I think, therefore I am

Earlier this week, someone I respect, someone I thought respected me, basically told me that because I let my “outdated” religious beliefs have an impact on the formation of my opinions, that I was not thinking freely. The fact that she is not constrained by a religion means that she can think as she wishes, since no one is telling her what she should think. Except, I don’t believe that anyone really can honestly say that no one is telling them what to think. From the time we are cognizant of anything, someone is going to influence our thoughts. Our beliefs, the opinions we form, are shaped and changed and molded by outside forces all the time. Our parents, friends, spouses, newspapers, TV shows, celebrities, bloggers- explicitly or implicitly, just about everyone is happy to tell you why they are correct in their opinions and views. Some are more tolerant than other about agreeing to disagree, but I’ve never met anyone who had a difference of views with someone else and responded “No, I don’t want you to think the same thing I do, I want to continue to be at odds.” My religion does not make me brainwashed. It does not make me a fool or a hypocrite. Those are all things that I have been accused of (both subtly and blatently) because of my willingness to say that I am a religious person. In the same online chats where some of friends are advocating tolerance, they are painting all religious people as being fanatical extremists. Many allegedly “moral” people are not ones that I consider good people. But many are. And to lump all of us into a single category because we are all following and practicing religions that are supposed to worship the same God can be just as insulting as the homophobia, sexism, racism and other intolerances attributed to the “bad guys.”