Right around that time my polar opposite sweet, quiet friend Maja, met some American college students and wanted to introduce me to
them. They were spending the summer in
Yugoslavia hoping to meet as many as
possible college students from our country who would like to make friends with
them, practice their English, and learn about each other’s culture, religion
and word view. I jumped at the
opportunity to practice English and make friends. Americans were well-loved and admired at the
time. Meeting them in person was quite a privilege. Talking about religion, however, was
certainly not my view of having fun. But, I was willing to put up with it, knowing
that the subject is so ridiculously irrelevant that it wouldn't take too much
of our time. I was wrong. Our conversation
kept going back to the discussions about existence of God, creation and human
need for meaning and significance.
We can create meaning
and significance in our own selves.
I protested. We don’t need God to
live meaningful and significant lives. Religion is an opiate for the masses,
I quoted Karl Marx, the prophet of communism.
It’s for old, uneducated people who couldn't explain natural occurrences we now
understand through science. In the evolutionary development, we have outgrown
the need for religion. It’s a matter of
the past.
The young Americans listened to my anti-religious sermons
politely. They were all intelligent,
capable, educated men and women, with the resources and opportunities that
certainly at least met if not exceeded those afforded to me in the mid-eighties
in the Balkans. I couldn't understand their insistence on the
importance and value of religion, which they explained as ‘personal
relationship with God through Jesus Christ’.
Even though every word in that expression was known to me, when strung
together in this order, I couldn't make sense of them at all. Finally, I
concluded that this religious blabber is just a part of their culture and
tradition. Everyone is a Christian in America . My friends shook their heads, finding further
human reasoning quite hopeless, and assured me of their continued prayers.
Whatever. I shrugged their words off. You may
believe in God, I never will. We said our good byes and forever (or so I thought) parted
our ways.
I knew who I was. I
knew what I believed. Most importantly, I didn't need God. I didn't need a crutch. I didn't need opium. With hard work and
determination, I could climb any mountain.
I could do it on my own. I can be
my own god.
Ah, the arrogance of
the ignorant.
Ah, the ignorance of the
arrogant.
How little we
know.
How little we understand.
