Irreverence

“Irreverence is another person’s disrespect to your god; there isn’t any word that tells what your disrespect to his god is.” Mark Twain, “The Mysterious Stranger”


My dictionary says that irreverence is a noun that means: 1. lack of reverence, disrespect. 2. An act showing irreverence. 3. The condition of not being held in reverence; dishonor.


So that leads us to ask what is reverence?  n 1. A feeling of deep respect, mixed with wonder, fear, and love syn veneration, adoration.


I will guarantee when it comes to any particular god or gods that no one can have a feeling of deep respect mixed with wonder, fear and love if they do not believe in a particular god or gods. If they don't believe they can't be reverent.  So, if they can't be reverent they can't be irreverent either.  They just don't see what you are seeing. 


Even Christians have differing versions of God as professed by the many doctrines, creeds and statements of belief that each church subscribes to independently of all the other denominations of Christian worshipers.  Baptists think Catholics get it wrong who think Episcopalians get it wrong who think  Seventh Day Adventists get it wrong who think Universalists get it wrong and so on until we come full circle.   


There are those that think there is one great God while there are others who prescribe to many gods- such as the Hindus.  Deists generally think that god is a force that is synonymous with nature. Agnostics think you can’t prove the existence of god nor can you disprove it and generally lean toward either non-theist agnosticism or theist agnosticism.   Atheists just don’t believe there is a god, any god, at all.  None of these viewpoints is necessarily disrespectful of YOUR belief.  People are not generally being irreverent of YOUR belief.  They simply have their own beliefs for their own reasons.  


Truth be told, most people are born Hindu or Moslem or Mormon or Christian or any number of religions because that is the religion that prevails in their family, their neighborhood or their country. What I am saying is that people are generally not disrespecting your God-vision.  They just don’t believe in it.  Whether others are a True Believer or a non-believer or any of the thousands of stances in between this is not  generally a matter of irreverence towards YOUR god belief system.  Your beliefs works for you and that should be enough.  Drop your guard a little and see the person instead of the label.