I've been thinking about faith and religion a lot lately. It started when someone I was interested in told me he was a devote christian and didn't know if he could date me since I am an Atheist. I completely understand that and when I told him I did he was shocked. This confused me and has led me to look into why he would possibly be shocked and what faith and religion really should be.
I've been a part of three churches, each a different christian denomination. The first Lutheran, the second evangelical, and the third Methodist. This means that I have read the bible more than once, and I have heard different interpretations of it, so I can successfully say I can hold a good argument in terms of Christianity. Having said that, I have also made it a point in my life to study other religions in case I found that I could believe in them when I no longer liked the idea of Christianity. To make a long story short, I understand many different religions and can have a very informed discussion of the pros and cons of each.
Now, I have been rereading a webcomic called something Positive, and I have always enjoyed it. While I have been thinking about the reason people are the way they are when it comes to religion, I found the story arc that touches on exactly what I was thinking. The best part of the arc is at the end, Fred is talking to some young adults about he takes offense to being told christians are all crazy and are mean to everyone they try to convert. The guys were shocked and told Fred they were surprised because every christian they had ever met tried to tell the young men they were better. The scene ends with Fred crying and praying by his bedside.
This sparked in me that its true. As I'm growing older I notice that those who are trying to spread the word of god are those who think they are better than those who don't. I've also noticed that the Atheists I know try to get others to be depressed sacks of meat. Atheism is one of the worst in my book because it is just so depressing. Even if you go to hell, you still exist in some fashion. As an atheist you are just done when you are dead. There isn't anymore. That is why I try not to convert people. If it makes them happy to believe in God, they should believe with all they have.
I understand that Christians want to convert others so that these other people could be saved and go to heaven, but isn't the very fact that they are trying to convert people with scare tactics and by preaching just false? Don't they know that scaring someone into believing isn't true belief? Why even want someone to be unhappy because they are doing something they didn't choose on their own?
I remember what it felt like to truly believe in a higher power. It was powerful and made me extremely happy. I think it would detract from that feeling if someone joined a religion for reasons that weren't that they just believed. This doesn't only apply for Christianity. Muslims have that feeling as well. It was a fascinating discussion I had with some Muslim friends of mine when they were surprised that you can achieve that same happiness that they could with their religion. They truly felt connected with Allah while they were praying to Mecca and that they were whole. I have Buddhist and Hindu friends, and I even have Wicca and friends who mix and match because they see the need for somethings, but not all.
So his shock started to make sense. He was expecting that I would tell him that Christianity was stupid and these are the reasons. In actuality, I'm hoping I refind that faith I used to have, because it truly was a miraculous feeling. Religion is such a part of who we are as human beings, its like out sexuality, our idea of who we are, part of our identity. Shouldn't that mean that not all of us will be the exact same, just like how we are all individuals? Why should we all be the same religion? It would make it so there was no diversity, no need for discussion, we would all just accept like and sheep and not question to be anything else.
The world needs diversity, and unfortunately, that probably means that blood will never stop flowing out onto the ground.
If any of you know what this is, skip to the second paragraph. For everyone else, here is a quick summary. The Westboro Baptist Church is a church in Topeka, Kansas. They are anti-gay, anti people for gays, anti-military, anti-jews, anti-any other religion, and anti-brittney Spears. ...okay, the last one was a little off, but heres the gist of them. They believe that god hates everyone. Yes, everyone. Especially America, Ireland, Sweden, and Canada. They are most known for protesting at funerals, especially military funerals. They have signs that say thank god for 9/11, thank god for DUI's, thank god for dead soldiers, God hates f**s, and god hates Jews. They have told broadcasters on international television that the broadcaster isn't Christian. Yet, they say that they don't hate America, but god does.
Second paragraph time. I have studied the bible, just like I have studied all religions that are well known, like buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Greek and Roman Mythology so that I don't sound ignorant when I argue against them. So when I say something about the bible, I really know what I'm talking about. These people are definitely not reading the bible correctly at all. There are several references to God loving all man kind in three books in the old testament, and multiple others in the new testament, all conveyed by Jesus Christ himself. There are references to love thy neighbor, and that forgiveness shall let you in to the glory and wonder of heaven upon death.
The church seems to just skip over these all together. The worst part of it is, that none of them have any mental illness, or lower IQ's. They are just influenced. Most of them see the logic in what they are doing. They think that it is perfectly logical to think these things and do these things. The problems of being a social creature is that we are easily influenced depending on certain things. I do not agree with what they are doing in the least, but I do not think of them as having something wrong with them. I merely see them as being influenced in the wrong way. A good example of what is happening with them, is with Hitler. He convinced an entire country that the jews were not human. And he destroyed them...which by the way, the Westboro Baptist church thinks was a great thing...and a lot of people, normal people, believed him. It just makes my heart cry to see these people not understanding what is really being said to them. That they are just blindly following like most people in this and any other country. All because we are social creatures of persuasion.
Sorry, I really needed to get that off my chest. They said something recently that I just couldn't hold my unending anger at them in and I needed to rant about them. For those of you that want to know, I'm atheist, if that wasn't obvious enough. Alright, thats all I got to say.
