I have been to a few different kinds churches: Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, Holiness. Non-churches: Kingdom Hall, Mosque, and Synagogue. I do not claim to be a biblical scholar or to even have half the answers. But will say that at different points in the my life I have been curious about the happenings at places of worship. I do believe in a supreme being I will call God for the sake of having an identifiable label. This post isn't about those who claim a religion as much as those who claim NOT to have a religion. Atheists are funny in that they sometimes treat the idea of having a specific faith like the idea of dating the ugly chick. Like they make a more valid point by publicly dissing it or distancing themselves from it. Just because they claim non-belief, doesn't excuse them from social standards of conviction.
They always pick apart the bible by story and by verse, assuming that everyone takes it literally. Whether one does or doesn't really is of no consequence here. Many atheist seem angry more than frustrated at the faith of others. They preach the need for proof and nothing that anyone says is ever gonna fill the order. Some act as if winning arguments or debates about religion is somehow going to spread the word and stop it from existing. This my friends, can almost be paralleled to witnessing or sharing the good news as it is called in Christian faiths. The act of winning arguments can be parallel to verbiage of winning souls.
Then there is the notion of belief in disbelief. Atheists (who actually contemplated religion) often express a full fledged counter religious belief system. The fact that these people have something to say about every point of religion is indicative of some kind of steadfast connection to a particular system of thought.
One of the things that atheists do not see all the time is that we all believe something. Everyone have some system or series of thoughts of which every component cannot be proved externally. Generally speaking, this is what faith is. So much of what and how we think and act is based on our relative experiences. Therefore, at any given point if we chose, we could scrutinize any thought process of another person and find something incredible. At some point we would find contradiction, dissonance, specious information, and could stage an argument for or against each notion. Simultaneously, because humans have been around for millions of years, a more interesting point is that none of the findings/beliefs would be a first. But for whatever reason atheists seem to get stuck on proving the non-existence of God above all other systems of thought that could potentially be questioned. Hmmm...
The lay atheist is funny because they often have never been to church or may have gone like once or twice in their life with someone else as a guest. Their atheism is passed on similar to the way religious foundations are passed on. They get their belief or should I say disbelief from being around other atheists who actually had a religious affiliation at some point -often parents or influential friends who popularize the notion early on or at some critical stage. These people can be quite non-committal and may tell you things like: "well if there is really a God, he knows I'm a good person." or "I've treated people right all my life, if there is a God he knows my heart." All I can say is LOL man, LOL!
The bitter atheist I think is especially sad. These people once claimed a religion or some form of spirituality now claim to have had some kind of epiphany. I call them bitter, not as an insult as much as an unfortunate interpretation. These people are the ones who have had some bad to horrible times in their life and basically feel that God had forsaken them. Then they question all the other times they prayed and felt nothing happened to relieve them. It seems their main question is always: "If there is a God why would he allow so much suffering in the world?" Whatever answer is given they feel it's full of shit anyway. These people feel like their prayers don't count so now they mock people who pray publicly as talking to themselves or right it all of as stupidity. The messed up part is this group is getting so big they are gonna need their own building soon. I'll stop short of crying these people a river because they are pretty confident on and aggressive with their take on atheism.
I've always focused attention on the similarities of mankind while contrasting worship atmospheres more-so than differences in religious figures. I've have also been told that this was wrong or incorrect worship by some, but who's to say? Needless to say I've never been good at nor had the desire to memorize holy scripture.With that said, I am by no means a bible beater and simply respect people. Its is not my place to damn atheists or wayward religious people. But I feel that just like atheists call the pious on their bullshit someone needs to call them on theirs as well without getting bogged down a discussion about heaven and hell. AMEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment