Did you pray today? two students take on god

NO

I don't believe in things I cannot see, nor do I find solitude in the presence of a figure of which I don't even know exists. I have been told ever since I was little that I was a child of God because I got dipped in water when I was too young to even know who God was. As a society, I feel that we are expected to conform to traditional beliefs without evidence and a massive figurehead who exemplifies that is God.

My entire family is Lutheran and I was raised occasionally going to church. It wasn’t uncommon to see people around me pray to God asking for guidance in their lives, yet it confused me when I was little as to why people devoted their life to someone that didn’t even know existed. As I grew up, I came to realize that they were looking for answers they couldn’t attain without a higher power. They needed something, or someone, to hold onto. 

Growing up, I often heard the phrase, “God has a plan for everyone.” But if that’s true, how do we make sense of the suffering in the world? Why do people become homeless? Why do mass killings occur?  Why are millions of children diagnosed with cancer? What can we attribute all of these devastating tragedies to? It doesn't make sense that hardships are simply part of God’s plan as a way to comfort people who are suffering. 

Faith never came naturally to me simply because I never found tranquility within God the same way others have. I do all the things in my life because that's how I decide my life will turn out, not because of a preconceived plan that was made for me. During my lifetime, I never found a reason as to why I needed to believe in Him. I never had that awakening moment that most people talk about. There is this expectation when it comes to religion that it will just snap into place in a moment in time. People have their tragedies, divine protection and unbelievable moments that curate their religious path in their lives, yet I never experienced that. 

As I watched my grandma, along with various family members, go on mission trips - it made me wonder if something was wrong with me. Why didn't I believe in Him or even had a questioning of whether He existed or not? Although I don’t follow an organized religion with monotheism, it doesn’t mean I lack belief in a greater force or higher power. Afterall, the definition of atheism is the “disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or Gods”. With so much still unknown about the universe, I can’t rule out the existence of a higher power but there is a line between conforming to societal standards within religion and having a belief in a supreme power. 

I like to think that the universe can guide me in the right direction or give me signs in subtle ways but unlike organized religion, I don’t dedicate my life to someone else. Atheism has brought me freedom in my choices, granting me moral autonomy, the ability to live in the present, personal freedom and identity. Atheism allows you to develop your own personal morals without influence of an outside force. You only get to live in this life once and getting to think for yourself and form your own opinions is a privilege. When life is finite, being present matters most. Dwelling on the afterlife takes away from the life we’re actually living.

By: Addy Fiore

Kayman Mangan / The Samohi

YES

For as long as I can remember, I have believed in God. It wasn’t, I think, as many people would assume, that I was raised in a hyper-religious family. Yes, I was raised around lots of tradition, but my parents at best could be described as a little more than agnostic. So when trying to write this, I was really struggling to pinpoint where my inherent belief in a higher power came from. And begrudgingly, I think the reason is something I can only convey by speaking more candidly about my life. 

I never wanted a younger sibling. Up until my teenage years, I had made it out in my head that I would forever hold the mantle as the baby of the family. And it wasn’t just that. I had what I can best describe as a “Peter Pan Complex”; I actually was terrified of growing up. At 12 years old, I was already looking back nostalgically on pictures of myself in elementary school.  

Then, came the biggest shock I never would’ve expected: I was having a little brother. While I did give my blessing for my bonus-mom (my step-mom) and my dad to have another kid, I don’t think the magnitude of the decision hit me until my bonus-mom was in labor. At that moment, my whole idealized world broke. I vividly remember sitting in the room with my friends, furiously explaining how unhappy I was. 

And then Rhev was born. This idea that I vehemently hated for the entirety of my life was actually a person. It seems like an oversimplification but my sense of self, of the world, of everything, completely changed. I started to mature as a person, to take on more responsibility, to push my boundaries and to open myself to new perspectives. It was so indicative of an idea I had been exposed to my entire life – a blessing in disguise. 

As aforementioned, I was raised in a traditional household. No, ideas of divinity and fate weren’t pushed on me. But the constant idea (enforced by the fact that nearly every Jewish holiday is the celebration of a survival of a tragedy) that everything in life could be taken with a positive attitude, as a “gift from God”, is something that I was readily exposed to. 

Yet, I don’t think it ever really clicked with me like this. My little brother actually was a blessing, that for so long I had seen as antithetical to myself. And I don’t mean a blessing in the sense that he’s someone I’m grateful for. Yes, that is emphatically the case. But I mean a blessing in the sense that there is no doubt in my mind that Rhev is from God. 

At this point, I struggle to articulate myself. I don’t even know if it's possible to explain the amount of love I have for my little brother. It is plainly above words. Watching him learn how to express himself and play and develop a personality has been the best gift I could ever ask for. Part of the childhood I left behind when I stopped being “the baby of the family” I now experience through getting to be a role model to him. He is in so many ways the source of my joy. 

So many people look at the world and see the very real horror that is apparent around us. I fully understand the inability to see the constantly ever present oppression and death and evil and find it difficult to just wave it away. But for me, it is impossible to see how strongly we love, how deep the connections between us are, the significance behind our experiences and not see a higher meaning to it all. I really can’t just simplify the beauty in this world to oxytocin and statistical anomaly. It’s more than that. 

Every night before my brother goes to bed, he has a little bedtime routine. For everyone else, the first thing he does is say, “Goodnight I love you” and gives hugs and kisses. Except for me. He without fail immediately walks up to me and says, “Shema”. The Shema is the core Jewish prayer which means literally in English, “to listen”. While I’m not going to translate it in full, I’ll say the first line of the prayer that I say to Rhev every night. 

“You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.” 

And Rhev, once you get old enough to read this, I hope these words actually are true for you. Because everytime I see you I can’t help but feel this way. I believe in God because I see God in you. 

By: Liam Sauer