Some would say that (and I agree) that I rather failed to keep myself from Christian-bashing in my previous post. I will now try to do them justice, though the topic differs slightly from the one before.
Several things have recently piqued my interest. For one thing, I have a friend who was a devout Christian. Last year, I managed to destroy his faith; I made him realize how ridiculous certain parts of his religious practices are. As a consequence, attending church with his “religious friends” has become very depressing. As such, my guilty conscience forced me to reconcile him with a bunch of reasons why he should continue to maintain his relationship with America’s favorite deity.
Also, ideas from history class regarding the reformation and stimulation from “Birches” made me wonder whether the faith in religion was actually what mattered. It was a question of the actual subconscious human appeal.
Ignoring disputes over the existence of God, religion serves as a connection to other people. The faith itself isn’t what’s important. The connection you have with other people is what is important. But, like in my response to Daniel’s post, “God” has power through the people. Not miracles. People are contributing to the idea. It represents something greater than oneself. Even if it isn’t really God, it is the power to change. And that is why informed Christianity is good, if educated citizens can contribute to a greater power, we can make the world a better place.
Of course, this is all from a heavily atheistic standpoint, and that is why this is a “Carry it Forward”, I already felt this way about the issue. I also realize that if all Christians adopted this view, their faith would dissolve and the social connections would be destroyed.
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3 comments:
Being a fellow atheist, I found that it's rather entertaining to watch someone else discover the same biopolitics found in the church. I agree with the vast majority of the post. Yes, the reason why "god" has power is because of his social power of the masses. But why have people continued to be attracted? I think it's because they want to be dominated and told what to do, so that they no longer have to take responsibility for there actions. Sure I attacked the Palestinians, but it was because god told me to do so. Sure we attacked Iraq, but it was a "holy crusade." While I do think that this social connectedness is probably a bigger "internal link", pardon my debate speak, I think that we have to view the way that religion has taken on militarism.
I guess this is just resentful sentiment from 2 years ago, having to beat down the Crusader team name. But this unchecked militarism sponsored by "god" or "allah" that we are seeing now, is precisely what I think it a reason to reject religion, and is what bring fundamentalists closer and closer to arms. There's nothing like being caught in a flame war, or just a plain war, over religion. Something about that religious fury, as irrational and appealing as it may seem.
What i find interesting, is how far fundamentalists will stretch to justify things. You remember from AIDS day, how fundamentalist Christians claimed that AIDS was a plague sent down by god in order to rid the world of homosexuals. Yet, this was all driven by hysteria, a need to calm the masses before all hell broke loose. Where's the rationality? I'm not to sure, actually.
Well, enough of my babbling, g'day to ye.
Mitchell,
Wow, what an interesting post! Although I am Christian, I found it really interesting to see Christianity and God through an atheist's eyes. There are many ways to look at Christianity and people take many different approaches to their faith. While I don't necessarily agree with you on some of the things, I still really enjoyed reading your post!
Mitchell,
Very nice post. I found it humorous when you said, "Last year, I managed to destroy his faith" (like it was nothing). It was also funny when u called God "America's favorite diety." Anyway, it was really interesting to hear an atheist person defend Christianity and now I understand why your on the debate team. I agree with your position that the church provides a great sense of belonging for its members. You made a very good case for the positive effects of the church on society. If a population as large as the Chrisitians is/becomes educated and informed and contributes to a greater power, the benefits to the world would be enormous. By ignoring the disputes about God and creating secular arguements, I think you really strengthened the credibility of your post (but you probably already knew that seeing as your a master debater).
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