anything goes with emma chamberlain - do we need religion? [video]

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

[video available on Spotify] today i want to talk about religion. what a fun topic. i’ve been thinking about religion a lot recently, not on a personal level, but on a societal level. i want to start by saying i have no bias. i have my own spiritual beliefs that keep me afloat, but i’m not married to a religion. i also have to mention that this conversation is based on my corner of the internet, my corner of the world, and what i’m seeing. depending on where you live or what communities you’re a part of, you might have a very different experience. so i ask you to keep that in mind. let’s get into it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello Today I wanted to talk about religion What a fun one what a fun topic I've been thinking about religion a lot recently and Today I just wanted to Deep dive into it Not on a personal level, but on a society level. I made an episode a while back about my own religious experience in journey. But I haven't really talked about religion on a society level, on a societal level yet. And so that's what I want to do today.

But I must start by saying that I have no bias. Okay. I did not grow up religious. I am not currently religious. I'm not a part of any religion. I will say, you know, I have my own kind of spiritual beliefs that keep me afloat. But I'm not married to a religion. You know, I also have to mention that this conversation is based on my corner of the internet, my corner of the world, what I'm seeing. And depending on where you live or what communities you're a part of on the internet, you might have a very different experience. And so I ask you to keep that in mind. Let's start with the definition of religion. What really is it? Okay.

Religion is the belief in worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or God's. It's a particular system of faith in worship. I think the thing that made me start to think about religion a lot recently is sort of the general conversation around religion that I've been seeing. It's all over the place, which I guess makes sense because it's kind of a polarizing topic.

And it's impossible to have everybody agree on it. So it makes sense that the conversation is all over the place. But, you know, I'm constantly seeing people who are religious be mocked on the internet. You know, people who talk about God or their beliefs are just scrutinized by those who are not religious or by those who are religious but aren't practicing practicing in a super involved way. You know, I feel like there's two types of religious people. I learned about this when I was in Catholic school because I did go to Catholic school. Although I am not Catholic, but I did go to Catholic school. If you want to know more about that, you should listen to the other episode where I talked about my religious journey. But there are two types of religious people.

There are the people that live, breathe, and die their religion. Okay? Everything that they do, everything that they talk about relates in some way to their religion. They follow the rules of their religion to a T. And if they make a mistake, it's like the end of the world. We have those types of religious people. And then we have the people who go to church every Sunday, but then they skip a few Sundays, and they look at the rules of their religion as more of a recommendation,

unless mandatory rules for how to live life. So back to what I was saying, people who are the first type of religious person that I explained, you know, the people who live, breathe, and die, they're religion. Those people tend to get mocked and made fun of. as Gollible and weak at times And I find that interesting and this sort of battle between Religious people and non-religious people Really got me thinking about Why are people religious? As someone who

didn't grow up religious at all, I wonder why are we religious? Why are so many people in society religious? What draws people to religion? Why do people stand true in their religious beliefs even when people are giving them shit about it? And most importantly, do we need religion as a society, not necessarily as an individual, because obviously every individual is different, But as a society as a whole, do we need religion or would we completely crumble without it? Because I think there's a lot of people who believe that we don't need religion, that it's an outdated idea, it's ridiculous, it's stupid, and it doesn't have a place or a space in modern society.

I see that conversation happen a lot. People who just think religion is outdated and should be completely abolished. So I guess what I'm trying to discover today is whether or not society needs religion. The first interesting fact that I found online was that religion has existed since 3,500 BCE. This shit is so old. Like we have been doing this for so long. We've been doing this for longer than we've been doing almost anything else. Religion has been a part of humanity for so incredibly long, and it's lasted. It stood the test of time, and it's never phased out.

