This I Believe

This I Believe

I believe that I've taken myself too seriously; and this attitude of egocentric significance has stifled my creativity and rational thought. I learned to abdicate critical reasoning to those who perpetuated the notion of my own importance. I suspended my critical thinking skills because I put my life in the hands of individuals who promised me something. What did they promise, and why did I believe them?

At some point in my life I understood that eventually I was going to die. It was a terrifying concept for someone who was so self-important. If I was truly significant, how could I simply end!? Certainly there must be more: a continuation beyond what I could see here on earth. There must be another life!

I believe that it was this notion that there must be more that lead me to affiliate with a religion, an organization that promised me something greater than the life I had. The religion emphasized my importance, promised to honor that importance with everlasting life, and provided a pathway to that promise. The passage to an afterlife only required two things: loyalty to the organization's dogma and gratitude for it. I was encouraged to demonstrate my gratitude by contributions of time, effort, and money.

Once I'd been indoctrinated with my own importance I was compelled to follow through on that importance. The more self-important I became, the more I feared nothingness; and the more dread I had with the notion that the very molecules that formed me would some day be recycled; perhaps even by creatures without souls! It was death anxiety that drove me to my dogma-oriented religion. Once I bought into