God and Cable
Whenever someone asks me to describe my attitude towards religion I always say it’s like cable TV. I tell them God is like cable and religion is the cable company. I really do like cable, it gives me lots of choices, stimulates me to occasionally think outside the box, makes me laugh, cry and I’m really grateful for it. I find the cable company annoying. It’s always looking to raise my rates, limit my choices, is always telling me how it’s better than the other cable companies and then gets an attitude problem if I try to switch providers.
An interesting analogy, don’t you think? Especially when it comes from a guy named Abdul-Hakim who smokes Davidoff Cigars, drinks Macallan Scotch and loves bacon, just call me a walking paradox with a big smile and healthy perspective on life.
I bring this up because of a recent study by the Pew Research Center showing the fastest growing faith in America is “none of the above”.
According to the survey, the number of people who believe in God, but don’t really associate with any faith grew from 16.1 percent of the population to 22.8 percent. That puts them second in line as the largest “denomination” in the country after Evangelical Protestants.
Welcome to the club, my brothers and sisters. And by the way, most of the “nones” the study found are Generation X and Millennials.
There are numerous reasons why individuals will choose God over religion; the desire to find one’s own path, a general skepticism of organized religions, or the inability to see religion as relevant in their life.
For me personally, I have always objected to someone telling me that to talk to my Creator I need a middleman. I consider myself a pretty smart individual and can figure it out on my own. And what I’ve figured over 40-something years is that God wants you to say please, thank you and don’t be a jerk. How hard is that?
I also find it pretty objectionable when someone tells me that the only way to get to a pleasant afterlife is to follow their tenants. No offense, but I’ve always found that to be a bit contradictory. Here’s why. If we assume, and rightly so, that God is all powerful, nothing is beyond his/her capability and he really likes us, why would he give us only one way to hang out with him in the next world? It seems to me an individual of capable of not only creating this vast universe, but virtually infinite forms of life, thought, people, plants, animals, etc. would have some flexibility on how you get to meet up when it’s all said and done.
Now this doesn’t mean you will get to be his “right hand man” but it never made sense to me that there’s only one way to get to heaven; unless of course in order for you to stay in business you need to tell people that not only is your product better than everyone else’s, the only way to find true happiness and peace is to buy it and anything else is not only sub-par, but will make your afterlife miserable.
Now you see why I like cable, but have never been big fans of the cable company. Now where’s my remote control?
