Seriously? Are football and other humans the only thing people can talk about? I mean, I understand the football part, but talking about other people? It's ridiculous. My conversations usually tend to be about religion, philosophy, books, music, people like Carl Sagan, and many more. I never usually talk about people or use that as my main conversation trigger.

Today, I was asking people their opinion about their religion. People really seemed to enjoy my questions. You know, because they all like to tell you how their point of view is correct. They all like the thought of being the one who helps you find the path to Jesus. When they ask if I'm Christian, it's just better to say yes, rather than to explain my point of view about the matter or religion. That usually seems to start an argument. Even the Dalai Lama said that if someone finds comfort in their religion, you shouldn't try to change that.

The main question was about determining how a person goes to Heaven or Hell. Someone said that they didn't believe in Hell; God was too nice and too forgiving to ever send someone to Hell, even if they did the "unforgivable sin." Most of the other answers seemed to revolve around repenting your sins and following Jesus. One person said, "You can't be a bad person. You have to be a good person." Well, how broad. One baptist gave me a long list of things: go to church, ask for forgiveness, be nice to others, never sin, always say blessings, and pray often. I was going to ask my Jewish teacher her opinion of the matter but I didn't have time. These opinions above are protestant views.

My next opinions consist of: two athiests (one that believes in a higher power, just not a God), a Shintoist and a Catholic. The Catholic said that he didn't know about the above question (what determines whether you go to Heaven or Hell), but that he thought God was light, just light. Another friend of mine said that his answer made complete sense. It does, if you think about it. One of the athiests said that they didn't know, which technichally classifies them as agnostic but I didn't say anything. The other athiest said that while they believe in a higher power, they don't think that there is such a thing as Heaven or Hell. The Shintoist doesn't believe in a God (god), nor does she believe in Heaven or Hell.

A last friend of mine called themself a religion I can't remember what it's called, nor can I find it on the internet. He said something very interesting though. "I feel like all humans are perfect and are only looking at one field of view. Then, there are the few like you and I, the ones who see the truth, the ones who look out to the side." I thought that was an amazing response.

Meanwhile, I'd like to comment on the stupidest response I recieved today. It was from a Southern Baptist, and I recieved quite a lot of stupid responses from Christians. Most of these just blatantly annoyed me. "You can't think about it, because then God won't be true anymore. That's a sin! We shouldn't have no science either. It just proves God wrong and he doesn't like it!" Yes, the person actually said the double negative. She actually said it out loud and all. Like, with her voice very loudly, so everyone could hear her. My stress level tends to get quite high around Southerners who can't talk with correct grammar.

Let's return to the stupid response I recieved. So, if I'm a Christian, I'm not supposed to think about things? We're not supposed to study science either? What? I'm sorry, but I don't think that's what God (god, gods) wants. Why would he have given us brains if we weren't supposed to think about it. Now, not believing in science, that's even more ridiculous! No, we can't just get rid of it! If we do, I'm seriously abandoning the Earth. I will find a way to figure out where all the aliens are and beg them to let me and some of my philosophical friends live on their planet.

I'm not an athiest, I'm not Christian, nor am I any other Abrahamic religion. I would consider myself to be Buddhist, but I don't know if I qualify for that. I do think that Buddhists are the most correct in their theory of karma and reincarnation. Anyway, I once heard this British guy talking about the 10-pound note featuring Charles Darwin's face. The American dollar has "In God We Trust" on the back. He said that the UK trusts in a guy that actually existed, whereas the US just believes in God. I'm not saying it's not good to believe in your religion or your deity, but it's also not good to just trust in faith alone. My Shintoist friend, when I told her this, said, "Even if you believe solely in God, you still look both ways before you cross an extremely bust street."

I don't understand why people always talk about religion being boring and how people drone on about it all the time. I've been asking people their opinions about their personal religion all day and I have honestly had a great day! I find it quite interesting to listen to opinions other than my own. How else would our minds grow?

Also, I have one last point. In my science class, we were talking about Democritis, the guy who 2500 years ago, first theorized about the atom. My teacher said that it made her think that he must have not had a real job, and just sat around thinking. I do like my science teacher, but that thought just completely makes me shake my head. Thinking, if nothing else, is most certainly a "real job." Everything we do, everything we think, everything we write or read, was thought up by someone or something. I'm writing this, and the English language was made up by someone, as was the computer I'm on, and this website. It was all thought up first.

This picture, or rather quote, although I'm not an athiest (just an unknown religion) sums up everything for me: