God - She Rides a Vespa

For somebody who has no strong religious beliefs, it' surprising how often my mind turns to things of a spiritual nature.

A few years ago, I resided in the lovely suburb of Glebe. I had an apartment on Bay Street, next door to the Broadway Shopping Centre and within observational distance of the tower where those two people were spotted shagging the other day. I also overlooked Greek Street, a narrow road that was more of an alleyway than anything else and was used mainly for drunks to urinate/vomit/swear at the top of their voices in. It was also where the church of Scientology has a branch, and I was constantly disappointed to not see Tom Cruise or John Travolta walking down the street headed for a meeting. Each evening, the scientologists would come back from goodness knows where in buses all dressed identically. They seemed happy enough and there was a broad cross section of age and race amongst their ranks. In some ways, I quite liked them as they seemed to have some sort of purpose in their lives and refrained from bothering me when I would be in transit to/from the pub to wet my whistle. I was a happy man living a reasonably reserved life amongst a throng of activity.

Religion, I feel is a very personal choice that we all have to consider at some stage. What you choose to believe (or not) will have an effect on your life either directly or indirectly. The key though is to ensure that whatever decision you make, it is your decision. It's also important to ensure that a healthy respect is afforded to other people's rights to believe whatever they like. I may think that someone's religion is misguided, but I'll defend their right to follow it.

For me personally, there have been times where I would have classified myself as an atheist. I don't anymore, as I feel it cuts off too many options. I've always been rather keen on options, and believe it is healthy to keep the mind open to different possibilities. I don't feel that any specific choice needs to be made, and I have no intention of doing so. Instead, I maintain a curiosity in the various faiths and try to take something from them all. I must stress that sometimes what I take is not necessarily positive and as I cheesily included in my bio for this blog, the beautiful and the ugly are equally important.

It's hopefully through a continued interest in the faiths that I can develop a better understanding of the people that follow them. Perhaps then this is my personal religion, a type of humanism.

Amen to that.