The Best Post Ever (Title Pending)
March 3, 2007
What follows does not aim to generalise at all, merely to point out problems I have with certain individuals or groups wherever they may crop up. Some of the points involve looking at things from a point of view not of my own, that is, to use God in a sense of ‘him’ existing.
Free Will
This issue arises on an almost regular basis now and its time has come once again. By now, the people most likely to read this blog will be familiar with the problem of Free Will in Christianity. How can you have Free Will when God has already chosen a path for you? Christians may answer with something along the lines of “God has given you free will to choose whether to believe in him or not.” One problem I have with this is the incentives that a God uses to influence your decision, for example Heaven.
Heaven is made out to be perfect, a place where Christians can go after physical death to ‘live’ on in perfect harmony. However, I’m only really seeing it as a sort of Member’s only club.
Am I not right in thinking that – according to standard thinking – to be truly accepted into Heaven, you must first believe that Jesus died for your sins, to accept God into your heart and to ask forgiveness for your sins, summed up neatly in the passage “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.” Ultimately, unless you believe in God, you’re never going to get into Heaven. I’m also lead to believe that the things I have done in my life up to now have earned me a one way ticket straight to Hell and that there is no way of changing this unless I ask forgiveness. This is something which I am not going to do. I believe the choices I made and the consequences that follow are that of my own doing.
Childhood Indoctrination
The aspect of Free Will also leads to my second problem, Childhood Indoctrination. This point is covered rather well on Page 3 of “The God Delusion”, however not reaching the same conclusion as I have.
“If you are religious at all it is overwhelmingly probable that your religion is that of your parents”.
I would at this point like to point out something which may be quite obvious. A child does not have the same level of thinking that an adult possesses. This to me makes it seem quite harsh that some Christians teach their children the ways of the bible at such an early age. Ideally, I would prefer a child to have no involvement in religious activities until they are old enough to comprehend what is truly in their surrounding environment and what they are getting themselves in to, if you will.
Granted you may think you are doing a good act by teaching your child how wonderful you think the Christian world is and the positive experiences you’ve had, however influencing them at such an early age (to me) seems like an infringement of their free will, as they aren’t old enough to know otherwise.
Communication
Following on from my previous point, communication between people and God seems a very one-way business. This may be because no one has fully explained to me how God ‘talks’ to them. At a young age, I went to a ‘multi-religion school’ (what a damned one-sided Christian school that turned out to be, but that’s another story) and inevitably we were forced to go to Church. At that time, I didn’t fully understand what was going on. I thought Church was a reward we got for bringing our can of almost past the sell-by-date Beans and 50p in. Anyway, back onto the subject, I prayed at Church. Always.
Not once did I get a reply back, not even a “Your prayer is important to us, thank you for holding”, which I honestly wouldn’t have minded, at least that would have changed my thinking somewhat. One of my friends has also had this experience, recently realizing he didn’t believe in God and chose to become a free-thinker instead. He summed his experiences in communication up in almost exactly the same way as I have, just adding the word ‘Bastard’ in a couple of times…well…that’s Squidge for you.
How does God communicate with you? The number of times I’ve heard ‘I asked God what to do and he said…’ annoys me, because he’s never spoken to me at all. Is he a clear voice in your head? And also, what does he sound like? General consensus between friends says “Barry White”.
Summary
If this God does exist, he’s a strange lad. I’m not being big-headed or anything, but if I created the universe, I’d want everyone to know what a badass job I did, not just Christians. So why limit yourself (I say limit, 2.1billion of the World’s total population is quite a lot) to just Christians? Why not step forward and claim well-deserved recognition?
I fully respect any religious beliefs; I’m just not that trusting enough to place my fate in something which will have a daily effect throughout the rest of my life. I now truly believe I am an atheist. Yes Py, I’ve chosen a side of the fence on which to stand.
I welcome anyone to agree or disagree with anything I’ve said.
March 4, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Whey, a side of the fence has been decided.
I agree with much of what you have said except that you are atheist. You trully believe that there is nothing beyond life itself?
I have to take a position of agnosticism. I can’t say what there is or isn’t in terms of a life beyond life because I just don’t know, but I will agree that the chance of it being the Christian Heaven and God are next to none.
May 4, 2007 at 5:13 am
To believe there is no God is obscerd. You say if God created the universe why does he not let everyone know, well because our God, yes our God, my God, your God, the universes God is a very humble God. He wants us to set aside our selfish pride and arrogance, which is something that I very much stuggle with on a daily basis, to recognize Him and know that he is our creator and that God is what matters the most in this world. Do you not think that we are meant for something more than just this life on earth? I am not trying to be critical of you trust me I just wish that I may shed some light on the situation. God is a very loving, kind, miracoulus, forgiving, and gratious God. This is why he sent his son Jesus Christ to die upon the cross for our sins. We are born into sin and through Jesus is how we are forgivin of these sins. You have to find it in your heart and within your logical reasoning that someone had to create such a complicated universe. To just look at a human being amazes me for the simple fact how so many things must work perfectly together within the body for that person to even be alive. The same goes for every living creature on Earth. God only wants to be your friend. I read recently in a book called ” The Purpose Driven Life” , great book I would advise you to read it, just five it a chance, anyways I read how Moses question some of God’s action and how other significant figures in the Bible question God. You know I always believed that you do not question God, but I believe this is wrong. More than anything our God wants us to be truthful with him. Tell him what your thoughts and feelings are. God has never spoken to me like say as you and I would speak but he has spoken to me through my heart, through scriptures being taught at church, and just the overwhelming feeling that I sometimes get. Although you may not always feel His presence He is always there with you looking out for you. You have to realize that there is someone greater than you. You have to be willing to accept that. I understand how that you were forced to go to church that does sometimes leave a bitter taste in your mouth and leave you resenting church. As with anything that your forced to do human nature is to resist. But now that you are older and old enough to reason things out for yourself just think what a waste life would be if this is all we were made for 70-90 years on earth and thats it.IF YOU ACCEPT JESUS IN TO YOUR HEART AND RECONGNIZE THAT HE DIED UPON THE CROSS FOR OUR SINS AND PUT YOUR TRUST AND LIVE IN GOD THEN I KNOW THAT YOU WILL SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY. Like I said I am not trying to offend anyone just trying to shed a little light on the situation. Sometimes christians themselves can be the biggest turn offs to the christian belief with their over zealous beliefs and actions toward those who have just not found Jesus yet? Friend just believe. Have faith. And pray to God. If you have any questions or want to talk about anything I would be more than willing to answer them and talk with you.
January 30, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Oh man, I just read this again and it’s amazing.
This really is the best post ever. It just… says everything. I never commented on it before! Well here’s my comment. Pledge of support, if you like. You should come back to blogging, I like hearing what you think.