And that, to me me is interesting. And I haven't been able to get that out of my head. Like, I guess I hadn't really ever thought about it that deeply before. But that to me is a sign that this is not something that we can just get rid of. It's been around for thousands of years for a reason. So I'm not rushing to the conclusion that we don't need religion as a society, because the fact that it's been around for so long is intriguing to me. So let's start out with talking about mainstream religion. Yeah, when I talk about mainstream religion,

I'm talking about the big hitters, you know, the ones that we know, the ones that are the most common, example being Christianity, Judaism, et cetera. Let's start by talking about the negative impacts of following mainstream religion. I think number one would be that people tend to believe that anyone who isn't

a part of their specific religious group are inherently wrong about everything. And on top of that, that they're immoral. Now, I have to say that this isn't always the case. You have people who are religious, who believe that their beliefs and their religion are correct, but also that there's room for other people to also be correct and to be morally admirable. You know, there's room for other religions to have that as well.

But more often than not, people believe that their religion is the right religion. They tend to believe that their beliefs are the correct beliefs. I think that this is an issue because if you believe that your belief system is the only right belief system, then you're discounting so many people who are probably great, morally-sound people who just have slightly different beliefs to you.

I think that's a huge issue. It's never a good thing to think that you and the people who agree with you are the only people in the world who are right. And this applies to anything in life. It prevents growth in so many ways when you can't look around at other people who have different views or beliefs to you and consider why they maybe believe that. And through that sort of consideration, discover something new about yourself or potentially grow your own belief system.

If you think that you're right in the group that you're a part of are right, then you won't grow necessarily because growth happens when somebody challenges what you believe and provides a new perspective. You need that. So if you get stuck believing that you are the only right one, you won't have that experience. Another negative side of mainstream religion is potentially outdated beliefs. You know, obviously a lot of mainstream religions are based on ancient religious texts. Christianity, for example, Lord knows how old the Bible

is, that thing is old. Okay, I don't wanna Google it right now, I'm not, I don't care, because I, that thing is old. Okay, I don't want to Google it right now, I don't care, because I just know it's old. I don't remember what year the Bible launched, but like Jesus is an old man. Like I don't, like that is an old man. Like he, that was a long time ago, okay. The Bible is a very old book and that's not discounting anything about it, necessarily. I haven't even read it, to be honest. I've

never read the Bible. Even though I went to Catholic school, don't tell my religion teacher, I never read it. But the thing is, the Bible is an old book, and it's been interpreted in so many different ways. Over the last, God knows how many years, and it's been interpreted in so many different ways, and so many conclusions has been drawn from this book. And yeah, maybe some of the ideas are outdated. I would say a lot of people consider outdated beliefs to be beliefs in religion that sort of exclude people. For example, you know,

there are some religions that do not accept same-sex relations. That's not a positive belief. And that's an outdated belief. And I think in most religions, there are ways that, you know, ancient texts could be reinterpreted. And, you know, maybe find a way that that conclusion could not become to. Does that make sense? Anyway, I think the potential for outdated beliefs or beliefs that exclude certain people is a negative impact in some ways of mainstream religion. Another negative impact of mainstream religion is religious people basing their self worth on how good of a religious person that they are. I've seen this be very negative for some religious people

where if they do something wrong in the eyes of their religion, for example, they have sex before marriage because they love their significant others so much and they couldn't wait. Or they do something mean to somebody and then even though they apologize, they still feel terrible.

I think that having yourself worth be based on how good of a religious person you are, how well you're following the rules of your religion can be detrimental. Because instead of it just being like, oh, I just need to forgive myself when I make a mistake. And I just need to hopefully gain forgiveness from whoever I wronged or whatever. There's a whole mother level of God needs to forgive me. And the other members of my religion need to forgive me. And that is a pressure that is much larger than just expecting the forgiveness from yourself and from whoever you may have wronged. Like, wanting God to forgive you is very intimidating for a religious person, because God is this huge thing, you know, and you can't

just go up to God and talk to him and say, Hey, you know, like, I don't know. I just think that that would be a much more daunting experience. And I think the pressure to be a good religious person can sometimes torture people. And I've seen that before and I've seen a lot of unnecessary guilt from religious people for making, you know, maybe normal human mistakes that didn't actually really hurt anyone that bad. And I think that that can be harmful. Speaking of that, I think the fear of going to hell, the fear that God is always watching, the fear of being kicked out of your religious group or being sort of, I guess, excommunicated from your religious group is also kind of harmful. I think that there's a lot of fear in religion, you know, if you don't do this, then this will happen.

