January 11, 2015
Who am I?
For the most part I’m an ordinary girl from Germany. I turned 19
exactly two days ago, and didn’t believe in God for those 19 years of my life. To
be honest, I frowned on (religious) bigotry, or faith in superhuman powers at
all… I even mocked religious people. Just to be on the safe side: I’m still
totally against bigotry! But in all other cases, my attitude towards religion
has changed completely.
How’s that
possible? Well, my three sisters and I grew up as children of two Ex-Jehovah’s
Witnesses. Yeah right, Ex. My parents
were already inactive by the time I was born. However, it’s out of the question
that both my parents still believe in God, they just don’t like the compulsion
and pressure, which you are to experience as a member of that faith group. If
you can’t or don’t want to adapt, if you can’t prove a certain number of hours
during which you went from house to house to preach your teachings, you will, in most cases, be
expelled and, from then on, won’t be allowed to have contact to any other
members. Sounds unreal, doesn’t it? Unfortunately it’s pretty real though.
So this is
why my parents aren’t active anymore. They call themselves ‘Christians’ but
don’t really belong to any church or faith group. They never forced me to
believe, or not to believe in anything. In fact, religion only played a minor
role in my childhood, not to say no role at all. I know what a Bible looks
like, I also touched one before and as a child I really did admire the pictures
in ‘My Book of Bible Stories’ (= a child version of the Bible). But that’s it.
I went to school, made my ‘Abitur’ and am now studying to become an elementary
school teacher. Like all of my classmates I learned the theory of evolution by
heart and accepted it as a fact without questioning it. I attended ethics
class, in which you are only given a very, very brief overview about certain
religions, and the topic changes, before you even had a chance to think about it.
I had
exactly one friend who was slightly religious, but it was never a topic we
spoke about. All my other friends were atheists, just like me. If someone asked me, “Do you believe in God?” I answered with a
clear “No!” or a simple “I don’t really know”. When people of faith talked to
me on the street, I always listened to them – ‘cause I’m a friendly person ;) –
but as soon as I got rid of them, in a courteous way of course, I breathed a
sigh of relief and forgot everything they had just told me.
When I got
older it all changed though. Do you know the musical “Les Miserables”? There is a
certain bishop. Yes, Bishop Myriel. His role in the musical always moved me
deeply. I’m not sure if that’s the reason for it, but I suddenly started to
admire people, who were able to believe in something, of which there was so
obviously no proof… I started to admire people, who believe in God.
Then, one
day, I watched “Life of Pi” and found myself to be deeply stirred by it. I
suddenly longed to know more about religion, and maybe even believe in something. I started to think
a lot about it and was suddenly interested in religion, couldn’t change the channel when
there was a biblical documentation on TV, …
So how the
heck is this possible? I have no idea, but I doubt, that it’s just because of
those two movies!
(to be continued…)
This movie will be the death of me! I cry non stop from the beginning on every single time I watch it! :D
