Clarification of Religion

In the end.. What makes a person a Christian, Muslim, or Jew? All of the religious texts can be contorted to fit just about any thing you want them to be. So what really determines if you are a Christian or not? Honestly, it depends on who you ask. Which proves my point. That is why there are so many denominations of Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, etc. There is nothing in the Bible that clearly says “You will be a Christian if you…” and then some kind of checklist. In fact, the word Christian is hardly even mentioned in the Bible. I think 3 times is the magic number. So how can one person sit there and tell me I’m not a Christian because I don’t believe X, Y, and Z? If they do I ask them to define what a Christian is according to the Bible. Most people will say it has to do with Jesus Christ and if he is your savior. Other people think it is if you’ve been baptized, other people think it is if you have spoken in tongues. Other people have all kinds of requirements. So I feel I can just as easily say that I believe the earth is 4 Billion years old, the first chapter of the book of Genesis is hogwash, and we should not persecute homosexuals.  And I can still call myself a Christian and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Anti-Science

Sometimes I’m just amazed at the lengths people will go to in order to protect their religious beliefs. In many cases, hard facts are staring people right in the face, and they will make up all kinds of excuses as to why the facts must be wrong. The sad part is, most of the time these facts are not in direct conflict with any scriptures. In most cases, they are in conflict with traditional lines of thinking which were derived in some form or another from the scriptures. One of the most irritating examples of this is Christians who insist the planet is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old. The Bible is very ambiguous in its historical account of the early days, but that doesn’t seem to stop people from trying to piece it together and come up with ridiculous ideas. Then of course, being the manipulators they are, try to force other good hearted Christians to believe it by making those people feel like if they don’t agree then they are not only disagreeing with them, but disagreeing with the Bible itself. And like the sheep they are, they usually go along with it. Then they try to force schools not to teach scientific facts and theories and hold society back for a few more hundred years to live in ignorance. Now, I’m not saying scientists are always right. For example, when it comes down to it I consider myself a creationist. There have been no proven or even theorized workable solutions to explain where life originally came from on this planet. (despite what some athiest will tell you) which only re-enforces my belief in God. But just because some species may have changed along the way, or evolved, doesn’t have anything to do with God, or the historical events in the Bible. Being how vague the book of Genesis is, I can’t even see why people feel the need to interperate it literally. Even if it were eventually proven that abiogenesis is possible (life from no life) that would still not preclude the possibility that it was all part of God’s plan. So what this essentially tells me is that people who fight against scientific progress are essentially scared that their faith will be proven wrong. In many cases, since this is driven by people in high religious places, it isn’t fear of going to hell that motivates them, rather fear that they will be made a fool of, or loose their power over people. Being that I’m always searching for “the truth” I’m open to any ideas to be considered, analyzed, and at some point make a decision whether it is right or wrong based on all available facts. This makes me one of the most secure people when it comes to my faith. I know I’m right because I’ve examined all the evidence available. Other people live in a closet and block out anything they think might contradict their faith and so when it comes down to it, even though they may seem like they have strong faith, it is quite the opposite. You should always change faith to fit the facts, not change facts to fit faith. If the facts are in question, then do more research, ask more questions, have more debates. Eventually the truth can be known.

TV Preachers

Nothing irritates me more than these guys. You always see the phone number on the screen flashing to give money. These guys have big shoes to fill. They are supposed to be setting examples for the rest of us but how many of them have we seen be corrupted by power and money? We’ve seen dumpsters full of unread letters with only the money removed from the envelope. They preach about giving of yourself to the Lord, while they live in big mansions off of your money (Tilton) We’ve seen them preach against homosexuality only to find out that they themselves are homosexual (Haggard) and every other scam imaginable. Oh sure, there are some decent enough individuals out there preaching on TV. But they are overshadowed by the bad ones and the genre as a whole does more harm to the cause than it does good.

Religious Zealots

These are people who are convinced that their religious beliefs are correct, and they’ll do anything to enforce that on the rest of the world, even murder. All religions are guilty of this from time to time. Lately the Muslim religion has been in the hotseat about this, but Christians and Catholics have been just as guilty in years past. Examples would be the spanish inquisition, or witch hunts, or the many wars that we’ve had for thousands of years. But it can also apply to smaller things like anti-abortion activists. Basically anytime somebody believes that somebody else is doing something that is forbidden by God, and they feel the need to impose God’s law on somebody else, even if the local government has no such law against it. my opinion is, if it is not illegal then feel free to abstain from it yourself. For example, you can choose not to have an abortion, or seek out prostitutes, or drink beer, or have premarital sex, or be a homosexual. But unless you can get a law passed, then don’t try to force your beliefs on other people. That may sound strange coming from me, being that I share many of those beliefs. But if I choose to follow those beliefs out of obedience to God, then good for me. But if those aren’t your beliefs and I try to force them on you, I am not doing God’s will. God will judge everyone in his own time.

