Religion
At the age of three, I was baptized at a Roman Catholic church. My dad and my grandma attended my baptism, but my mom did not. The few religious related memories about my dad are of every morning he would quietly say his prayers in the morning on the way to drop me off at school and my grandma giving me kids books about Catholicism. At the time, I didn't truly have a grasp of religion and the importance of it to them, maybe because I had conflicting religions in my life, and as the child, I was supposed to naturally obtain the same religion of each parent.
Throughout my childhood, and currently into my adult years, I attend pujas, which is prayer rituals performed by Hindus of devotional worship to one or more deities, or one to spiritually celebrate an event. It may honor or celebrate the presence of a special guest, or their memories after they die. Most people hold at least one puja at their house every year, meaning I have attended at least 35-40 in my lifetime. Aside from occasional occurrences, I was taught by my nani (grandmother on my mother's side) how to conduct morning prayers. Despite her participation in all other things religious, my mom did not conduct these daily prayers, however, we did have pictures of multiple gods framed throughout our house. Despite the constant influence of Hinduism in my life, I never understood the meaning of why we must do this in order to live a good life.
When I was in high school, Nani was diagnosed with breast cancer. From that day on, I had a completely different perspective of religion. The moment that my mom had found out about Nani's diagnoses, she not only lost her faith in God, but also had such an opposing view of it. My nani did survive, however, this did not change how my mom's perspective. She felt that if there was a God or gods, and there were lessons to be taught to the human race, he wouldn't hurt those who good people, yet struggled through hardships while devoting their lives to religion.
How did your childhood religious upbringing shape your beliefs as an adult?
Between being raised with two conflicting religions and the loss of my mom's religion, I have come to realize that it is my decision on what to believe in. I have developed more science-based beliefs. After learning about different religious ideologies, I do believe in the theory that our souls or spirits have a conscious and are energy that remains somewhere in our enviornment, for energy is not created nor destroyed. As for how many or what gods there are, I don't necessarily know if I believe in that at this point in time. As an adult, I have learned to respect all religions and more importantly to never tell anyone that their beliefs are wrong because can anyone truthfully say with indisputable fact that their religion is the one and only religion? My religion has no name, but focuses on moralistic values such as helping others.
