Dreez's Religion This Year

Background

Everyone goes through periods in their lives where the world crashes around them. In their hour of despair they probably go through the mental exercise of "Is There A God? and Where Is He/She Now?". 2003 was my challenging year when I asked the same question. During this year I read books such as:

• Man's Search for Meaning
• Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning
• It's a Meaningful Life
• The Purpose Driven
• Evidence That Demands a Verdict
• Surprised By Faith
• Fire In The Belly
• Conversations With God

and then spent the year bugging my family and friends on their beliefs. This page summarizes what I discovered.

Key Findings

• Can't prove God exists nor does not exist, total leap of personal faith
• Many religions are man-made entities hierarchical in nature (person on top closest to "God", dictates down to followers) which for me is scary because I question whether those on top are more interested in strengthening the followers' faith in "God", or preserving the man-made institution and their positions at all costs 
• As people become more informed, they migrate to religions that are more personalized, flat in structure, less authoritarian, etc. 

My Belief's

• Outside of the physical world one can only prove the existence of several spiritual (non-physical) facets of reality:
  • I exist 
  • My relationship with other people exists
  • My relationships with planet earth exists
• I say this can be proven because every human has experienced these relationships either positively or negatively in their lifetime. 

My Religion and Faith - Friends Of The Rock (FOTR)

In the end I decided that none of the religions in the world brought me the comfort I needed so I created my own religion - Friends Of The Rock. Why? Because when the ship was sinking I found comfort in building loving relationships with friends and family or volunteering my time with people that I didn't even know. Even better yet is when you are outside in nature by yourself  and you get the rush of being in The Zone - that quiet rustling of trees when hiking in a green forest or the ecstatic high of standing on top of a mountain - somehow you are connected to the natural "God" that gives you power to be your best.

Somehow together, building loving relationships and The Zone, seemed to comfort and fulfill me and keep the ship afloat. 

So for those that share the same philosophy of life I created Friends Of The Rock. These are some of the tenants of the religion:

• Constantly striving to build a loving respectful relationships with yourself, family, friends, and community
• Giving back to those that gave to you and your community
• Respectful lifestyle for The Rock we call earth that sustains us and our children

and that's about it. If you believe in God great, if not that's great too, don't send me money, no one is "On Top" closest to God, if you want to be subjugated you're reading the wrong web page. Not too exciting I guess but it works for me and I hope it works for others.