Whenever I see something like this littering someone’s Facebook wall…
I feel compelled to replace it with this:
Maybe that makes me an asshole. I don’t know, but at least some people have actually seen Bigfoot.
Jan
26
2013
Whenever I see something like this littering someone’s Facebook wall…
I feel compelled to replace it with this:
Maybe that makes me an asshole. I don’t know, but at least some people have actually seen Bigfoot.
Well, Shaq has what, a size 18 shoe? I think seeing him play counts. On the other hand few people’s lives have been changed by bigfoot. Jesus has changed everybody’s life.
No doubt about it. Millions of dead people in the course of human history whose lives were changed by the forces of religious fervor. I’m sure they appreciated it.
Religious fanaticism has nothing to do with Jesus. Neither does Nationalism, Socialism, Capitalism, and other such “isms” that have killed far more. When I am talking about those changed by Jesus, I’m talking about the millions who have been given food and medicine by Convoy of Hope. The millions more who have clean water thanks to Advent Conspiracy and Blood:Water:Mission. I’m talking about the literal billions who have been impacted through World Vision. Evil men might use Jesus as an excuse for their evil deeds, but that is far outweighed by the millions of others who are inspired by Jesus to do good. Everybody’s life has been impacted by that, including yours.
Religious fanaticism has nothing to do with Jesus? Really? I don’t know where you live, but I’ve been in the South for nearly 45 years. There are many people here, including relatives of mine, who do nothing but talk about Jesus and their church and who’s going to hell if they otherwise do not fall in line with “tha lord’s teachins.” To be fair, not of all them are bad, but in my experience, these are some of the nastiest, craziest people who walk the earth. My own grandmother was a Jesus-loving, god fearing, church going woman…and a huge racist. I don’t understand how that is reconciled. (Actually, it isn’t. In my observation, it’s just accepted and glossed over.) Though obviously not every person of faith is a fanatic, every religion has that has potential to turn its followers into otherwise very unpleasant human beings. Christianity and Islam have both done this extremely well, and many innocent people have died for it. I’m not sure what difference it makes if you claim certain political ideologies have killed more people. I don’t think that gets religion off the hook.
Religion has done a bang-up job in undermining human progress. Had it not been for the Dark Ages, who knows where we’d be today? Perhaps we’d be more advanced in science. Who’s to say, but one thing is clear: religion did not help further our progress. With regard to faith-based organizations, it’s great that they’ve fed people and cleaned up the water. That’s wonderful, but why does an organization like that have to be religious? Why does there have to be that factor? Why can’t it simply be an organization that helps people in poor countries? Sure, the Jesus of the stories may have said some lovely things about helping people and such, but I find it hard to comprehend a human being truly needs fairy tales to know the difference between right and wrong. I certainly don’t. I’ve known by my own moral instinct not to kill, rape, and steal. If I already know that, what do I need Jesus for? When you say “everybody’s life has been impacted,” that may be true in a logical sort of fashion. If one considers that the world is inhabited by billions of religious people who have been involved in practically every facet of our lives, then yes, all of us are going to be affected in some way. There’s no way to escape it. Sure, some of it may be positive, but hardly all of it. Lastly, you mention evil men might use Jesus as an excuse for their evil deeds. So you don’t think good people ever commit evil deeds in the name of their god, simply because they think what the bible tells them to do is moral?
- Religious fanaticism has about as much to do with Jesus as someone shooting Moose for National Geographic has to do with catching a shot of Bigfoot. You might be using the right tools and be in the right general area but your goals are all wrong.
- Racism cannot be reconciled by a follower of Jesus. It simply is not possible.
- I’ve met few people as mean and nasty as the Christopher Hitchens type of atheist. If someone is an agnostic (and most nominal Christians are on a practical level) that’s fine. But a militant atheist… in my experience, that’s a Stalin type waiting for the power and opportunity.
- The Dark Ages is actually a product of pagan invasions (Jutes, Huns, Vandals, Goths, Visogoths, etc) invading and collapsing Christianized Rome. It was actually the monks and monasteries who preserved and copied the literature of the early scholars. It was the seminaries that fostered a rebirth of classic education and the crusades that help proliferate knowledge back to Europe from a more scientifically advanced Christian Byzantium and Muslim Arabia. You could say that were it not for “religious fanatics” the dark ages would have lasted longer and recovery would have been far slower.
- Newton, Galileo, Occam, Descartes, Handel, Anselm, Aquinas, Bach, Dante, Milton, Bacon, Bede, Pascal… I could go on and on, were all Christians. Do you not recognize their furthering of our progress. Bach’s music was for church performance. Newton’s studies in physics were actually a product of a personal devotional.
- Why do charity organizations have to be religious? They don’t. But an overwhelming majority are because it is religion (in the Biblical sense) that most often motivates people to do good. Christianity’s foundation is “love God, love your neighbor” Materialistic humanism’s foundation is “survival of the fittest”. You tell me which motivates people toward doing good.
- You say you already know not to do all those evil things you list, but you still haven’t answered the question how. You say it is by your own instinct, but if another’s instinct is to kill or rape or steal or whatever, by what standards are they wrong? What makes your instinct any better than theirs?
- A person is known not by their motivations but by their actions. A good person cannot predominantly commit evil deeds and be good. Well, everyone is “good” in their own minds but that brings us back to the question above. What makes “good” good and “evil” evil? Who sets the standards?