This forum has a lot of religious debate in it, which I guess is one of its purposes (spiritual discussion being the other, but... naaah the arguing is so much more fun ), but I think there is a lot of lost communication because of the different "breeds" of christians, atheists, and everything in between that all talk to the entire audience, even though their message may not be intended to everyone.
Case in point: I've got to admit, the christians that I interact with on a daily basis are very, very, VERY different from the ones you hear about in the news or through word of mouth, or as testimonials on youtube, etc. Maybe it's because I don't live in the bible belt, but I have no idea of what the REAL demographics are.
But I've found that a lot of my christian friends, whom I love, and feel blessed in my own way to have them in my life, are VERY different from, say, the God Warrior on wife swap.
All debates about the truth of the mythology, and the existence of deities aside, I think it's really interesting to note a split among them. Sure, there are lots and lots of denominations, but I really categorize christians in two ways:
1) God-loving
2) God-fearing
While I haven't described my own views on these categories, I know a lot of people here, atheists and theists alike, have an idea of what I'm talking about (though the god-fearing like to pretend it's love).
God-Loving:
What they do is truly out of love. Spending time with these folks is really heart-warming. They're not full of themselves, and they're not pushy. They don't tell me I'm a sinner and will go to hell, and for the most part, they don't really believe in "Hell" in any way other than a kind of state of spiritual nothingness, from which you can pull out at any time. I actually went to a fund-raiser some of my friends were putting together for leukemia, and it was really neat. Their pastor has created an organization whose purpose is to get OUT of the "we just go to church" mindset and actually help people out - REGARDLESS of their religion.
They're absolutely wonderful people, and even though their beliefs don't really match mine, I know that that's really just a surface thing. They anthropomorphize "goodness" as being a light shining down on everyone from Jesus/god, while I think goodness comes from within, as a light shining radially outwards from person to person. But you know what? Both of these mental models are the same in practice. The important thing they have in common is the desire to be excellent to one another.
God-fearing:
In contrast to the above, are the god-fearing christians. These are the ones whose main motivator is NOT love of god and his creations, but rather, fear of going to hell. They think of Hell in the most basic, childish, cartoonish "place full of fire where you burn for eternity" kind of way. Not very impressive. These people actually take the tales of the old testament literally, which requires a very impressive amount of schizophrenia.
God-fearing christians are the ones who, instead of focusing on loving all humankind, focus on telling them they'll go to hell if they don't accept jesus. That's not coming from a place of love. It's coming from a place of fear, and ego-masturbation.
If you don't believe their motivator comes from fear, then what do you think Hell Houses are all about? Somehow, it doesn't strike me as a "love thy neighbour" kind of lesson.
And let's not forget the absolutely disgusting idea that all humans are born as horrible sinners until they accept Jesus. That means all newly-born babies are garbage in god's eyes. Finally, there's just no excuse for thinking it's acceptable for a loving creator to burn people for eternity, even if he pulls the lame "jesus died for your sins" argument, cause I don't believe god burned Jesus for eternity. I guess a bit of consistency in punishment (for the crime of someone else eating a fruit from a tree a few thousand years ago) is too much to ask of a god that was willing to flood the entire planet (including PUPPIES and KITTENS!!!!!) for the blunders of his OWN creation.
----
The reason I think it's important to keep this duality in mind is that while I do think everyone can and should believe whatever they want, so long as it doesn't impose or hurt others, I think that the beliefs of God-Fearing christians really DO cause harm, in a lot of ways. Subtle ways. For example, if you believe the rapture will happen in your lifetime, you probably won't behave in a way that helps make this planet sustainable and livable for hundreds of thousands of years to come (and beyond). The bottom line is, if your religious motivator is fear-based, that's not spirituality; that's terrorism, by definition.
So I guess what I wanted to get out there was, I know I've made some dismissive comments about religion, and so have some others. While I can't speak for everyone else, I think a large number of them really are aiming their truly dismissive statements at the harmful, god-fearing folks, NOT the wonderful god-loving ones.
If you found any of this post offensive, then all you have to give me is the pro-puppy-drowning side of the argument.
peace out!
|
|
Bookmarks