This post on Hell’s Handmaiden got me to thinking. I used to be a Christian, at least, I went to a christian church most Sundays. I always felt like I stood out. I felt like people were unaccepting of me because I didn’t “believe enough.” Although it could have been that they just didn’t like me. There were a lot of other differences between us besides just that. But I still went most every Sunday. So the question is, why don’t I go anymore? I thought I’d outline my reasons (while trying to plagiarize Hell’s Handmaiden as little as possible).
- One of my main problems was the idea of the inerrancy of the Bible. This is a book whose earliest parts were supposedly written almost 2000 years ago, and then copied by hand for over a thousand years. And that is just the New Testament. The Old Testament is supposed to be much older than that. People in church would say “God wouldn’t allow his word to be altered” or, my favorite, “the Bible is inerrant because the Bible says it is inerrant.” That’s air-tight logic right there. Obviously, God’s word does get distorted all the time. Even a word for word translation is going to lost it’s shades of meaning. And that doesn’t even take into account the fact that there are dozens of translations of the Bible just into English. Which one is correct? They can’t all be right.
- The misogynistic viewpoint of the Bible and the church. As Serendipity says in Dogma: “Women are painted as bigger antagonists than the Egyptians and Romans combined. It stinks.” From the Garden of Eden to Abraham and Sarah and Hagar to Samson and Delilah to David and Bathsheba. It’s a wonder it wasn’t Mary Magdalene who betrayed Jesus instead of Judas. And that is just the characters. Read the rules laid down on everyday women in the Old Testament sometime. It makes the way the Taliban treat women seem tame. This page skims the surface of the problem.
- The belief that no matter how bad you are, all you have to do is accept Jesus and all is forgiven. And if you don’t love little baby Jesus with all your heart, God gives you the big Fuck Off. Consider these two people. Aboriginal kid living in the rain forest never meets anyone outside his village. He lives a decent life, never lies, cheats, or steals. He dies protecting his village against some predator. But he never even hears about the Bible. Serial Rapist/Murderer, as he is sitting on the electric chair accepts Jesus. Which one deserves to get tormented by eternal hellfire? I can’t accept any ethical system that values the latter over the former. And it is a huge question. Most of the world outside of the West was unaware of Christianity up until the last few hundred years. Even today, the 2 biggest countries are China and India and I don’t think there are too many Christians over there. Are all those people automatically condemned to hell?
- As cool as zombies are, following one is not the smartest idea in the world. Sooner or later he is going to bite you. Of course the difference is that in the movies you would end up walking around brain dead trying to convert the living into more zombies too. Wait a minute…
- Also the idea that believing in Zombies, Ghosts, Angels, Demons, Giants, and Witches isn’t weird.
- The idea that Christians are enlightened but Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Spiritualists, etc are all disillusioned. I’m sorry, what exactly is the difference. If you are going to follow a religion how do you tell which one is correct? None of them offer any more evidence than any other. What exactly is the difference between your facts and their myths?
- People like to claim that without religion we would have no morals. So why is it that nearly every major atrocity we have committed on one another was in the name of religion. The Jewish cleansing of Israel in the Old Testament, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, witch burnings, today’s Islamic terrorists….Coaches like to say that sports don’t build character, they reveal it. Well, the same thing applies to religion and morals.
- In my opinion, the singlest greatest human fault is this idea of “the others”. (And I’m not talking about Lost.) The idea that people outside of your group are somehow “less.” Whether it is decided on the basis of race, gender, sexual preference, geographic location, or anything really, we all seem to place a lot of faith in this idea that “we” are somehow better than “them”. It doesn’t really matter who them is. It doesn’t even really have anything to do with them. It is about you (and me). There is a peculiarly human need to feel superior to the rest of our species. And religion is the ultimate in the us vs. them mentality. “We are going to Heaven. The rest of you will be punished for eternity in Hell.” Makes it a lot easier to harm someone when your god is going to punish them after they die anyway. Maybe you should just go ahead and speed that up for him so he can get to his smiting in time to catch the game later.
Comments
Leave a comment Trackback