People who take an ideology too seriously tend to irritate me, whether it's the overzealous (and bigoted) hillbillies of the Westboro Baptist Church, or the equally bigoted atheists protesting the slightest mention of religion--regardless of context--in the public square. The former made me feel embarrassed to profess any beliefs we might have in common, and would likely have expedited my departure from religious belief, had it not been for the sanctimonious intransigence of the latter.
In my observation, Christians seem to have a tendency to believe that the "small is the gate and narrow is the road" verse (Matt 7:13, to those that care) pertains to them and their beliefs only. To that end, the Christians are highly critical of anyone whose Christian beliefs diverge from their own. I can recall two conversations from early in my transition from believer to non-believer which were crucial in my conversion from Bible-believing Christian, to disenchanted nonbeliever.
Christian views of evolution vary from outright rejection to incorporation into creationism ("Intelligent Design" and its variants). In my most recent period of belief, I was on the far end of Christians who did believe in evolution as a mechanism of God. With this premise in mind, I found myself in a conversation with a man who believed, as I did, that the schools were full of "liberals" who were polluting the minds of our children. This gentleman said that schools had no business teaching students "cockamamie theories like evolution." I asked him how much he knew about evolution. He said it was enough to know he did not believe in it (what is startling about this statement is that it is a reflection of sentiments that pervade much of the Christian community). His explanation why was that dinosaurs and mankind had coexisted and that the Earth was only 6,000 years old. "Any fossils," he said, "that lead men away from the Bible must have been put there by Satan to trick mankind." When I calmly told him that such an assertion was not logical and that I subscribed to ID, he told me that the Bible did not support my beliefs--which is tantamount to calling me a heretic.
Most Christians believe that homosexuality is a choice, and therefore a sin (because the Bible describes it as so in both the Old and New Testaments). With this assumption, it is not hard to see why they try so hard to "rescue" gays from their sexuality. I've always been curious about homosexuality, not--as I am sure some would assert--in the sense that I wanted to experience it for myself, but simply because I had always wondered what mechanism could turn a man away from women. My personal compulsion to "chase" vagina is very strong, and I work every day to suppress it so that I can remain faithful to my wife and family (to that end, I have a 100% success rate, if you really must know). Having said that, I have never been able to understand why a man would go after another man. I made no choice in this regard; it was imprinted in my DNA that I should be attracted to females and the very thought of diverging from this compulsion is repugnant to me; the homosexuals I know tell me that it is the same way with them and women--the very thought of being with a woman repulses them. In a conversation with one of the deacons from my Church, he revealed to me that it is extreme sinfulness, in this case "self-love" that leads gays to defy God. I told him that I disagreed that this was the case, and I explained my position. He calmly told me that God disagreed with me and that I should read my Bible for guidance. I followed his advice, but I was still unconvinced: I remember thinking, "How could God allow these people to be born with such a deficiency that they're already on the path to hell?". It really makes no sense to me that a "loving" God would stack the deck against his "beloved creation." For my unwillingness to accept trite, illogical answers to my questions about God and gays, I was viewed as a heretic.
Though the WBBC rednecks are indeed bigoted freaks, and--believe it or not--regarded as such by most of the Christian community, they are also among the most hypocritical of any group claiming the Christian moniker (treating their fellow believers as heretics simply because they do not subscribe to their hatred). Sadly, they do not differ as much from their Christian "brethren" as we'd like to believe. In many of the churches I attended the hypocrisy was so rampant that it was hard to figure out who was really whom. At one church I attended, one faction reviled another faction so much that they would avoid each other. I don't know from whence these hatreds derived, but as a former Christian, I do not understand how these prejudices comported with Christian ideology. Jealousy and hubris were also put on display every week during the weekly worship service; as this person's daughter or that person's wife would perform her song, dance, or whatever "look-at-me" display she had decided upon, the snickers and murmurs within the congregation were palpable. I was no better, in fact, I think I was worse in some ways, probably because I knew that these displays were nothing more than ego-waxing of the highest order, just disguised as "giving glory to God." The ubiquitous manger scenes around Christmas amount to nothing more than the congregations of local churches trying to outdo one another. Christians can claim no moral superiority over non-believers when Churches are nothing more than covens of hypocritical false piety.
Aggravating atheists: next post.
In my observation, Christians seem to have a tendency to believe that the "small is the gate and narrow is the road" verse (Matt 7:13, to those that care) pertains to them and their beliefs only. To that end, the Christians are highly critical of anyone whose Christian beliefs diverge from their own. I can recall two conversations from early in my transition from believer to non-believer which were crucial in my conversion from Bible-believing Christian, to disenchanted nonbeliever.
Christian views of evolution vary from outright rejection to incorporation into creationism ("Intelligent Design" and its variants). In my most recent period of belief, I was on the far end of Christians who did believe in evolution as a mechanism of God. With this premise in mind, I found myself in a conversation with a man who believed, as I did, that the schools were full of "liberals" who were polluting the minds of our children. This gentleman said that schools had no business teaching students "cockamamie theories like evolution." I asked him how much he knew about evolution. He said it was enough to know he did not believe in it (what is startling about this statement is that it is a reflection of sentiments that pervade much of the Christian community). His explanation why was that dinosaurs and mankind had coexisted and that the Earth was only 6,000 years old. "Any fossils," he said, "that lead men away from the Bible must have been put there by Satan to trick mankind." When I calmly told him that such an assertion was not logical and that I subscribed to ID, he told me that the Bible did not support my beliefs--which is tantamount to calling me a heretic.
Though the WBBC rednecks are indeed bigoted freaks, and--believe it or not--regarded as such by most of the Christian community, they are also among the most hypocritical of any group claiming the Christian moniker (treating their fellow believers as heretics simply because they do not subscribe to their hatred). Sadly, they do not differ as much from their Christian "brethren" as we'd like to believe. In many of the churches I attended the hypocrisy was so rampant that it was hard to figure out who was really whom. At one church I attended, one faction reviled another faction so much that they would avoid each other. I don't know from whence these hatreds derived, but as a former Christian, I do not understand how these prejudices comported with Christian ideology. Jealousy and hubris were also put on display every week during the weekly worship service; as this person's daughter or that person's wife would perform her song, dance, or whatever "look-at-me" display she had decided upon, the snickers and murmurs within the congregation were palpable. I was no better, in fact, I think I was worse in some ways, probably because I knew that these displays were nothing more than ego-waxing of the highest order, just disguised as "giving glory to God." The ubiquitous manger scenes around Christmas amount to nothing more than the congregations of local churches trying to outdo one another. Christians can claim no moral superiority over non-believers when Churches are nothing more than covens of hypocritical false piety.
Aggravating atheists: next post.
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