Growing up, I was raised to follow Catholicism. I went to religious education classes for 10 years, and I even taught a class for one year. I’ve also undergone Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, and Confirmation, which are four of the seven sacraments involved in Catholicism.

Confirmation is the official “final” step to becoming a Catholic. You’re done with general religious education, and you’ve committed yourself to the Catholic Church. You even pick a Confirmation name, which is typically after a saint. Mine was Joan as in Joan of Arc.

However, the point of this article isn’t about Catholicism; it’s about what religion is to me. I’m telling you, the reader, about my religion because practicing a specific religion helped shape my perspective of religion as a whole.

For a lot of people who practice any type of religion, they believe their religion is the “right one.” Their God is “The God.” Anyone who practices another religion is wrong, misguided, sinning, etc.

In my perspective, this type of person acts almost entitled. As measly humans on Earth, how do we know for sure which religion is right? Many of these religions have written works from God, similar gods, and similar (if not the same) prophets.

At the beginning of this article, I listed off all of the ways I’ve been a textbook Catholic. I did this because I want my next statement to hold more significance… Even though I practice Catholicism, I do not believe that there is a right religion.

As Catholics, we’re told that we’re supposed to go to church and pray. Men are supposed to marry women, and life starts at conception. We hear the people from the “fire and brimstone” generation, the generation that was taught to almost fear God, say that anyone violating these principles is sinning and going to Hell.

When I listened to these ideas as I got older, I became wary of religion. I was taught of a very loving and forgiving God. I was taught we are all God’s children, and He loves each and every one of us. Based on my understanding of God, there were some very serious contradictions between what the previous generations were saying and what my generation was being taught.

For instance, people don’t choose to be gay, so how could God hate them? He made each person unique, and that person is still his child even if he is gay. So based on what I’ve learned, God loves his children no matter what.

Another instance that confused me was abortion. Apparently, any woman who gets an abortion is going to Hell, but I don’t think this is true. Getting an abortion is a difficult decision. I think that even though Catholicism says God wants us to preserve life, the forgivingness of God would cause Him to understand the difficulty of the situation. If a woman truly felt that she didn’t have another option and was sorry that she had to terminate a pregnancy, then I honestly believe that God would forgive that woman.

Based off of conflicting information, I didn’t think that situations were as simple as people tried to make them appear, and I needed to figure out my beliefs without other people influencing them. During this time of being confused, I needed some space from religion. I needed time away from church and time to reflect. It was during this time I realized what religion is to me, which is faith.

Religion is faith.

For me, religion is having faith that there is something greater and more powerful out “there,” whatever and wherever “there” may be. It’s having faith that by living a good life and by trying to do right by people, God will forgive the sins I acquire along the way.

I don’t think there is a right religion because I think all religions require faith and want us to live good lives. I think that as long as people try to be quality human beings, then whatever God exists will accept those people whether or not they practiced His religion.

Some of you may be wondering, what if there is no God? What if there is no afterlife? Well, then at least I know that I tried to live a good life no matter what, and the lack of afterlife won’t really be a concern once I’m already gone. So I may not go to church all the time and may not be the “perfect” Catholic due to my open-mindedness, but at least I have faith.