Religion & My Beliefs

I know that this is a pretty controversial subject, I do not mean to offend anyone or cause any upset, I am just simply stating my views and opinions, I hope you all can respect and accept that :)


Since I was a little girl, I can never really remember having a strong belief system or faith. Being raised as a Catholic, I attended mass on a Sunday with my nanny (my mum's grandmother) and I went to a Catholic schools. I wrote a blog post about how religion pretty much divides my hometown Belfast and my country Northern Ireland. There are a few mixed religious schools but the majority are either Catholic or Protestant. 

Since my parents are of different religious backgrounds, religion was never a massive deal in our house. Me and my sister were technically raised as Catholics (a term apparently put in place by our local chapel as an agreement for my parents marriage) as we both attended Catholic primary and secondary schools. 

Because we have to wear uniforms in the majority of the U.K. it is easy to spot a certain schools uniform, usually displaying the name on the badge or just by the colours. This also caused problems growing up. Not so much in primary but definitely in secondary. This meant that being in certain areas of the city in your school uniform could mean trouble. Even going into the city centre was dangerous, because Belfast is quite a small city, everyone sort of knows and recognises different uniforms. Catholic schools especially are not half obvious with names like St Joesph's, Holy Cross or Christian Brother's. 

Imagine not even feeling safe walking around in your school uniform at that age? It was tough let me tell you. Even my own area where I lived was predominantly Protestant so walking home from school I was nervous and literally don't think I have ever walked so fast in my life. Luckily I never got into a fight or got beaten up just because of my religion. I have lived in my area my whole life so I know the majority of the people in passing, I honestly think that might be the only reason. 



I have never really believed in God or any sort of higher power. I think because my parents didn't have a massive influence on me that I just never really grew in the Catholic faith or any religion for that matter. So I think I can officially be called an atheist. 

I honestly have so much respect for people who are passionately religious and have a very strong belief system, I just unfortunately do not. I think it's great that people believe in something and take comfort in believing that there is something after death. I really wish I had faith in something, believed in an afterlife and could actually be proud of a belief system I admired and trusted. 



If anything, I partly believe in Buddhism. Buddhism is a tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development. Buddhists strive for a deep insight into the true nature of life and do not worship gods or deities. So not believing in a higher power and just focusing on myself is exactly what I do anyway.

Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent and that change is always possible. I kind of agree, I don't believe in fate or destiny. However I do believe that everything happens for a reason, not because it was meant to or supposed to, but that it just does. I don't think that their is a certain path set out for my life, I change my mind about things way too often. I like to believe that I have control over my life, that I am not just following some map that has already been drawn for me. I am the one who makes my decisions and shapes things the way I want them to be. 

Buddhists believe in karma, as do I. What's the saying....what goes around comes around? I truly do believe that. They say that all the good and bad things that happen to us are the results of our past actions. It's all about the choices we make, the things we do & say and how we treat others. It actually takes more effort to be mean and nasty to someone than it does to just give a smile.

If you have another spare few minutes after reading this, then please check out this blog post I done a few months ago, it's about how we should all love each other and treat everyone equally.

Later skaters
Love S xoxo