Faith

I take back what I wrote in my previous entry. It seems that my past entries are way too interesting for me to handle (being sarcastic to self). Digging them out from the grave one by one is just not going to work. Not only that I fell asleep whilst reading my own uneventful writings but then I've also learned that laziness is the only constant in my life and it will not change no matter what. Great, just great!

In another 1 month time I will be here for exactly a year. Not picking up the local accent, not losing my native accent either, still using tons of lingos and British/Manglish terms. I felt disgusted and maximal goosebumped by my own attempt to mimic the local styles. It's better if one is totally unexposed to a language and start learning from the scratch at a place where it is native. Let's just say, Rome was not built in a day, so as the accent, we don't just change overnightly from something we had already accustomed for 20 years.

Alright, the core of today's entry is faith and religion. Truthfully speaking, I'm not a person with strong religion background. I can't even explain to you what religion is and I bet a lot of us can't either. But just assume that I'm worse than the rest and it's severe. I never was a devoted "Buddhist" although I claimed to be one and it's officially documented. I prayed only when I was in dire straits or if I was told/semi-forced to, let alone flipping through holy scriptures. Blind follower would be the best term to describe. So before I embarked on my wonderful journey to the land of plenty, I got a lot of do's and don't's lessons from the skeptics. Well, their worries being me soon to reside in the Bible Belt which is well known for its socially conservative environment. They made it sounded quite scary, for example, someone told me there will be missionaries whose duty is nothing but going door to door everyday to preach and evangelize everyone. If you don't join them, they will most probably single you out or discriminate upon you. That sure sounded horrible to someone who have never set afoot on this ground before. I must admit that I carried along my skepticism but it was never until months later that I realized not only I did not come across any fanged/baby eating missionary like they said in this lovely town but on the other way around, I met lots of nice people who are coincidentally, Christians. Without them, my transition into new life would've been disastrous and miserable. On top of that, most of the Christians I met here are less radical than those I met back home which are often dubious bigots. Don't even make me start ranting on this church that I went once back home where the priest had nothing good to say but bringing down other religions to show the importance of theirs. He must have been very insecure about his situation I guess. Filthy.

In here, although most Christians that I know believe in the divinity of God and practice His way of living but in a rather rational manner. They know what's reality and to what extent should ones allow religion to penetrate into their lives without being overly superstitious. I'm amazed (not by the lady who picked me up from the airport on my first day and handed me 3 Holy Bibles immediately after that) at how things turned out to be what I totally didn't expect them to be. I'm sure there are still a lot of radical preachers out there from other denominations that I haven't encountered but for now, I'm happy to say that it's all good and being taken care of which leads to my worry of transferring to a state with the second highest LDS population in the country next year. I probably shouldn't be judging at this moment until I've personally crosspathed with these peoples. How bad can they be after all it's all about love and peace. Those are probably two of the things that I can make sense out of religions in common.

Right now it's too soon to say that I'm all comfortable about being in a whole new religion. I mean is it really that important for a person to declare his/her official religion? No one has ever asked me to show "proof of religion" when I went to churches and Buddhist temples. The proof is written in the way that how I lead my life and behave. At least, I'm seeking right now and not skeptical anymore. Mark Twain was probably right when he said "zeal and sincerity can carry a new religion further than any other missionary except fire and sword" albeit an atheist/skeptics he was. I've learned to love more things around me and became less angrier about society as a whole ever since I came to know the teachings of Christianity. Gone are the days when I would listen to Bullet for My Valentine, Coheed and Cambria, Avenged Sevenfold, My Chemical Romance, Linkin' Park (seriously what was I thinking) etc. Now I have the strong urge to tell these bands to shut their mouths instead of whining what they don't have why not just sit back and enjoy what has been given to them, simple. What can you get out of screaming those poor lungs out about inequalities, unfairness, discrimination and hatred in those lyrics? Bad situation is not going to change for better until you get down the field and make some real world actions (by this I don't mean crusade/jihad or terrorism, I expect sane people like you and me know how silly it is to distort the meaning of holy war). That's exactly how many teenagers nowadays are being intoxicated by these angry screamo songs and foster hatred towards their parents which slowly then, everything around them. In the end, they use their fists against everything.