 I don't know why it's such a difficult thing, such a no-go, such a touchy, taboo area to actually discuss one's religious beliefs or lack of their off. And when I wanted to record this video and I told Elaine about it, that a friend of mine has been curious to know how, in his words, I'm sailing through life without being necessarily tagged as a religious person and seemingly disconnected from religion and possibly even dismissive of it. She was against the idea of recording such a video because spirituality and religion tends to almost always go south when the topic is raised, especially when you are of a different stance. And I think it makes it even difficult for people who have questions or are curious to possibly start the practice to even get into it in the first place because it's almost always leading to fanatism when religion is brought up. But I have to say, even before I even go into how I became what is termed agnostic, that I'm happy that I'm surrounded by people who do not make a dear lives mission to try and change my mind about what I do or do not believe in and what I do or do not practice in terms of my religious standing. So I was brought up in a Presbyterian home and that is what I grew up knowing. That is what I was introduced to. So I don't know what I would be if I didn't have that or I wasn't introduced to that. I may have been born into another family which is completely devoid of any religious practice or some other religious practice, which is also fine. But that is what I grew up knowing and like everything else in society that we are taught when we are born into certain families or certain societies, that is what we know until we are old enough to want to decide for ourselves what we want to do with our lives with regards to these practices. It happens with school, it happens with associations, it happens with the kind of friends you make, it happens with the kind of partner you choose, it happens with the kind of church or religion you choose to practice. All these things are part of our human life but for some reason when it comes to religion it's like a no-go area, it's like a don't-touch-it area, it's either you are for or against it and if you're against it then technically you're not even to be considered somebody who is wholesome enough to be part of the human race that is and I think it's rather sad that this has to be it that is one or the other which is what even makes it more unattractive for me to practice religion and I wasn't always like this like I was saying I was born into a religious home and then growing up I had a few questions and even with the principles of the religion, some of the contradictions that were difficult for me to come to terms with led me to decide you know it's it's okay to not belong to any group I don't ascribe to any of them I don't think either of them is right or wrong and I think that as it's always said it's a personal journey it's a personal choice and that is what I am sticking with so I do not condemn the practice of religion although some of the things that happen within this practice tend to border on oppressing other people and that is although those are a few things I do not agree with and when it comes to religion just as any other practice what religion offers those who practice it is basically something to believe in doctrines or principles to live your life by to make it actually easier and it's more like a workbook that you live your life by and the other side of it is something that we cannot see or quantify and that is what we choose to base our faith in and I also don't think that faith is only limited to religion because faith in its other form is what you would term as the law of attraction or a strong belief so whatever you believe in strongly mentally you can equally attract it or have its work for you in whichever way so long as it's a strong belief and for me I think some of the limitations that come with religion also makes up the reason why I chose not to belong to any group because some of them are limiting and I believe that for humans as we are and in nature in itself there's some kind of limitlessness however this limitlessness is not also to be abused and used against other people and I can understand that religion actually helps with controlling some of these free will abilities however it's not all of them that work in this modern day or work for everybody and those things should also be considered and spoken about but it doesn't look like that is what's happening or that's what's ever going to happen and so that makes it difficult for me to as a human being relating to other humans commit to such practice religiously or be devout to it in any shape or form so for me I don't think that there is no supreme being or beings I don't think that there's nothing out there that is mightier or orchestrating whatever is happening here in whichever shape or form whether it's scientific whether it's physics whether it's spiritual whatever energy whatever it's based on I do not doubt its existence and I do not confirm its existence either however I am happy to be here as a person I'm happy to exist and interact with other humans based on some of these principles that I've come to know based on existing in what we call society knowing what is right from wrong knowing that kindness is something that is good knowing that love is mostly what as humans we almost always need we are social animals we want to belong and be a part of things and not necessarily feel that some of these things limit us in being who we want to be so long as this concept of free will is not infringing on another person's own free will or right to be however they want to choose to be and they can also be respected and loved and still belong to one you know uniform group of people who live with nature as it is we all came to meet it we're all not going to take it anywhere and it will keep evolving and that's one thing also that makes it difficult the evolution isn't happening as fast and it seemed that some of the parts of religious practices are only picked and chosen to evolve and others are stagnant and don't want to even bend or engage possible change with how the world is going and that makes it difficult if you are somebody who is progressive and want to live a certain kind of lifestyle then it doesn't work for you so if i am not practicing religion it's because personally me it doesn't serve me well to practice religion in its fullness because you can't pick parts of religion that work for you and leave other sides of religion that don't work you can't pick and choose which makes it difficult to balance so i'd rather live off what i know works for me what i know i can use to interact with other people and what i know would essentially be right in my own journey as it always is or always boils down to personal choices and free will and living your life the way you see fit so this is how people often become what i term or know what i term what is termed agnostic that it's okay to just live your life based on your human interactions based on your personality based on your growth based on your evolution as a person and play your part in the world enjoy what is here and now and see where it goes wherever it goes just evolve adapt and be so that is my stance on being a person on this earth in society without the tag of belonging to a religious group i think i'm a human being and if humans have flaws and other things that work for them everybody deserves to exist a way to want to so that is my religious perspective or my perspective on religion yeah so that's about it for this particular video it's not been an easy thing to share or talk about but i hope that it doesn't attract um comments that tend to border always on yes you find out later or you need that personal encounter to know that religion or belonging to a certain religious group is the thing which almost often is tied to uh something bad happening to you that changes your mind about the existence of a deity or not and you're committing to worship or belonging to a group which for me it's like fear mongering and that also is something that i don't even want to go into so yeah i'll end the video here that is my perspective on religion i'd rather be a human to other humans i'd rather be kind when i can i'd rather love i'd rather open up about my emotions when i need to and exist with other humans as is and play my part so i'll catch you in the next video peace