And don't get me wrong. I think that a healthy amount of consequences for your bad behavior is important. But I also think that there's a whole other level of possibly irrational fear that comes from the fact that you might go to hell or you might be rejected from your religious group and, you know, the community that you built in your religious group might reject you or the fear that you're never fully alone, that God is always watching you. That can create a lot of fear and paranoia, I would say. And then the last negative impact of mainstream religion would be the absolute meltdown that comes when somebody relies on religion for stability and then religion fails. For example, let's say you're praying for

something, you're praying about something and then God doesn't give that to you. God doesn't listen to your prayers. God doesn't make your prayers come true. The psychological battle that comes with that would be catastrophic to your sense of reality if your prayers don't work. Your prayers don't come true. Because you rely so heavily on religion to give you a sense of stability. And if it doesn't work, praying doesn't work, talking to God doesn't work, etc., your etc. Your entire reality would be rattled because you base your reality on the fact that

God's up there or God's are up there or whatever. Inevitably I would say if you're religious you'll have moments of doubt where you're like, wait a minute. Is all of this real and true? Because I've been praying about this or I've been praying about that and my prayers aren't coming true. And there's inevitably going to be a moment in a religious person's life where they doubt their religion. And that would be so terrifying.

When you're basing everything on this religion. You're putting all of your eggs in that basket. You're planning your life around the rules of this religion and the fact that God is up there or God's are up there. A feeling of doubt would be catastrophic and terrifying because it would shake your reality. Everything that soothes you when you're anxious, everything that gives you peace of mind when you're going through it would become all one big question mark. Next, let's talk about the positive impacts of mainstream religion. I would say number one would have to be the strong community that comes with it,

especially now when people are very lonely, more lonely than ever, because of the internet. Listen, I'm not gonna be a dead horse about it, you guys know how I'm a grandma when it comes to the internet. I'm like, we all need to be spending more time together because we all are just on Instagram all the time and not spending time together anymore. And we are losing our mind together.

We're all addicted to the internet. We're losing our mind. Society's going into the dumpster. Like you know me, okay, I'm a fucking grandma with the internet and my beliefs on it., okay, I'm a fucking grandma with the internet and my beliefs on it, as much as I am heavily involved in it, it's all very hypocritical and I'm aware of that, so leave me alone and let me rest, okay?

But I will say a positive impact of religion is that you have an automatic built-in community. You know, most religions have some sort of gathering on a consistent basis, whether it's going to church on Sundays or it's frequent holidays that are celebrated with family and other members of the community. Most religions have these sort of community-oriented events that are frequent. And personally, I think this is fucking amazing.

I think it's one of the best parts of religion. And you know, as somebody who's not necessarily a practicing religious person, this is something that I want to emulate in some way in my life, some sort of ritual where there's a gathering of my community in a frequent way so that it becomes reliable. There's something so comforting about knowing that, you know, if you're Catholic or whatever, every Sunday, you're gonna see your community and you're gonna spend time with your community.

There's something so comforting about that sort of consistency and reliability. Every Sunday we're together, you know, and we spend time together Sunday we're together. You know, and we spend time together and we pray together and we talk and we, you know, maybe we have a cup of coffee together. That's amazing. That's amazing. You know, like in my own personal life, I would love to do something like that. Maybe have people over every Saturday for wine and food

and hanging out and listening to music in the living room. You know what I mean? Like, I would emulate that. And I should, but I won't, because I... You know what? Never say never. Maybe I will start to do that. At some point in my life. But I think that the community aspect that comes with religion is so powerful and is so cool. I've just heard stories over the course of my life is so powerful and is so cool. I've just heard stories over the course of my life

of people being like, oh yeah, like this person from church helped me move this weekend because I needed help. Or this person I met at church invited me to go on this weekend trip with them. Or, oh, this person from church, this person from church, you get what I'm saying? It's like this reliable place that you can find like-minded people.

