I was raised in a Catholic household where I was taught to pray to God every night before bed and go to church every Sunday. My mother forced me to take 6 years of Sunday school and I absolutely hated it. God seemed entirely absent to me, I never felt his presence. No matter how many sacraments I performed I never understood the purpose and the few times I tried to question why I had to do this, I would immediately get shut down. I was supposed to believe in it simply because everyone else in my family did and that didn’t make any sense to 13 year old me. I began to view the people who were extremely religious as delusional. However, this mindset is what tears people apart. Just because I didn’t understand why all these people were praying to God doesn’t mean I should label their actions as crazy. My mother sat me down when I was 16 years old and asked me if I actually believed in God and I told her no. She was so disappointed in me and herself, she thought that she had failed me as a mother. She tried to explain to me that faith in God is what helped her get through the most painful moments in her life and I tried to explain to her that I can draw strength from other things in my life. In the end, neither of us changed our ideology but she respected my beliefs and I respected hers. I connected a lot with the second video about not being entitled to a debate because when it comes to religion people feel like they need to debate and change/convert people just because they have different opinions.
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