"All the faithful fall onto their knees"

Everyone who knows me well knows I am very spiritual. I wouldn't call myself religious because I don't follow a book or confine myself to a building to pray. I believe in God, I pray, and this belief comes from within, it's the definition of faith. I can't physically prove to anyone he exists, nor do I feel the need to. All that matters to me is that I know in my heart he exists. I know in my heart there is life after death. These are beliefs that are mine, but I am still open minded enough to listen to the opposing views and ideas of other people.  I can respect anyone's opinion as long as they are just being informative and not pushing what the think is "the way" down my throat. I'm 34 years old, there's no conversion at this point.. 

The title of this blog is a quote from an amazing song. Probably one of my favorite songs, period. It always makes me think, so this is what was going through my head when I heard it this time.. 

Godless are we??  I understand people who lean more toward science and logic normally have a hard time with no physical proof, believing in God. I can respect that, but I can't accept when people try to talk me out of my beliefs because of the lack of scientific evidence. (which is arguable, there are books on supposed scientific proof of life after death) 

I also can't accept the overly religious telling me that certain things I do or even things I feel or think will lead me straight to the mouth of hell. I can't get behind any religion where a great deal of it's followers live in fear. 

I see it this way,, I'm not saying this is how it is, this is my personal belief. God is the all father. Think of a normal functional family unit. Would your father disown you for making mistakes? Chances are he would not.  Your father loves you (or at least should) and you love him. He may get angry at you from time to time for being a screw up, but he knows you learn from your mistakes. Your parents support you unconditionally. To me that is what God is like. And the question of  "If there is a God, why do so many bad things happen?" I believe you can't truly be happy and open yourself up to good things if you've never experienced the bad. You can't truly appreciate something beautiful if you've never seen ugliness..  I believe that is a marker of a truly enlightened person. The ability to appreciate all of your experiences and realize the sum of those things makes you who you are. 

I have gotten shit so many times from random people who are completely irrelevant to me about being spiritual and being into metal at the same time.  I have touched on this subject a bit in a previous blog, but I guess I just felt the need to speak on it again today.

What are your beliefs and do you expect the people you care about to agree?