I just think it's really cool. And I think that it's something that's rare nowadays because a lot of us work from home, a lot of us even maybe do school from home, although that's kind of not as much of a thing now as it was say a year ago. But I think this reliable community is a magical thing. I think the most powerful benefit of religion mentally is the stability that comes with it. Religion truly gives you something to lean on during hard times. The fact that if something goes wrong, you can pray to God about it,

or pray to a God about it, is therapeutic in a way, because it gives you an action that you can take when something goes wrong. It gives you almost a solution when something goes wrong. It's like an automatic solution to any problem. You might not be able to do anything to solve your problem other than pray, but at least you can pray about it. Religion gives you a solution to issues. And as humans, we love to problem solve. When we have a problem, we want to solve it. That's just how we work. And if you don't have religion, and a problem comes up, and there's nothing you can do to solve that problem, it'll drive you nuts. that problem, it'll drive you nuts. Nothing drives us nuts more than having a problem that we can't do anything to solve. But religion provides an option for even the problems

that you can't really solve. And that's through praying and through worshipping in some way. There's also something comforting about knowing that there's a higher power that has your back that's looking out for you. That gives people a sense of safety. When in reality, you know, sorry, I have a rash on my armpit. I just need to take a few minutes to edge it.

I've had the same rash in my armpit for five years. It's not going away. I showed my dermatologist and they were like, we don't know. So I'm like, is it ringworm? I thought it was ringworm for like a year. And then I don't think it's ring war. I'm so. I actually think it's just eczema, but I just it's only in one spot.

So and no one's telling me what it is. Anyway, maybe I'll post a pick and you guys can be like, you guys can help me diagnose it. Yeah, because diagnosing things through the internet is always good, right? set. Yeah, because diagnosing things through the internet is always good, right? Anyway, knowing that a higher power is protecting you at all times is so incredibly comforting. In times when you're scared or shits hit in the fan, In the back of your mind, you feel like you're not alone, that you have support. Because feeling alone during hard times is awful. It's terrifying. It's the worst feeling of all time.

But again, religion sort of solves that problem. It gives you a permanent companion, so you never have to feel alone. And last but not least, religion gives you a general moral structure to rely on and to follow. It's the closest thing that we can get to a moral guidebook for life. Okay. It's the closest thing we have to that. Religious beliefs give you an organized way in a straightforward way to live your life. So instead of having to soul search and figure out, okay, wait, what's the right thing to

do in this situation? Or, hmm, how should I handle this situation? It's all given to you in the form of a book or whatever. And that's incredibly helpful, you know. You might avoid making certain mistakes in life if you grew up following some religious texts because instead of making a mistake and then finding out later that That was a mistake and that you don't want to do it again. There's a chance that with religion you already

Know how to handle a situation because you've been studying this religious text or these religious beliefs for your whole life possibly. And there's a lot of mistakes that could be avoided by following the religious text. Because what's interesting is, you know, there are some religions that have beliefs that for example I don't agree with I can respect other religions and disagree with them. But at the same time the interesting thing is almost all religions have at least a handful of philosophies or ideologies that are true,

inherently true, like, and morally correct, you know. For example, you almost never see a religion say that it's okay to kill people. You almost never see a religion say it's okay to steal. You never see a religion say to treat people badly. It's so rare that you see that. And usually those examples where you do see that are not their extreme, extreme examples or their cults or, you know, it's a different world over there. When it comes to mainstream religion, you can almost always find at least one true

point, you know, in their belief system. You might not agree with 80% of what they believe, but there's a chance that you'll believe Elisa little peace. If not, you even agree with everything that they say. I think a lot of religions have actually good intentions in a lot of ways. The general moral compass of most religions are relatively solid, which sometimes a few red flags, but you know what I'm saying. So the question I'm trying to answer today is, do we need religion? And discussing cults can help us come to that conclusion even better. A cult is a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices, regarded by others as strange or sinister.

