Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

Going to say this here because some booger-eating, cousin-dating, barely literate mail-order Bible school pass-fail case is going to start stirring up high fructose corn syrup and sprinkles about this pretty soon.

Give me a minute because I'm about to hyphen-ventilate.

Okay. Can we please, please, please get Jesus out of the holidays and the federal observances and the seasonal sections of Walmart and put him back into the churches and homes of believers where he belongs? My religion has been co-opted for everything foul for I don't know how long. As a believing Christian, I'd appreciate it if my boy, J-Sonny, was not used for this year's mad cash grab by corporate America. Thing is, there are a lot of mainstream denominations that actually don't go for all the glitz.

Frex, I'm not supposed to decorate a tree, send a card, or give a gift until December 25th. This year, my faithful fake tree, Slim Pickles, will be naked except for lights until The Day. (I might make him a fig leaf to wear. God does have a sense of humor.) While all y'all are beating the stuffing out of each other over those flat screen TVs. I'm gonna limit myself to candles, the BPC, some blessed quiet, and maybe a few things that smell good until it's time. Merry Chr-... No... Happy Holidays. I think it's what Jesus would actually say.

 

Not breaking news in the least, but I do think important regardless of your beliefs or lack thereof. Heard an author discussing this trend, not as a "tragedy for Christianity" or any other faith, but how it has further unmoored our country from unifying principles and institutions and what it means socially and politically. Clearly the rapid decline can be traced to "the unaffiilated" having kids who also are unafilliated and so on more than anything. It also probably can be attributed to various proclamations by various sources that used "fear" to keep people in line and multiple scandals resulting in their alienation. You can only cry wolf so many times and people will stop listening.

The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion

 

Religion should be personal. We've turned it into some bizarre game of sportsball where the goals keep moving and what's suitable one cycle is an iteration of "those weirdos" the next.

 

I think that one religion is left off the chart: worship of self.

Granted, some might say that’s included in “none” or “other,” but I might also contend that guiding principle is also prevalent among Protestants and, perhaps slightly less so, Catholics.

I’m familiar with more than a few nonbelievers who are pretty much convinced that there isn’t a deity that is good enough for them. I also know more than a few a few believers whose god just happens to stand for all of their own social and political stances, regardless of what are presented as Jesus’ words in scripture.

In my opinion these folks are far more wrapped up in themselves than they are concerned with the better good and that shows by a lack of compassion, sympathy or empathy toward others.

 

It's probably too early to chart this through polls, Sunday collections or whatever, but I have no doubt that COVID is changing a huge amount of Christians' church-going habits for good.

The trend away from community gatherings of any kind already had momentum, and the virus simply added to it.

 

Except for the ones who think it isn't real. Take God on faith but not COVID? That's just weird.

 

that is only a late Christian philosophy.

Where was free will during Exodus? God and the plagues, the paring of the Red Sea, mana, the walls of Jericho? god was an active sentient force from creation through his human birth, life, death and ascension. Catholics celebrate thousands of miracles, direct divine intervention in human lives. I can buy into free will without destiny. But it does seem the Judeo-Christian-Islam version of god picks its spots for intervention. Weak ones at that. One day’s worth of purification oil lasts 8 days. Yet 20 million are exterminated in Germany, twice that in China’s revolution. A piece of toast with the likeness of Jesus is a direct sign from god. St Jude’s Children Hospital is still watching kids die everyday.

 

Sure, the holy books and traditions point out limited miracles. I'll give you that. My point is to answer your question of how can God exist with so much suffering in the world it begins and ends with free will. It is a universal idea within the Abrahamic traditions. Adam and Eve expelled from the garden because they chose to disobey God. Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated because man chose to follow carnal pleasures and wickedness. I'm not saying miracles are valid nor am I suggesting they don't exist. My point is humans are not automatons guided for the perverse pleasure of a divine being. According to the Abrahamic religions, mankind can choose to follow God (as understood under the religion) or not with possible consequences upon death.

I've had it explained this way: If you are forced to love someone, do you actually love them? If you choose to love someone, isn't that love purer? So if God has given us the ability to reject him and act within our own evil natures, doesn't that make those who actually love him a more pure form of love?

Personally the better argument against any one religion is why is that religion only bestowed upon one region of people? Why did the Hindu gods only make themselves known to the people of India? Why did the Mesoamerican gods only show themselves to people living in Mexico and Central America? Why did God only reveal his truths to the people of Israel and later the Roman and Arabic worlds? There were centuries of people who could never know those gods and therefor could not follow their paths.

But free will is the answer to why things suck. And for those with faith, it does take a leap to accept a divine creator who picks his or her spots to be seen in a world so full of suffering and pain. But we are mortal and we have choice. There are consequences to both with or without a god.

 

I'd also think there's a little bit of the opposite as well.

I'm Reformed Jewish, but I'm not that strict. I go to services on the High Holy Days, semi-observe Yom Kippur (In that past, I've gone to services, then worked at the paper at night as I didn't want to use one of my few vacation days on that night, and I broke my fast around 3 p.m.), and go to services another couple of times throughout the year. I don't keep kosher. I've broken a few of the 10 Commandments. I love bagels and matzah, but I can't stand gefilte fish.

I'd like to think, when it comes to my judgment, that God won't say, "Hey, great job in trying to be a good guy to people; glad to see you shoveled your elderly neighbors' driveway when it snowed; I liked how you gave the Little Leaguers money outside of the supermarket, you dished out food during the holidays to the homeless people, and you were devoted to your wife, kids, and parents. But you ate bacon 1,394 times. I can't let you in here with me. Besides, you'd be driving us crazy quoting Bobby the Brain Heenan all the time."

I'd like to think that God makes judgements based upon a person's all-around actions and character and is flexible enough to know that there are a lot of good people out there who just may not be able to fit certain specific standards that have existed and been interpreted by for thousands of years. Hopefully, I'm right.

 

Sonya: But, if there is no God, then life has no meaning. Why go on living? Why not just commit suicide?
Boris Gruschenko: Well, let's not get hysterical. I could be wrong. I'd hate to blow my brains out and then read in the paper that they found something.
Sonja: Boris, Let me show you how absurd your position is. Let's say there is no God, and each man is free to do exactly as he chooses. What prevents you from murdering somebody?
Boris Grushenko: Murder's immoral.
Sonja: Immorality is subjective.
Boris Grushenko: Yes, but subjectivity is objective.
Sonja: Not in a rational scheme of perception.
Boris Grushenko: Perception is irrational. It implies immanence.
Sonja: But judgment of any system or a priori relation of phenomena exists in any rational or metaphysical or at least epistemological contradiction to an abstracted empirical concept such as being or to be or to occur in the thing itself or of the thing itself.
Boris Grushenko: Yeah, I've said that many times.

 

How come there are no contemporaneous paintings or drawings of dinosaurs? Cave drawings and paintings from all over the world depict animals. Not of every kind, but a sufficient assortment. Based on the artifacts discovered of dinosaurs it would nearly impossible to miss one if you’re in the area?
As the Bible is a historical document a d therefore the earth is under 6,000 years old, with humans occupying the planet from day 6, it’s hard to believe not a single contemporaneous picture of a dinosaur exists. Thus the Bible is completely refuted as anything more than historical fiction.

 

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More free will
God is great.