People have asked me why I am so tolerant and accepting of Atheism. My answer is simple. Because I am not afraid of it. I do not mind people who think different than me. As I have stated before, I do not need prayer in school or "In God We Trust" on the dollar bill to teach my children about the Lord. I don't need the 10 commandments in the courthouse to teach my children about them. I can honor and appreciate what other people think and believe (or don't believe) and I hope others would do the same for me.
That being said, I am still committed to speaking the truth about The Lord. I just don't feel I need to shove it down peoples throats or tell them how wrong they are, to speak God's truth's in their lives. I believe I speak the most about God's truths when I say NOTHING and simply live my life the way God intended. If an Atheist is curious as to why I behave a certain way or do certain things I will never forsake an opportunity to share how God has changed my life.
If they want me to stop talking at that point, I will. I will respect them as a person. If they ask me questions, I will do my best to answer them.
I will apologize for the wrongs that my fellow Christians have done in "God's" name. I will apologize for the crusades and the Spanish inquisition and explain that I do not believe that those acts were committed by men who knew God's love, but rather men with an agenda who needed justification to do bad things, and used my Father's name to do so.
If they want me to stop talking at that point, I will. I will respect them as a person. If they have any questions about those terrible acts, I will do my best to answer them.
That being said, I am still committed to speaking the truth about The Lord. I just don't feel I need to shove it down peoples throats or tell them how wrong they are, to speak God's truth's in their lives. I believe I speak the most about God's truths when I say NOTHING and simply live my life the way God intended. If an Atheist is curious as to why I behave a certain way or do certain things I will never forsake an opportunity to share how God has changed my life.
If they want me to stop talking at that point, I will. I will respect them as a person. If they ask me questions, I will do my best to answer them.
I will apologize for the wrongs that my fellow Christians have done in "God's" name. I will apologize for the crusades and the Spanish inquisition and explain that I do not believe that those acts were committed by men who knew God's love, but rather men with an agenda who needed justification to do bad things, and used my Father's name to do so.
If they want me to stop talking at that point, I will. I will respect them as a person. If they have any questions about those terrible acts, I will do my best to answer them.
When they say things like "I cant believe in a loving God that would spend thousands of years creating people He claims to love, and then only let a small select few spend eternity with Him" I will say "I don't believe in that God either." I believe that God sent His only son to die for our sins because He knew that no matter how hard we tried, we will always screw everything up. I will share the "Good News" that Jesus died for our sins and you can come as you are. God will make any change He wants in you. And He may not make ANY change in you right, now. Yes, that's right, God may want you to stay an Atheist for now. When HE is ready for you, HE will call you. YOU will not call upon Him. Some Christians would chastise for saying that God may want you to be an Atheist right now. And I would only respond with "Hasn't there been enough wars, bloodshed, and suffering, because men tried to claim that they knew God's will?"
If they ask me stop talking at that time, I will. I will respect them as a person. If they have questions about that, I will do my best to answer them.
If they ask me to explain how God created everything, and if evolution is so wrong then what "really" happened, I will answer "I don't know." I will tell them that I don't know how God did it, and I don't know if evolution is wrong. I truly believe that evolution is the best answer we have right now, but I am no scientists. I will explain that when I was a child, I didn't know how my parents made me, but I didn't feel the need to know, because I knew they loved me. I don't know how God created the universe and all of it's glory. But I don't need to know because I know He loves me. If one day, we learned everything about how we got here, and that evolution was an undeniable fact in all facets, and all scientists around the globe agreed that we discovered it's deepest secrets, my response would be "cool. Let's go get some ice cream or something." My God is about "love" and "love" doesn't ever have the need to be "right." It just "loves."
If they ask me stop talking at that time, I will. I will respect them as a person. If they have questions about that, I will do my best to answer them.
I have never intended to "convert" an atheist to Christianity. I think Christians are very arrogant and self righteous when they think "they" are going to convert anybody. I only attempt to give them a different perspective of Christianity than what they currently have. I want them to realize that "most" Christians do not judge, do not hate gays, do not condemn, and do not kill in "God's" name. Most Christians are very much like me. Respectful of others beliefs (or non beliefs) and just wanting to be treated with the same respect.
The Christians who spew hatred, condemnation, judgement, and the such are very much the "loud minority." I have moved 17 times in my adult life and attended over 50 different churches. I have never once heard a sermon on why we should hate gays, or judge our neighbors, or slaughter people who don't believe in our God. The idiot Christians that do those things to annoy atheists (and me) are just being louder than the majority.