Colts were huge in the 60s and 70s. Some examples are the people's temple, heaven's gate, etc. There were a lot during that time. So after doing some research I found that the reason why cults kind of had a moment in the 60s and 70s were because the young people of America, I'm mainly talking about America for this example, the young people of America found themselves revolting against the current political status quo and the social climate in the country, moving towards a different countercultural mentality. Many young Americans were

forming communities in an attempt to follow a lifestyle that took them away from the mainstream society. So in conclusion, the reason why colds were such a big thing in the 60s and 70s was because there was this mass rejection of society as a whole. You know, there was this discomfort and need for change. And so anything that was considered mainstream, you know, like large religions or political or organizations, stuff like that, all of that was being rejected. You know, what's interesting about this to me is that as mainstream religion in the religions that most Americans had been aligning with for a long time. As that was sort of being rejected beliefs that are a little bit different. But still are kind of religious, right, in some way, even if the beliefs are weird, it's

still fitting into the idea of like a religious group, the connection between the decrease in mainstream religion, correlating with the increase in cults, sort of shows me that humans just gravitate towards some sort of religion. Sorry, if you're watching the video, there is a cat in frame. Now, like even when mainstream religion was not the hot thing anymore, and people were rejecting it, they couldn't go without religion, so new ones had to be formed, if that makes sense. My point is, it seems that humans gravitate

towards religion through thick and thin. Maybe people felt sort of aimless in a way, in the 60s and 70s, without a strong sense of religion in the culture. And oh my god, my cat is like needing muffins on my lap. Okay, I'm just going to let him be and just let him do that. But if you're watching, it's weird, just ignore it. He's literally, he just clogged into his shift at the bakery and he's making muffins on my blanket right now.

So, enjoy that visual. Like is it weird? Like should I push him off? If you're not watching this, literally skip ahead 30 seconds because I'm just talking about him making muffins on me. This is weird. Is this weird? It's fine. You think that I'm your mommy, maybe. I think that that's why cats do this because they think that he thinks I'm his mom, which I am. So I literally gave birth to him. Okay, this is actually getting crazy. I think we're gonna have to lay.

I'm sorry, but I know. I know. Well, do that later. Or kind of you can make months later. I kind of wonder if we're having a repeat in history right now, where similar to the 60s, there's kind of this rejection of all things mainstream. You know, I don't have statistics to back this up so this could completely be wrong. Everything I say is always a hypothesis. Never take it as fact, please. But I don't know, I just feel like the general conversation within my age group, for sure,

is sort of a rejection and a questioning of everything, whether that's religion or politics politics or the life path that is stereotypically highly regarded in society, etc. I feel this sort of questioning of everything. And that was kind of what was happening in the 60s. And what came with that was people rejecting mainstream religion and this sort of influx in cults. And I kind of have a hypothesis that we might be entering a period now where cults might have a resurgence.

Because if history, you know, what do they say about history? Like it repeats itself, but I don't remember the saying. I think history can repeat itself for sure. I don't think it always has to, but I think it can. And so I wonder if we will find over the next few years that maybe there is a resurgence of cults in the same way that there was in the 60s and 70s because maybe this sort of dissatisfaction with mainstream religion will cause that. I don't know. Again, a hypothesis would love to hear your thoughts. You let me know. Tweet me DM me on Instagram. I'm very curious if you agree with this hypothesis. If you disagree, let me know. But speaking of this sort of hypothesis that I have about

cults having a resurgence soon, I think that there's already a kind of new modern form of religion that isn't mainstream religion that we've had for thousands and thousands of years. people find a sense of religion in non-religious areas today. I've noticed this. And I don't know if this has always happened since the beginning of time. I don't know, but I'm just definitely feeling it now. And maybe I'm just noticing it for the first time, but I feel like it's a newer thing because of the internet.

