Group Faith
              By Jesse Smith

	I'm sure that many of you, like myself, have been
visited before by members of organized religion. Some of
them have, perhaps, offered to talk with you about their
faith. It has, in my experience, happened a few times.
Not nearly as much, I'm afraid, as I'd like it to. You see,
I like sitting down with people of that strong a faith. I
enjoy sharing ideas with them and hearing what they have to
say. I find this especially thrilling with the Mormons. Good,
clean folk, whom have a certain je ne sa quoi. 

	However, enough of my bad French. Regardless of which
religion these people come from and why they are there, I've
found two things very important that I wish to share with you. The
first, and less important, is that there is no organized religion
I have heard of yet that doesn't have holes in it. Come to
think of it, personal religions tend to have holes in them too.
Faith, as with many things, is in the eyes of the beholder.
No one religion can (or should) apply to everyone. The idea that
one faith is better than another is silly and boarders on the
insane. The sharing of IDEAS is important. It is through ideas
about Life, The Universe and Everything that should be thrown out
there for people, not Dogma. 
As I said before, I enjoy having people come to me, wanting
to share their beliefs. That is to say, I like the exchange of
ideas between them and myself. After all, I assume that they will
listen to my ideas as much as I will to theirs. Both beliefs have
holes that need to be patched and maybe we can help each other. 
My other point is that some people, while sharing their 
religion with me have used phrases like, "I felt God. I felt love."
Or other things like, "I feel the love of God in me." Or, my
personal favourite: "I have embraced God and I feel His love in
me." 

	Well, folks, I'm about to burst your bubble. Not that
you may acknowledge that there IS a bubble, but here it comes.
What you are feeling is NOT the love of the Lord. It is not the
Holy Spirit filling you with good feelings. It is, in fact, the
good feelings you receive from being part of a group. Most people,
before they "discover God" are down on their luck. Maybe they lost
a job, a friend, a family member or were just "down". In every
"Found Jesus" story I've ever heard, this is how it starts. This
part lasts about thirty seconds. Then, somehow someone somewhere
gets the "Soon-To-Be-Saved" into a church. They break bread,
sing some songs and meet new people. Sometime later, they feel
this warmth. This feeling of Good. This, they (wrongfully) 
assume, is God. 

	Guess what, people, that isn't God. That is the feeling
of belonging. It is the same feeling people get when they join
a secret club, or a frat house or a (gasp) cult. Humans are
social animals. Other people with similar interests are like
drugs to us. We get high off other people who are looking for
(and think they've found) the same things we want. It would be
the same if you were to join a winning sports team or a band.
You see, these other people in church are there for the same
reasons you are. They were tired, lonely, depressed, "down" and
somehow ended up here. They (and now you) are meeting people
with something in common and it feels great. 

	Now, to bring my two points together, since everyone
is different, each person needs to be accepted by a different
group. I get my rush from things like Karate class and talking
with people from my profession. Others may want to go to church.
Some start a chess club. What I'm getting at here is that as
long as a person is happy, accepted and isn't hurting anyone
(themselves included) then who are we to try to change that?
Sure, share your ideas. Accept a few back. However, let's not
try to tell anybody that ours is the one and only way, shall
we? Also, let's stop this "Discovering God" speech. If you really
stop and think about it, you'd realize that you would lose "God"
as soon as you left your new support group.