Religion as a Hobby

Everybody has something they are passionate about, and something that they are good at. I’m passionate about science and technology, some people it is cars, others it is football. Of course, some people it is religion. Now, in their mind they feel like they are just doing as the Lord commands, by reading the Bible constantly, going to church all the time, watching TV shows about God, talking with people on the internet about religious matters, etc. But the truth is, most people who do this are not motivated by a sense of a commandment by God, rather because they actually enjoy it. And you know what, that is fine with me. The problem is, not everybody is like that. And sometimes people confuse this enjoyment with loyalty to God or being a better person. For example, you might have one person who is very “into” his religion and another person who goes to church occasionally, or maybe never, but is still a firm believer. The second person may spend his time engaged in sports or working on cars in his garage. But put those same two people to the test and see where their convictions lie such as finding a wallet on a park bench, or helping others in need, or having somebody place a gun to their head and say “do you believe in God?” Then I think you’d find very little correlation between the results of these tests and how often they went to church. So why is it that the people who’s hobby is religion have to always look down on the people who do not have such a hobby? By the way, people like that are often social outcasts, sometimes even at church. Yes, it is possible to be too religious even at church. if your only hobby is religion, and that is all you can talk about, it is hard to form relationships with other people, even other people of your same religion.

The New Believer Syndrome

This is a term I came up with. Basically it is when a person who has been without religion or been away from religion for a long time suddenly “sees the light” and becomes a new Christian. Suddenly they are very excited about everything to do with God, the Bible, Church, etc. I doubt this happens with Islam because most people who are Muslim are born in countries where pretty much everyone practices the religion from the day they are born to the day they die. But with the Christians, I’ve seen these people become very excited and they start trying to get involved in as many activities as they can at church. Instead of just going on Sunday morning, pretty soon they are going on Sunday evening, then Wednesday evening, and every extra-curricular activity they can find. Before long they get to where they don’t talk about anything besides God or Church, and they start to alienate the people they work with and their family. After all, not everybody is interested in talking about God and Church all the time. And in doing so, they actually wind up alienating other people from their religion which is the exact opposite thing that God commands them to do. But just like any new-found infatuation, it will eventually reach a climax and then usually a big crash. Give them a year or two and they’ll be burned out and you won’t see them in a church again for years. Obviously, all new believers go through a certain period of infatuation, since everything is new. But only a small percentage will fall into this category.

Cults

Most people know what a cult is, but it is actually very difficult to put into words. The dictionary defines a cult as “a religous group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.” I’ve always thought of a cult as a small religion based on a larger religion that believes they are the only ones who will go to heaven, whereas everyone else is doomed to hell because if their incorrect beliefs. Often they are based around the beliefs of a single man who uses their position in the cult as a means of power to get things they want. It could be anything from money, sex, or just the feeling of power in general. However, the sad part is, most of these attributes could be applied to nearly any religion on earth, depending on what spin you put on it. The only real qualifer seems to be the size. For example, if a 20-person cult continued to grow and a century later had 2 billion followers, I guess it couldn’t be considered a cult anymore. but the truth is, most of us know what cults are, and most of them are bad, very bad. And these cults could not exist without the sheep I mentioned earlier.

Manipulators

There’s nothing I hate more than a person who uses scriptures in the bible to manipulate people. These people tend to be well-versed in the scriptures and they prey on people who want to be good Christians (or Jews, or Muslims) but they aren’t as firmly set in their beliefs and knowledge of the scripture. And since the bible, the Qu’ran, Book of Mormon, etc, are very large books you can find scriptures to support nearly any belief you wish to impose on somebody. Often the scriptures are taken out of context, but in many cases they are just more examples of contradictions in these books. Sometimes these manipulators are just individuals in group settings who try to control people just to get their way. Other times they are people in an authority position in a church, or more often some kind of cult, who influence dozens or hundreds of people to believe as they do.

Churches

Churches are run pretty much like a business corporation. The leadership is like the board of directors and the members and visitors who show up are like the consumers. Long-term members who donate large amounts are like large corporate contracts that no business wants to loose, and the visitors are like potential new customers. The main goal of a church, when it comes down to it, is to keep its members happy and try to attract new ones. Which means walking very fine lines on ideology. If they say or do something that people disagree with, they might loose members. And loosing members means loosing money. In many ways this is good for the people attending because the church provides what its members want just like a business provides what its customers want, and therefor the system works. The problem is, it is impossible for a church to challenge common theological beliefs, even if there are good grounds for doing so, because it will upset the system. Many theological or scientific issues which are hotly debated are ignored completely for fear of offending one side or the other. The hope being, by ignoring the issue, they will keep both sets of customers happy. Then there is the issue that some people go to church out of guilt. They thing God has some holy calendar where he places check marks for every time you went to church and it will be part of your final judgement when you die. Other people go just to socialize and make friends. That’s fine with me but I realized long ago that the friends I make at church are just like the friends I made in school, work, and all the other churches I’ve been to. Once one of you moves on to a different church, you’ll likely never see them again. So what’s the point?