"Scepticism is the beginning of Faith."

- Oscar Wilde

So my mum caught me reading The God Delusion, and proceeded to tell me why she doesn't read these kinds of books. So basically, without even bothering to read the book, she judged it as a book that attacks religion, god, whatever. That it is a book that'll ultimately make me question the religion I was born into.
The best case example for literally judging a book by it's cover.

Well hey, maybe she is right. Maybe it is. But I've only just started reading so I can't assume to know what the book is really about as I've barely scratched the surface. But what I do know, is that my faith is stronger than any book. I don't need a book to tell me what is right and what is wrong. I know it, and I've always known it.

My faith isn't in any religion. It isn't in some mystical god/goddess. My faith is only in me. And in love.
I have always questioned the religion that I was born into. What, just because I don't see it as the ultimate religion, that makes me wrong on all things? I don't attack any religion, not to my recollection. I don't even attack the people that follow it so blindly, without knowing. For them, maybe ignorance is bliss. And that's okay, they're allowed to have that smidge of comfort and happiness. But I can't. It's not because I know better, or understand better. It's just the way that I am. I have followed some things blindly before, and it didn't serve me well. I can't allow that to happen again.

Why do I need to read all these books then? Because I want to know that I'm not the only one in this world who thinks as I do. That there are other people in the world who believe only in love, and spreading that love onto others. Knowing that there are no boundaries, no feelings of hate, anger, revenge.

There is just love. I believe in that. That is my religion.

I may not care to have people around me. But I do care whether there are others who think like me. I don't care to know them, I just care that they exist and that's enough for me.

I'm not angry at my mother for thinking the way she does. Maybe it's fear or ignorance that keeps her from really venturing out, but her religion provides her comfort and I love her enough to let her stay there. She just worries, and says how our faith is not all that strong.

I can't claim to know what she means by "our faith", so I can't say she's wrong. But when it comes to my faith? She's dead wrong on that one because I know it's strong. It is solid. No amount of books can make me think differently. They can't make my faith waver in strength. What the books do, is just let me learn and understand.

That's something that I want too. Just to understand. How can that really be a sin? How is wanting to understand the bigger world a bad thing? Perhaps this book doesn't talk about love. Perhaps all it really talks about is complete lack of God's presence anywhere. Or it could be the other way around.

I don't ultimately care. Because it's just one of many books that I read. My books are my world, but it doesn't mean they're the law that I follow to live my life. If I don't let the frickin' holy book be that, why should I let this one?

Exactly.