The intention of this blog is to speak up for the quiet Christians, and try to be louder than the ignorant ones.
If they ask me to explain how God created everything, and if evolution is so wrong then what "really" happened, I will answer "I don't know." I will tell them that I don't know how God did it, and I don't know if evolution is wrong. I truly believe that evolution is the best answer we have right now, but I am no scientists. I will explain that when I was a child, I didn't know how my parents made me, but I didn't feel the need to know, because I knew they loved me. I don't know how God created the universe and all of it's glory. But I don't need to know because I know He loves me. If one day, we learned everything about how we got here, and that evolution was an undeniable fact in all facets, and all scientists around the globe agreed that we discovered it's deepest secrets, my response would be "cool. Let's go get some ice cream or something." My God is about "love" and "love" doesn't ever have the need to be "right." It just "loves."
If they ask me stop talking at that time, I will. I will respect them as a person. If they have questions about that, I will do my best to answer them.
I have never intended to "convert" an atheist to Christianity. I think Christians are very arrogant and self righteous when they think "they" are going to convert anybody. I only attempt to give them a different perspective of Christianity than what they currently have. I want them to realize that "most" Christians do not judge, do not hate gays, do not condemn, and do not kill in "God's" name. Most Christians are very much like me. Respectful of others beliefs (or non beliefs) and just wanting to be treated with the same respect.
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| This makes perfect sense to me. And it seems totally reasonable. |
The intention of this blog is to speak up for the quiet Christians, and try to be louder than the ignorant ones.
To be frank, Victor, only the religious are loud. Adherents of religion actually constitute a minority of the population the United States. Unfortunately, the propensity of the human mind to be handily manipulated by the media and swayed by slick applications of neurolinguistic programming contributes to the illusion of widespread appeal and support the sycophants claim to enjoy. They are neither a "majority," nor are they "moral," as their repugnant activities and repulsive platforms clearly illustrate. It has to do with the pernicious and persistent usage of a technique employed by the propaganda organ of Nazi Germany's Third Reich called, fittingly enough, "The Big Lie."
ReplyDeleteThe Third Reich (thankfully) passed into the ash heap of history, but their legacy lives on in the modern day. The theories and practices of Joseph Goebbels are very much in use by the modern media, in every available format. The idea is simple, of course: repeat a lie often enough, and the human mind will begin to accept it as the truth.
An honest evaluation of the media will lead one to the inescapable conclusion that what once informed, is now used to control. It's not my intent to launch into a treatise here on your blog, Victor, into this fascinating (and very disturbing) field of study, but an honest treatment of something as convoluted and complex as religious belief would be incomplete without touching upon this cognitive cancer that plagues modern humanity. Euphemistic terminology incrementally supplanted precise diction in a bid to circumvent the consumer's center of belief. Compare "downsizing" to "firing a large swathe of employees" in order to gain an appreciation of what I'm referring to here. Which seems more palatable to you?
"Faith" is used in blanket fashion to mask all manner of repulsive, repugnant behavior by the religiously brainwashed and the media, who has been bought and paid for by their sponsors, capitulates in the scheme. Reasonable human beings are somehow required to "tiptoe through the tulips" whenever the serpent's staff of "faith" is raised in the wilderness of life. It's the epitome of "why are you mad at my robotic adherence to the ludicrous notion that the world MUST bow before by psychopathic deity, and my efforts to indoctrinate your children in the classroom, on the tellyvision, and as they play at recess?" Yes, shame on us!
--continued in another posting (too much to be posted at once)
(continued from above)
ReplyDeleteIf one's belief is that everyone who does not believe as you do is wicked and evil; that such people are not actually alive but dead in their sins; that your God destroys such people for their lack of conformance to your beliefs (which are typically referred to as "His commands"); that America "has always" conformed to your particular brand of hate; and that you are unfairly persecuted by the masses of unsaved sinners for your understandable devotion to the commands of your Almighty God, then you might be one to euphemstically employ the term "faith" to create a sufficiently hallowed, marytr-approved shield to justify what are otherwise despicable, sociopathic rhetoric and mannerisms.
If my words seem extreme, I would call your attention to the holy scriptures, wherein you may find all manner of statements and illustratuons far more grotesque than anything I'm writing here. If your avenue of defense is to withdraw behind the mind-numbing shroud of belief, raising the tired, arrow-ridden shield of "God works in mysterious ways," "no one can know the mind of God," and other such escapisms above a battered noggin, then I can only point to those statements attributed to Christ (in red-letter editions of the canon, they are, of course, printed in red ink) that have a great deal of insulting things to say about your belief-motivated blindness.
