Who Do We Believe?

A person makes decisions based on influences. Influences also tend to have many names. Religion, politics, media, take your pick, all of them play a certain role on how we view our lives. But whatever happened to the genuine thought process, and having or fulfilling your own point of views? It's almost a question of evolution. Are we really digressing in this long known theory of evolution or are destined for a world where we don't need to think for ourselves?

Religion has been one of the largest factors in almost every historic period we've learned of. Be it the dark side of religion with crusades or the shock of the Protestant reformation thanks to Martin Luther, religion has been on people's minds almost forever. And why is it that we're influenced by religion? The answer seems almost too easy. We tend to be scared to think for ourselves and have our own view of life and death because, let's face it, no one wants to die. Gods or extraordinary people give us a guidance to tell us where to take our next step and how to lose the fear of death and learn where we are going is better than where we are, if we lived our life their "right" way. I am still being raised catholic in a family where, my mother and father say, God is very much alive. It's not that I don't believe in God, but rather I don't understand how he has set a plan for me. I'd rather know I'm in control of making my mistakes and later turning them into accomplishments. Fear and doubt bring us to state that is weak enough to be swayed by religion. If we continue to show weakness, the same might prevail in politics.

As of now, politics have two main parties, the democratic and the republic. I have never been as interested in politics and still try to let the media do the talking for me on that subject. I do watch some news and hear gossip from older friends that tend to be more interested than me but have extreme bias on a certain party. The news today is close to telling us President Bush is making this country go into such a deep hole that it'll take more than several terms to get back out. My family, being catholic, voted for Bush and the republicans because of his "Christian" belief, but it seems to me, Bush has done more wrong than right. I've been influenced to believe he's started a war on false accusations, he's put the country into its largest known debt and