Respecting the Beliefs of Others
Let’s talk about respecting the beliefs of others. You do not have to agree with a particular belief, religion, or so on, to at least respect that the fact that the other person has every right to believe in whatever they choose to believe in, and to practice his or her religion or spirituality as they see fit. We can disagree with whatever we choose, but that does not give anyone the right to ever be disrespectful.
When it comes to religion and spiritual beliefs, they are many around the world, and whether you think they are fake, do not believe in them, do not like them, and so on, is beyond the point. For example, I grew up Christian and attended a Baptist church and there were many ideologies that were indoctrinated in me that I grew up believing.
However, well into my adulthood as I started my spiritual journey, I started questioning many of the things that I was taught. Although I ultimately decided to leave the Church, I do not have any right to belittle or disrespect anyone who still attends church or still believes in many of the ideas that I do not believe in. We all have our own path and who is to say that your path is better than another person’s path and vice versa. I cannot convince anyone to believe certain things just because I believe them now.
This reminded me of my very first trip to Hawaii. By the way, if you have never been, and have an opportunity to go, please go. Hawaii is absolutely beautiful, and the first time I visited, I stayed in Oahu on Waikiki Beach. One day, my mother and I took a day trip to the big island of Hawaii. The tour included the roundtrip flight from Oahu (We flew at that time on Aloha Air), a tour of the island, some shopping time, and lunch.
During this tour, we had a chance to see lots of hardened lava that had covered many of the roads. The driver took us along roads where you could only travel a certain distance before you had to turn around because volcanic ash had covered the road. The ash at that point was solid and somewhat cold. We also saw an active volcano as we watched lava spewing into the Pacific Ocean, which was really a sight to see. Of course, we had to maintain a good distance due to the sulfuric acid in the air.
However, when we came across the hardened and cooled volcanic ash on the road, we were able to get out to get a closer look, take photos and so on, and I noticed that there were also smaller pieces that you could pick up, so I did so, because I planned to take it home. Our tour guide informed me however, that it was bad luck to remove any volcanic ash from the island.
Before I could even react, my mother smacked it out of my hand so fast. The tour guide went onto state how it was a belief held by their culture that ash on the island is to stay on the island, and if removed, it could bring the remover bad luck since it is not there’s to take. I’ve heard other similar beliefs for example where it is believed to be bad luck to take dirt from a cemetery. It is viewed as disrespectful. Now I’m sure some people have taken volcanic ash from Hawaii to have as a souvenir of sorts, and whether or not they experienced bad luck or any negativity I don’t know, but who was I to question their beliefs?
As we all know however, there will be others who believe that it is all folklore, a conspiracy theory, that it is made up, and will say negative things about it and those that believe in it, which is wrong. The fact is that you have every right to disagree with whatever you want to disagree with. You have every right to feel the way that you feel. There are plenty of things that I often give the side eye to, but it is never within our right to disrespect it.
Simply put, respect the religious and spiritual beliefs of others. There is no right or wrong way to be spiritual and no right or wrong religion. People just have different views with different beliefs, so who are you or anyone to say that they are wrong. We all have the right to practice our religion or spirituality as we see fit.
