Create Your Own Religion

By Te-Erika Patterson

You have every right to be upset about the title of this article. Your staunch beliefs may lead you to
believe I am being sacrilegious or that I am an atheist, which isn’t true. Through my own spiritual
journey laced with religion and mayhem and inner reflection I have come to a certain awareness that I
wish to share with you.

Everything about this world is fiction.

When I say fiction, I mean, it’s all made up. We give meaning to everything around us. We decide that
the sky should be called a sky. We decide that the color blue should be called blue. This is called social
constructionism. As a society we had to get together and decide on certain TRUTHS and AGREE so that
we can communicate with each other affectively. We decided to build an item and we looked at it and
said, “This is a table. This is what the table is used for.” Everyone agree on this, and it is written. We did
the same for everything else in our physical space and then we transferred that same authority of
defining the world around us to our spiritual beliefs and our expectations for the stages of our lives.

If everything we see is constructed by society then the expectations for our lives and the roles we play in
life are fiction too. We made everything up. It’s like someone in the beginning of time said, “Let’s play a
game” and then started making up rules. These rules or guidelines help to establish order but later
became an enforced standard perpetuated by parents who teach children that “this is the way to be”.
Anything outside of those standards was viewed as “abnormal” or “wrong,” when really, the whole
thing, everything, all of our roles, concepts, language and beliefs are all made up. All of it is fiction.

We, as humans, have an innate desire to understand the reason behind our existence. We need to feel
like there is some purpose for us being here so we created concepts to help us grasp onto a value
system for our lives. Often, these value systems attributed the creation of our human existence to an act
of some higher being(s).

The earliest social systems held polytheistic views. This means that they believed in the existence of
multiple Gods who controlled and ruled the earth and its inhabitants. As time went on and civilizations
evolved, a more monotheistic view was adopted and spread by civilizations. As time went on these
fictionalized concepts concerning life expectations, roles and our existence were passed down from
generation to generation as TRUTH.

Today, these TRUTHS have been the breeding ground for much of our civilization’s unrest because no
one wants to admit that there is a chance that their TRUTH is wrong. Everyone’s truth is wrong. No one’s
truth is the truth because there is no truth; only fictionalized concepts handed down like folklore and
passed on as KNOWLEDGE.

No one “knows” anything. Everything is a projection of our beliefs. Every belief is a choice.
If every concept was made up by someone in our ancestral lineage and passed along the years to me
then why do I have to follow someone else’s concept? Why can’t I make up my own beliefs about life,
love and success? Am I not smart enough to create my own game and rules? Do I need someone else to
be my guide because I am not capable of defining my life for myself? Do I not hold the same creative
powers of my ancestors who started the game in the first place?

The “truth” is, I can.

And so can you.

Your religion is not only the spiritual belief system you were born in. Your religion is also the set of
dominant beliefs that you hold concerning your expectations from life, love and your idea of success.
You can decide to play the game and follow the instructions made up by people who lived thousands
and thousands of years ago. It may actually benefit you to do that, but, what it really says about you is
that you do not believe you have the capability to decide for yourself. You’d rather go along with the
crowd just to be safe and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Everyone can’t be a leader. Everyone can’t break the mold. But for those who DO wish to break out of
the box of the false TRUTHS enforced upon us which cause us to feel sad about any idea or expression
that goes against the game and its expectations, you KNOW what to do.

It begins with a decision to explore what makes you feel good about your existence. What do you
believe right now that detracts from making you feel good about who you are and where your life is
heading? If you hold a belief system that causes shame, guilt or unrest about matters that have nothing
to do with how you treat people and everything to do with who you are on the inside and your likes and
dislikes and preferences, you should take a step back and examine WHY you choose to believe this. If
your belief system forces you to meet some higher expectation that YOU did not create for yourself, you
may be a victim of the “game”. You can choose to stop playing at any time.

Create your own religion. Choose beliefs that lead you to feel happy about who you are and lead you to
want to live out your best life by your OWN definition.