in a different way. Everyone looks at the world through different eyes than your own. Your blue could be someone else's red. So why would you listen to what someone else tells you instead of living your own life based on your own standards? It's absurd not to. What they don't teach children in Sunday schools is that wasting your life and/or living it in fear is the worst sin that you can commit, not necessarily against god but against yourself.

It brings me to these kids who follow these trends mindlessly for the acceptance of other people out of fear that they won't fit in that popular social circle. It goes for all of these people who profess their own recycled knowledge so that it is again recycled and renewed and force movements on other people that not everyone necessarily agrees with. Some of these people, when introduced to someone with a varying opinion of their own will reject and condemn anyone who believes differently from them and it's those kinds of people that fuck up society.

But then you have other people who are more embracing than these people. I've known my fair share of pastors and reverends and people who are affiliated with these sorts of movements who embrace other people in their choices and their quests to find ultimate happiness. These are people who are on this road if it's the one that you choose to help you and guide you and help you better understand the knowledge, not force it upon you. In fact, my best friend's father is a reverend and he has offered me some of the best life advice that you can get, and none of it was tinted with persuasion to pull me into the ranks of Christianity. He told me before that I need to find out the answers for life on my own. If they're in god, then that's great. If it's somewhere else, then that's just as great. There's no right or wrong answer when it comes to religion, as long as you're doing it for yourself and not other people and as long as your mind has been opened to possible other options before you walk for the rest of your life in the shoes of other people.

I'm not going to get into my own personal beliefs since that's a long talk that I never have the time for but if you want to know, there's nothing wrong with asking and I will answer you on a personal level. But I will say this: I claim no religious affiliation.

People need to put down the books and magazines, stop thinking so much and go out and live their lives and they need to just ignore all the negativity that comes along with being an individual from other people, because there's two words for people who are overly critical of others due to close-mindedness and a lack of their own individualism: arrogance and ignorance.

Don't define yourself with either one of these.