Tanja Beer and Jan Valnoha

 

Does praying help to overcome sorrow and grieve? If an important person dies, does believing in god make it any better? It will not bring your loved one person back nor does the departed feel your praying and pain.

 

We all know what it means. You meet at the church, walk over to the cemetery, the ceremony makes everybody cry. I have the feeling that most of the times priests have not even had the chance to get to know the person you loved.

 

The Asian person in the footage is probably paying his respect to an ancient warrior.

But still. Is not the Christian god supposed to help you out whenever you are in trouble? Is not he the higher power that controls our lives? He will not change his plan if you tell him to nor do your words influence people’s decisions.

 

I really respect my grandma and her generation but she, especially, has always seen religion as a sanctuary. A place where you can flee whenever the real world is too unbearable. She witnessed World War II and during this time religion gave her hope.

 

Hope.

 

To me, our history has proven that hope can lead people to do almost anything. Hope inspires people to fight for their own lives and freedom. It also brings people to believe that they are better than others. Killing or torturing innocent people that one day had hope for a better future, too. Still it does not change anything. In everyday life, hope can turn a person into a thief, prostitute or even a murderer. Just because hope makes you think that by doing these things it will make everything better.

 

Where is god? Where is his wrath, if a simple feeling like hope can turn you into a criminal? If one interprets the Koran in a way that they become an extremist the Bible cannot be that much better, as it has caused extreme movements throughout history, too.

 

So, does it make a difference?

 

Prayers. Words. Thoughts. Hope. Do they lead us to god? Is religion our opium?