I was reading an article by Dan, who was complaining about how Christians are complaining about worldwide conspiracies about waking off Christianity. First, I can only think of some historical attempts to get ride of Christianity(i.e., Nero) and those were barely a conspiracy to get ride of Christians and Second, It’s highly unlikely that there is a group of Liberals who are trying to knock off Christianity.
I do not deny that there is anti-Christian sentiment in the world today. At my school, one of my classmates (who will remain nameless, because any Catholic who reads this is going to be madder then a hog in a hornet’s nest) said that "I’m glad the Pope is dead. He said he would rather all those people in Africa die of AIDS rather then use birth-control." I’m not Catholic, but I ended up defending Pope John Paul II, since nobody else would.
I have noticed that some people at my school believe that religion is causing more good then evil. I disagree with this, because it’s our primitive, tribal behaviour that is causing all the trouble. Humanity’s tribal behaviour is sneaking into religion, which is why practically all religions are bickering about how they are the right one. This is brought to the fore-front in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions. Look at Judaism, Christianity and Islam and you’ll see they are all convinced they are the right ones. This has caused all kinds of terrible atrocities in human history, which I believe is unnecessary and just shows how stupid humans can be.
What really bugs me about Religions like Christianity is their relentless desire to convert "more primitive" cultures. There is a quote by Herman Melville that I really like. Here it is...
Are there no Moravians in the Moon, that not a missionary has yet visited this poor pagan planet of ours, to civilize civilization and christianize Christendom? Herman Melville
I like this quote because Herman Melville is basically saying that we may think of ourselves as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but there are more advanced civilizations out their who will look on Jesus Christ the same way the Spanish looked at Quetzecoatl. The following is a little bit of Alavallan wisdom.
There is always someone with a better ship then yours, there is always someone with better technology then you. No matter how fast you develop, there is always someone smarter then you. Amaj’El, an Alavallan Philosopher.
8 comments:
Mainstream Christianity...no, I should change that... mainstream religion makes me sick. It can all be reduced to people blindly following the rhetoric of zealots. (In a side note, I highly recommend that you go see Kingdom of Heaven, if you haven't already. It's about religious conflicts...mainly Christianity versus Islam.) Hmm... rather than try and slow down my brain right now, to type this all out in a comment on your blog, I think I'm going to think about this for a bit, then post it on my blog in the near future.
My theory is that we should like at religion in a more, what's the word, comparitive way. We should just look at all religions as basically true, because the are in fact. Namely get from plain of existance A to plain of existance B. There is just diffrent ways of doing it.
My overall feeling on religion is a lot like that. It's based off of one fundamental, unalterable truth: that there is something out there bigger than all of us. I believe that, and all the different religions and philosophies that have spawned are just a result of people deciding how to deal with that almighty force. But all of those religions, in some way or another, make me sick, because somewhere along the line, there arose the believe that your own personal set of beliefs makes you superior to the "heathens".
I looked at Hinduism and I don't think they did that.
Or Paganism.
I forgot to mention the exceptions, but I'm sure if I delved into it enough, I'd be disgusted in some way with both Hinduism and Paganism...well, I know a way that Paganism disgusts me, and but I don't know enough about Hinduism.
I agree that it's really unlikely that "liberals" (as they put it) are trying to get rid of Christianity. People are crazy, I guess. Besides, everybody loves a good conspiracy - not many people care to check their facts though.
I can see your classmate's point, since John Paul II's stance on birth control was a bit troubling, especially in light of the AIDS epidemic in Africa - but the new Pope agrees with the last one - so the death doesn't accomplish anything on the AIDS/birth control front.
You have a good point there, that religions spend too much time bickering about how they are the right one. It seems pretty stupid to me that anyone thinks that what they believe about God (or whatever else is up there) is correct - I mean, if there's really something all-powerful, or all-knowing, or really better than us at all - then how are we supposed to be able to understand that thing? I'd be shocked if any major religion was entirely correct about God.
I never could understand why people would want to try to convert large groups of people like that. It seems kind of stupid to me - people will believe what they want, and if they're forced to believe something, they won't really believe it, if you know what I mean. To me, it makes more sense to just talk about all the different ideas and let people believe what they want. Besides, if religion A is really all that great, wouldn't the same people they wanted to force into converting be even more excited about just hearing about it? It seems strange to me that people would assume that their views are absolutely true, but then not think that the God they believed in was big enough to move people without violence or force.
I think that whatever the truth is, we'd have a much better shot at figuring it out if we could all get along and talk it out instead of fighting about who's already right. Then again, I think most people are less concerned about discovering God than just believing what they want to anyway, so actually having a sane discussion of various religions (with people of each faith) would kind of defeat the purpose of having these existing religions dictate what God must be like.
Why am I reading blogs at 2 AM? Sorry if this doesn't make any sense in the morning.
Don't worry, It was crystal clear. And Congragulations, you just won the award for longest continuous comment.
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