No one is "lost" without your God, nor are they lost without possession of your beliefs. The majority of us are doing smashingly well - thank you very much - as we know that magical formulas and chanted mantras have no meaning whatsoever in this endeavor called life. I appreciate your candor, Victor...and while not everything in my response is meant for you personally, it's meant for everyone who considers themselves to be Christian.
I appreciate your thoughts John and thank you for stopping by. I am going to do my best to not try and "defend" my faith, christianity, or God. That's not what this blog is about. Ideally, I started this blog to show that no matter how "crazy, misguided, uneducated, ignorant, brain washed, narrow minded, and delusional" my beliefs may seem to an atheist, we can still function together in a community.
ReplyDeleteAnd although I appreciate your comments and hope you continue to share, my blog is directed towards christians. I want to encourage atheists to view my blog for two reasons. One, is to make sure I don't get out of hand, when I generalize how atheists feel. And secondly, I want to spread the word that not all christians are like the outspoken fundamentalist christians that most atheists say they truly can't stand.
Again, thanks for stopping by and I really appreciate your insights. You are very well educated.
Good Morning Victor. I would like to give you an example of how "this" atheist feels towards Christians. I can sum it up very easily. I think they are all evil. Now, please be patient until I can explain what I base that opinion on.
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I am wrong, but one of the most basic Christian doctrines is that non-believers, which includes ALL non-Christians, are destined for eternal torture simply on the basis of their non-belief in your god. Your god created his heaven & hell and your god made the rule: Believe in me or to to hell.
I find it extremely evil to send human beings, the majority of whom are good, moral, loving humans, to eternal torture simply for not believing in your god. Now, I have heard the argument again and again that it is not your god that sends them to hell, but we non-believers choose to go to hell rather than believe. I find that argument ludicious. Non-believers did NOT have one ounce of responsibility for the creating of hell or the creating of the rule. Your god did both then set up a no-win situation for non-believers. It is not a choice, it is coersion backed up by the threat of violence.
That Christians accept this doctrine, to me, is evil. Now, obviously, as an Atheist I do not believe in your god, your heaven or your hell. But I do believe that Christians do. How can Christians live with themselves knowing they condone sending good, loving, moral fellow human beings to eternal torture?
I know lots of Christians and I realize that most Christians don't give this doctrine much thought, if any. Maybe that is another reason why I dislike Christianity, the propensity for Christians to pick and choose what about their religion they want to be really aware of and/or truely support.
Now, I can't hate Christians. I know too many good Christians to paint them all with the same brush. But, lingering in the back of my mind is their knowing, or purposly "not-knowing" their religion's doctrines.
THanks for stopping by debiburns.
DeleteTo address your concerns about christians I think it is fair to say that everybody "cherry picks" things in their life. You are included. If you are an American, then you have to contend with the attrocities that Americans have committed in the past, and still commit today. As you stated, most Christians you know don't prescribe to the concept of eternally being punished for not believing in God. That is because, as we learn more about the Bible, we learn that it is not as straight forward as some christians in the past thought. We learned that some people had "agendas" when translating the Bible and may not have been as accurate as we once thought. We learned that, the more learned about ancient languages and cultures, that some things in the Bible werent as we thought. It doesnt mean the Bible is wrong. It means "man" was wrong.
The Bible isnt very clear exactly about what hell is. Jesus had a 3 year ministry and only discussed it 12 times. Half of those times were in parables and had broad meanings. In fact, the only time he ever "condemned" anyone to hell, or threatended anyone, was when He was talking to the religious leaders. We never see a single instance in the BIble where Jesus ever "jammed up" a non believer.
Dont get me wrong, there are plenty of religious doctrines that teach the condemnation and judgement of God, but they usually focus on just a few obscure verses to support their ideaology.
The Bible is difficult to understand, which is why most christians dont condemn as you said you noticed. It takes alot of study and an intelligent christian will realize that they will most likely never have a true understanding of the BIble.
This doesnt mean we should just dismiss it either. If we applied that same logic to science we would never be where we are. We take what makes sense to us and continue to study things that dont.
The overall theme of the Bible is Gods love. If you "cherry pick" sections of it, you can absolutely find horrible stories that make you question how there can be anything but evil involved. But if you truly read the Bible as a whole book, and apply the context of the eras it was written in, you get a completely different message.