People finding a sense of religion in non-religious areas. I feel like the internet has sparked levels of obsession and worship that closely mimic religious behavior. And although there's a lack of a God in a lot of the examples I'm about to talk about, there kind of is it God? And I'd say the God is sort of the most popular face, or dare I say, influencer of a given movement or ideology or way of life, or just general philosophy. I'm using the word influencer in its traditional term, somebody who influences, right? Not necessarily like influencer, like we know the word today,

which is like somebody who posts on the internet as their job. Although I guess that is the same thing. Anyway, number one, I think a lot of people have found religion in celebrities, copying everything that a celebrity does, taking everything that a celebrity says as fact, worshiping celebrities in a way that was never possible before. Because now celebrities are so much more accessible, you know, on the internet. It's so much easier to find communities

of other people who are fans of a celebrity or track down where a celebrity is using the internet, somehow watching, you know, endless content of a celebrity on the internet, et cetera. I think there's an ability now to obsess over celebrities in a way that wasn't possible before because celebrities weren't as available. It was harder to gain access to your favorite celebrity. They felt much more removed, whereas now we have a little bit more access and I think it's a lot easier to

start to kind of treat a celebrity like a god in a way because We know a lot more about celebrities now than we used to, right? There's just a lot more content out there We're seeing a lot more of celebrity's true personalities because there's just so much content to look to for celebrities. There's so many interviews, there's so many videos, there's so many whatever. And it's accessible at all times.

You can pretty much figure out anything you want about a celebrity at any given moment by Googling it. What's Jennifer Lawrence's favorite food? You could probably figure it out. What time does Jennifer Lawrence go to bed? You could Google it. You could probably find out. It's probably in an interview somewhere.

You know what I'm saying? Where did this celebrity buy her outfit, you could probably find out. It's probably in an interview somewhere. You know what I'm saying? Where did, where did this celebrity buy her outfit? You could probably find out. You know, so it's like, I don't know, there's just this ability to sort of worship in a way that just wasn't as possible before. You weren't getting enough information about a celebrity on a daily basis to properly worship them. Now listen, I'm not saying that there wasn't, obsession with celebrity in the past because I know that there was,

but I think it's shifted to being even more cult-like than ever before. I also think people have found religion in lifestyle trends on the internet. For example, you know, minimalism being a minimalist has become almost a religion, you know, sort of getting rid of everything that you own and only living with what you need and this whole idea that minimalism, you know, will change your life and fix your life. And I know that there's a few people who are kind of the sort of trend of that girl. I've seen this on the internet. It's called being that girl. And it's like the type of person who has their shit together, wakes up at 5am, goes to Pilates, wears

a cute workout set while doing it, comes home, makes a smoothie in their cute blender, pours it into a cute clip cup, drinks it, does a 50 steps skincare routine, gives themselves a full blowout, goes to work, you know, like this whole sort of idea of, you know, being that girl, having your shit together, taking care of yourself, always having a clean house, etc., etc., it's like this whole sort of movement. And there are people who are kind of the face of that who in a sense get worshiped for the way that they live their life. You know what products they buy, what time they wake up, and the people who sort of live this lifestyle rave about how it's such a positive thing for them. In a way that kind of feels like a religion, right? And last but not least,

you know, I think now more than ever, people align with a certain side of politics and at times that it feels like a religion for them. You know, heavily aligning with one side and taking all beliefs from that side as Bible. Like this is, there's no room for questioning. There's no room for open discussion. Like this is Bible, this is fact. And my identity is partially formed by this political allegiance, I guess. I think maybe this increased sense of borderline religious feeling obsession with things because of the internet might be the result of this sort of cultural discomfort that everybody's having in this sort of cultural

rejection of the mainstream. Maybe this is the response to a sort of rejection of traditional mainstream religion or maybe cults are coming soon. More cults and influx of cults are coming soon. We'll see. So after discussing all of this, okay, after discussing all of this, do we need religion as humans?

