Reflection On Something Other Than God: Opinion Essay

Something Other Than God is a book by a woman who shares her life journey about finding God. She reveals to us different religious experiences in her life including, her childhood, marriage, the birth of her children, and other situations she find herself in. Jennifer learned about many new topics that catholicism addresses such as birth control and abortion. These issues intrigued Jennifer very much and she was always questioning them and wanted to know more about them. At one point in our lives Jennifer and I struggled with the same problem, knowing if God is real.

Abortion was a main concern and thought of Jennifer while researching Christianity. When she was an atheist, she didn’t really think anything was bad about it. She thought it’s the mothers choice whether to keep the baby or not. Jennifer viewed it as sexist or degrading towards women if you were anti-abortion. We can see this when she says,“anti-abortion stance is not only offensive, but it’s illogical”(123). As Jennifer learned more about this subject ,and had a baby of her own, her opinion changed. When she was pregnant she kept thinking how she would say “the baby” and not a fetus or something like that. To her that meant that the baby was alive because she kept referring to it as a baby. She then concluded that it is a “murder”(156) if you abort a baby. As a result of this, Jennifer came to believe that abortion did not fully “respect human life”(210). Jennifer’s changing view on abortion shows that if people look into different subjects and really think about it, it could change their opinion. Jennifer realizes the horrors of abortion and how bad it really is.

Jennifer also had a hard time understanding on why birth control was bad in the eyes of the church. In her younger years she was all for birth control and really didn’t like that the church was against it. Jennifer then researches the topic and finds out that if birth control doesn’t work people would have unwanted babies. The Church believes that trying to stop the human nature of reproducing hurts the human body and our relationship with God. Again through researching and listening to other people Jennifer is better able to understand the Church.

The topic Jennifer and I both struggled with was the existence and God. Like Jennifer, I no longer struggle with this topic, but I did at one point in my life. When I was younger I was really skeptical of the Church and how it worked. When I would sit in mass I would realize that if you compare mass to other religions that people ridicule it’s not that different. There is a leader which is the priest. He leads the mass and teaches people about God and Jesus. Other cultures have a leader like this too and it blows my mind how different we think other people are. A bunch of people gather and sing and eat the Eucharist. When I thought about it deeply I would realize that we are singing and praising a God we have never even seen before. When Jennifer was at summer camp she was also skeptical about God and Catholicism. She didn’t want to say she believed in God because she didn’t and she didn’t want to lie. Jennifer also goes as far as mocking Jesus on the cross.

Just like Jennifer I became closer with God and began to have faith in him. This started around 6th Grade when I started learning about confirmation. I learned more and more about God and the Church. I started to understand everything and realizing how much God loves us. Jennifer also came to terms with God and eventually understood him. People just need to learn more about God and they will eventually trust him with their lives.

Today there is a ton of propaganda against believing and loving God. On social media it could go either way. The people you trust the most, like friends and family, could be against God, which could derail you away from the Church. This happened with Jennifer and her dad. Her dad would say how he didn’t want her to give in to her friends pressuring her towards God. Jennifer made the right choice later in life and became a Catholic. I feel like everyone should respect everybody else’s beliefs and no one should be pressured into a religion. People should research and read the facts before they make accusations on Catholicism. Jennifer was against catholicism under she researched and understood the Church. This led her to be a child of God.