I know just enough to know that I don’t know shit.

In twenty six years, I have found that though smarter than many of my peers, I still don’t know a damned thing. There are entire worlds of knowledge, and disciplines of thought that I will never even hear about in my lifetime. There are songs from genres that I will never hear, books authored by people from countries that I will never be able to find on a map. There are approximately 6.7 billion (with a fucking capital goddamn “B”) people on this planet. I will meet, maybe- one hundred thousand, to pull a number out of my ass, but that is 1/60,000!!

Keep all of that in your bean for a second; with all of that knowledge, and wisdom, and experience- much predating modern memory by thousands of years, what exactly gives anyone the gall to say that their religion is the one true Way?

Do you know? I’ll wait…

…

Nothing? Really? Huh. You don’t say… Here’s where I make it about me again. For some background, I was raised in a Christian household. My mother is a Jehovah’s Witness, and much of the rest of my family is either non-practicing or Agnostic. I hold on to my Judeo-Christian beliefs at the core, but I realize that there were religions LONG before mine, and even though I pray to Yahweh, I don’t ignore similarities between the nine biggest religions on Earth (link)- not only do they share messages, many of them have the same figures at the core!

If you couldn’t tell before now, I am not the best representative for any religion. I drink, I used to do drugs, I profane, and I don’t really care about how others see me. I don’t attend any particular place of worship, either. I had one last bad experience, so I am wary. More on that later. I don’t want to be the guy who plays the pious man in public, but is a heathen in private. I am always honest about my faults and failings. It’s painful, but the other option is being a discredit to my faith. No reason to lie.

What really bugs the hell out of me is when people try to do the holier-than-thou, but is just as much of a secular bastard as I am. If you are hellbound, on Monday, don’t bother being heavenly on Sunday. Own it. I just hate to hear people talk about love and acceptance and kindness… as long as you are a member of their religion, or their church, or on the particular board at the church, or worship on the right nights. Honestly, truthfully, and with my entire heart…

Fuck you.

-jack