Today I saw a post minimizing others’ personal beliefs in whatever invisible God they choose to believe in. Needless to say the person who posted it is an active atheist. There’s nothing wrong with atheism. Hell, in my opinion atheism is fantastic – you’re given one life, one chance and making a lasting legacy; and God/dess loves that mentality, because in essence it is true. Anyway, people without faith don’t bother me. People that minimize others beliefs do bother me, whether religious or atheist. We all have an identity, an ego; and its made up of all our personal experiences, including thoughts and emotions. Maybe its a mundane guide? Regardless it is the “I am” and “I exist.” Whenever we express our egos in an inflated way that minimizes others, the end point is “You are not” and thus “should not exist.” In essence that is what we are doing when we put others down. Now, one can argue that they aren’t putting the person down, just their beliefs. However, our beliefs make up who we are, and are as equally valuable. For spiritual people, having their personal beliefs minimized is to experience minimization of themselves. That sounds weak and codependent, but codependency in that respect is to stay in that state. It would also be codependent to try and change those beliefs by attempting to imprint our beliefs onto others for whatever reason. Christianity and other religions have been shoving their religion down each others throats for eons. All that has done is shut people off from each other in one form or another. It all comes down to the I’m right, you’re wrong mentality, and thus people stop listening. We can all learn from each other and grow mentally, emotionally, and those 2 words together spiritually (“spiritually” in its simplest, mundane form, or something greater for the “believers”). As we grow, the things that matter change, the way we think changes, as the emotions attach to them; so, who’s to stay who or what is right? As human beings we are out of our leagues defining God. If that’s hard to swallow, just think am I able to mold a woman’s thinking into understanding/relating what it is like to be a man? Of course not. So how can I define God? A popular spiritual book has said, “God is everything, or He is nothing.” If that’s true, then the definition of God is widely subjective to each individual; and everyone has the right to that definition as they see fit; but they don’t deserve to suffer scrutiny over something no human can define or a definition that may well exist beyond the capacity of human understanding – because we are human, not God. I believe we are all of God – different expressions of said Deity or if it suits you better, deity, but that’s for another conversation another time. In our conversations with each other we have to remain useful over being “right,” because everyone’s truth is to each their own. We also have to consider the things we perceive then, are actually reflections of ourselves. And if someone else’s beliefs bother us, we should ask ourselves why, instead of belittling them. The angst in the matter is about ourselves, not them. In closing, only kindness matters, which I struggle with on the regular, but I’m also improving as I pay attention to my language, thoughts, and emotions. And for those struggling with agnosticism, even to the atheists that in their atheism are angry at religion and/or spiritualist, I quote the book again, “God is everything, or He is nothing.” That being said, nothing is in essence a thing. Pray to the nothing. Till then, laugh and love, and then love to laugh and live to love. Peace.