"Why?"

IMPROBABLE: Why do we believe in God, give money to the church, or better yet, why do we give that homeless person a dollar that’s begging at the street corner? There is a simple answer to these questions, but you may not like it. It’s called selfishness. You might be thinking that this is contradictory, but could self-interest have anything to do with these questions?.....In one word (to start out with), yes. We believe in God and love Him out of the greed that was created by our own personal desire to attain Heaven. Fear motivates us to act in self-interest, such as fear of Hell, fear of death, and fear of God. Tithing makes us feel like we are gaining favor with God, the Pastor, and our fellow peers in the congregation. Giving a dollar to that homeless person makes us feel like a kind, giving philanthropist, and I bet you say to yourself, “I’m a good person for doing that.” But the truth may be that you only gave that dollar to the homeless person to better your standing with God or to achieve the emotional boost that comes from giving.
A new maxim for my life is: Live free from all of the chains that bind. Keeping my mind open and remembering that knowledge has a way of opening paths. Tearing down the years of programming that I've been force-fed, and start living life beginning with the phrase, "I don’t know.” These three words are the first step towards true independence. Give up; and when you give up, give up to yourself. For the power is within ourself to change us, our problems, and the world. We just have to listen, learn, and believe in ourselves. Always remember that God won't do anything for you that you won't do for yourself. He won’t cure you of an addiction that you keep saying “yes” to. If we abide by this creed, then it really doesn’t matter what God does, and most importantly, it doesn’t even matter if God exists. Your life will simply rely on your choices, nothing more, nothing less. Reliance on God is something that will never be proven so why do we not rely on the one, proven, true thing that we know to be the primary force acting in our lives; our choices? There is plenty of proof that making sound decisions lead to fruitful returns in reality. We absolutely, without a doubt know that if we choose the best decision, we give the most favorable odds to the hand that holds our best outcome. For example, if you choose the correct answers on a multiple choice test, you will have the best chance at receiving the optimal grade that you wanted. There is factual evidence to these decisions and we can relate them to life. The variables that we do not know are the ones that relate to God. If I pray for my sick grandfather to be healed of cancer, will he really be healed? Well, supposedly God will heal him if it's “in God’s will, “ but that’s another story altogether. The truth of the matter is that we simply cannot rely on prayer. No matter how strong one's faith is, you and I both know that there are no guarantees with prayer. We have to realize that we will be able to survive without being controlled. Live free my friends. My favorite line from the movie “The Matrix” is when Morpheus says to Neo, “FREE YOUR MIND.”