And without it, would our society crumble? The conclusion I've come to is that I actually think humans do need religion. Now, I'm not saying that everyone does. I'm saying that society as a whole needs to have religion. Religion needs to be an option for humans. Or else, I think that there would be serious problems. Now listen, I might be completely wrong about this, okay? I might be completely wrong. And I struggle to say that this is what I think, because I think that there are a lot of negative impacts of religion. But at the same time, I think some people actually need it.

And I kind of understand why, because some people need the sense of peace and stability and structure that a religion offers. Some people need that to keep them solid. Some people need it. Some people don't, but some people do. And I think that it needs to be available in a way. Because without it, I think people would lose track and lose stability. Again, not everybody, but some people would. Does religion make sense for everyone? No. For some people, atheism makes the most sense. You know, they actually feel more peace of mind, feeling like when they die, nothing happens after that. And nobody's watching over them, which also means nobody's protecting them, but nobody's watching over them. Some people feel peace of mind and comfort by not believing in religion. I think there's probably a lot

of atheists out there who feel like the fact that there's no God or God's takes the pressure off of life in a way. There's a lot of pressure to sort of impress God or the gods that you pray to if you're religious. Because in a lot of religions, if you do the right thing and you impress God, et cetera, then God will save you in the afterlife. That's kind of a popular religious belief, right? If you don't believe in God and you don't believe that there's

an afterlife, et cetera, then you don't feel the pressure in your present life to do everything perfectly. Because you're like, listen, every day is a new day. Nobody's judging me but me. And if I forgive myself, then I can just move forward. And I don't have to worry about, you know, God holding a grudge against me or something, right? I also think atheism works for some people too, because it allows them to sort of come up with their own Bible, if you will, that they follow. You know, instead of listening to the rules of a religion that's already preset and has been set for thousands of years, you can kind of morph things to fit you and your life, right? My point is,

religion is not for everybody. Some people find peace of mind and being atheist, believing there's no God or God's. Some people find peace in figuring out their own way to be spiritual, kind of creating their own sort of God. Like for me, for example, I don't necessarily believe in a God, but I also don't think I'm atheist either. I have my own sort of spiritual belief about I have my own sort of spiritual belief about the universe sort of being a force in itself. And it doesn't have a face like God does, but I play around a lot with the idea that the universe is a force of its own, that is a higher power in a way. And that's my own sort of spiritual Bible in my head. You know, I have my own sort of Bible in my head of the rules I want to live by

in my life. And the morals I want to follow in my life, et cetera, and the sort of higher power that I kind of believe in in my life. I've written my own sort of Bible, right, in my head, only for me. But also there are some people who need to participate in a pre-existing religion. They need to just fall into that and just trust in that. They don't want to come up with their own religion and they can't bear the thought that there's no God. And so an organized religion that has existed for much longer than they have gives them

comfort, gives them peace of mind, and gives them structure. In conclusion, I think religion isn't going anywhere. And to be honest, I think that we need it. But I do think that things can always be improved. And so I'm not sitting here saying that we need religion and it needs to stay exactly the way that it is today. I'm not saying that at all. Things can always be improved. Things should always be evolving. Things should always be growing and changing. And so I'm not saying that religion should remain exactly as it is today, right?

But I do think that it's a necessary part of society. And there's a reason why it's been here for thousands and thousands of years. Anyway. Anyway, that like really exercised my brain today. Not really exercised my brain today. Thank you guys for listening and hanging out. It's always such a pleasure. And let me know what you think. You can tweet me at AG Podcast or message me on Instagram

at anything goes. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I really enjoyed it. Always feel free to message me any topics that you'd love to hear me talk about. If you have anything in your mind, what else? If you wanna pick up some coffee from my coffee rent, Chamroling Coffee, you can go to ChamrolingCoffee.com and special coupon code for you because you listen to to my show. Use code AG15 for a little

discount on coffee. Today I'm drinking a cold brew, nothing crazy. That's all I got for today. Thank you for listening. Thank you for hanging out. I love and appreciate you so much and I'll talk to you later. Here's a little forehead kiss for you, okay? Hopefully you didn't find that gross and or nasty. Anyway, I'll talk to you guys later! See ya!