Day nine

My beliefs, in great detail
Well, this one is going to be a bit difficult as I don't entirely know.
I do believe in a greater power- but I don't believe in the Christian vision of God. When I think of a God, I don't think of something that has the power to smite people, or set people on fire and send them to Hell. I just think of a God that sort of... lets things be. When it's religion vs. science, and there is a scientific explanation, I will believe science pretty much 100% of the time. I don't really believe in the whole Genesis God-created-everything-in-seven-days theory. I believe in the Big Bang Theory, but I believe that probably something greater triggered it. I believe in evolution (though it bugs me to death when people try to use "I didn't evolve from no ape!" as an argument to try and disprove it... KILLS me. Darwin did not say that, sheesh).

I am not religious whatsoever, but I think religion is very interesting. I'm pretty spiritual, though. I always have been, I just never really thought about it. Pretty much everyone in Kentucky is at least a little bit Cherokee (or some other branch of Native American), but I am quite a lot... I kind of think that may be why I've always been so into nature and felt really at home in it. Being in nature makes me feel spiritual, which I guess is either really weird or really understandable. I'm not sure what other people think about it. To me, nature and God are similar. I still don't know how to explain that but I know what I mean.

I don't really like to talk about my beliefs just because I think it's okay to be proud of what you believe in, but most of the time discussions of beliefs/religion turn into, "No you can't believe that, that's wrong", or "I'm right because my Bible says so". I don't think there's a good reason that you can't just be confident in your own beliefs and not worry about trying to save someone else's soul.

I'm still really torn about my beliefs as far as the after life is concerned. It's confusing to me because each person has such a different personality and so much energy that it's weird to me that it could just go away all at once. It's hard to imagine what death is like- I suppose it's like nothing, but then nothingness is really hard to imagine. I don't believe in Satan though... so I don't believe in Hell- at least not the whole "lake of fire" thing. IF the after life is truth, here is what I picture it as: Heaven doesn't literally have streets paved with gold, Hell isn't just a bunch of hot. I guess I feel like you'll just be repaid for the good (or bad) things you've done- and those things don't necessarily involve going to church, reading your Bible, staying abstinent and what have you. Or maybe that's what karma is for. If I ever see a ghost, well, I suppose I'll ask. In the meantime, I'm going to not worry about it. I feel like you should spend your time on earth enjoying life instead of worrying about what will happen to you when life ends.

I really like a quote by Oprah that I keep hearing over and over (probably this isn't verbatim): "There are many paths to God".

Someone I wish I could meet.
I've always heard that there is someone in the world who looks exactly like you. I have also always wanted to meet that person if she exists. I want to know if we have had similar lives, if we have similar opinions on things. If we're alike at all.