God & Stuff
You may not believe this but SayUncle is a Christian. Yup, I believe in God. Why? One reason is that it seems too coincidental that some random carbon-laced gob of goo was energized into life. What are the odds of that? I’m guessing about the same as the odds of a tornado tearing through a junkyard and assembling a mint condition 1965 Buick Wildcat. I am, however, not overly religious. I don’t preach the gospel or really ever bring my religious views up in conversation, unless asked.
My parents were never big into the church thing. They never went and never made me go. When I was a wee lad, I attended a church because I wanted to. My parents went once, to witness my baptism. I decided at this early age that some of the stuff in the Bible was made up. No one lives to be 900. I also found (in addition to stuff being made up) that those whose job it was to teach this stuff reacted poorly (often making up more stuff) when asked about things that were inconsistent with the Bible. I asked the good reverend one day (again, as a wee lad): What happened to the dinosaurs? Why aren’t they in the Bible? His response was that odds are they died in the flood. He didn’t address their lack of mention in the Bible. As a wee lad, I realized this guy was full of shit. Partly because of the dinosaur thing but also because he told us we were going to Hell for listening to Top 40 tunes. Actually, him telling us that didn’t bother me but the zeal with which the congregation tore into it did. It became a witch hunt. All others were fond of tattling that so-and-so listened to Maniac by Michael Sembello. It became a collection of groupthink that was no damn good for anyone. I realized then I wasn’t too keen on organized religion. It leads to people doing crazy things, like flying planes into buildings. I didn’t go to church after my realization. I now attend a church once a month because my wife has asked me to after a 20 year or so break. The difference is that this new church is not insane and is actually quite tolerant of a lot of things that churches aren’t known to be tolerant of.
Religion is like fire insurance to a lot of people too. People have fire insurance (or religion) in case their house catches fire (there is an afterlife) not because they believe it’s very likely their house will catch fire (or there is an afterlife) but being without insurance (religion) in the event there was a fire (or afterlife) would really suck.
And the beautiful thing about Christianity is that all is forgiven. You come into this world as a sinner (another thing I took issue with, by the way) and you go out as one. Doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do, you’ve sinned. But Jesus makes it convenient in that all you have to do is call on him, repent, believe he died for your sins, and quote John 3:16 and you’re A-Okay. Well, that’s not the intent of the gospel by any means but that is how it is portrayed to anyone seeking to convert.
Apparently, the Bible says that buttfucking and cocksucking are wrong (the Bible has been wrong before, see above). So, the Vatican is telling its political minions not to support gay marriage because it’s a sin. Of course, we’re all sinners anyway so what’s the point? We accept that we sin, repent, and move on. The Vatican didn’t come out quite so strongly during its recent scandal. They didn’t issue any mandates about not buggering little boys. They didn’t tell their political minions to prosecute their wayward child-buggering priests. In fact, they fought it quite extensively.
They’ll go to bat for pederasts but not for two (or more) consenting adults doing whatever they want in the privacy of their homes. The church will protect the disgusting antics of some members of its priesthood but not keep its nose out of the lives of others? Clean up your own mess before making one somewhere else. It’s disgusting.
August 1st, 2003 at 4:40 pm
“…it seems too coincidental that some random carbon-laced gob of goo was energized into life. What are the odds of that?”
A lot less than the odds of the spontaneous emergence of a god powerful enough to create the entire universe. Oh, well, maybe that god was created by an “uber-god” who was created by an “ultra-god” who was created by a “meta-god” who was created by…
August 1st, 2003 at 4:51 pm
I’ve always wondered who made God…and then who made Gods god…and so on…and the fact that the bible is 99.99% bullshit with nothing but allegorical stories that some ppl believe no matter what.
August 1st, 2003 at 4:59 pm
Sorry guys, but pondering the origins of a God is perhaps beyond the scope of my rant. And definitely above my (and most folks’) mental capabilities.
August 1st, 2003 at 5:05 pm
C’mon, Justin and Gregory, let’s at least be polite when we disagree.
James
August 1st, 2003 at 8:10 pm
As Andrew Sullivan pointed out, the Vatican wouldn’t call Saddam Hussein evil, but he’s willing to call gays evil.
Funny, last I checked homosexuality wasn’t in any of the commandments, but murder, lying and stealing were.
August 1st, 2003 at 9:00 pm
Uncle knows “I mean well”. Guess what James…I’m a conservative…an agnostic one, but a conservative one no less. I wasnt trying to bash Uncles beliefs, just spouting off in one sentence or less my beliefs in a nutshell. I think Unc’ knew I wasnt bashing him.
August 1st, 2003 at 9:21 pm
Hey, Unc. Not to be a pedant, but belief in God makes you a monotheist. To be Christian requires belief in the humanity and resurrection of Jesus as the Son of God. Maybe you’re a Deist?
Says the atheist…. 😉 I’m always amused by folks who’ll believe some god has existed, self-created, for uncounted eons until he was moved to create the whole universe by means inexplicable and unknown, but they react with horror when you suggest they eliminate the middle man, so to speak, and accept the universe as self-creating, and provide a general idea of how it happened. Ah well. And no disrespect to you or your beliefs intended, good sir.
August 2nd, 2003 at 1:28 am
Mike,
It’s not the middle man you’re cutting out, its the manufacturer. People who don’t believe in God have just as difficult a time explaining what happened before the Big Bang as Christians have explaining who made God.
Les,
While we’re on the topic of quoting the Old Testament, you might want to take a look over in LEviticus where homosexuality is prohibited.
You’re right, the Vatican was wrong about Iraq but how does that automatically make them wrong on homosexuality? One might argue that this is actually a situation where they are more likely to be right given that the Bible at least refers to homosexuality (it doesn’t talk about preemptive wars against tyrants with WMDs).
Say Uncle,
You have a nice way of describing Pascal’s Wager.
August 2nd, 2003 at 9:01 am
I think Jefferson said it best…
“Christianity…(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. …Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus.”
August 2nd, 2003 at 9:01 am
I think Jefferson said it best…
“Christianity…(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. …Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus.”
August 2nd, 2003 at 10:22 pm
Interesting, Justin. I assume you have reasons why you believe (and agree with Jefferson) how Paul was the first great “corrupter” of the teachings of Jesus?
I don’t pretend to speak for the Vatican (I’m a Methodist) but it seems to me that in the grand scheme of things – and interpreting their position as coming from their theological beliefs – that their condemnation of gay marriage would actually be progress, and not to be unfavorably compared to the molestation scandals.
Whether you agree with their actions or not, it seems that now at least they’re acting consistently within the beliefs of their religion.
Incidentally, the United Methodist Church as an organization believes the same thing, although I don’t think they’ve issed a formal decree like the Pope has. (See Donald Sensing’s blog for more details on this). This is also consistent with established church doctrine.