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Why do I challenge Christian Beliefs....
| From: | Bryan |
| Sent on: | Sunday, March 9, 2008 12:55 AM |
XXXXXX asked me if what I’m doing is going to create a better world.
Ultimately, yes. Seeing things as they really are leads to coming up with answers and solutions that match reality – which are inherently better than answers that are based on false assumption and false expectation. In my life, I’ve seen where this is true. Also, as long as there’s a group of people who are promoting one perspective in opposition to another perspective - there are going to be clashes. The consequences of the clashes are meaningful and damaging.
Some personal relationships are strained and some fail. A few years ago, I helped form a secular support group in Indianapolis (our membership has since been ‘effectively’ absorbed into the secular Indianapolis Chapter of the Center for Inquiry.) Every new attendee at a meeting has a story to tell of the difficulties they’ve endured through their life as a result of recognizing that Christian beliefs don’t match up with what they know. When I talked to my ‘gay’ friends about this, they commented that our stories shared some similarities about what it is like to ‘come out of the closet.’ One of my atheist friends tells the story of how it took him several years to admit to his wife that he didn’t believe. To his surprise, she expressed similar reservations about belief.
At the societal level, a study released by the University of Minnesota in May of 2006 showed that atheists are the most disliked subgroup in America – more than gays, more than Muslims, more than any other subgroup. No known, declared, atheist candidate has won a Congressional election in recent memory. General society does not respect the non-believer. The first President George Bush, while still in office, once told a reporter, “I don’t consider atheists to be Americans.” The current President Bush has toned that attitude down a bit but the U of Minn. Study shows it’s still a prevailing attitude.
Of course, others have had it worse. But that doesn’t mean atheists have it good.
I can not see a reduction to these clashes other than bringing all the facts and information to light so that people in both groups are working towards a common truth because they all have a common set of facts. There will be different interpretations, but over time, as more and more information is brought to light; common truths and common perspectives will emerge.
In the past, it may have been that the information wasn’t available to discern which perspective is the true perspective or which is the false perspective. That is not true today.
Christianity is the faith of the majority. Christianity has strong organization and well-funded social support structures. It’s easier to go with the majority.
I think, in the short-run, a person who has Christian faith, but then rejects that faith, is going to have a difficult time as they learn that things aren’t the way they’ve thought and been taught. A particular problem is the teaching that believers go to heaven and non-believers don’t. That ‘belief’ leads society to value “good” people over the “bad” and the person that leaves Christian beliefs behind is also going to find that they will have lost some things – maybe some friends, maybe some family, maybe a place to go and things to do.
But social support structures are beginning to evidence themselves in the secular community. And they will grow because they need to.
Ultimately, yes. Seeing things as they really are leads to coming up with answers and solutions that match reality – which are inherently better than answers that are based on false assumption and false expectation. In my life, I’ve seen where this is true. Also, as long as there’s a group of people who are promoting one perspective in opposition to another perspective - there are going to be clashes. The consequences of the clashes are meaningful and damaging.
Some personal relationships are strained and some fail. A few years ago, I helped form a secular support group in Indianapolis (our membership has since been ‘effectively’ absorbed into the secular Indianapolis Chapter of the Center for Inquiry.) Every new attendee at a meeting has a story to tell of the difficulties they’ve endured through their life as a result of recognizing that Christian beliefs don’t match up with what they know. When I talked to my ‘gay’ friends about this, they commented that our stories shared some similarities about what it is like to ‘come out of the closet.’ One of my atheist friends tells the story of how it took him several years to admit to his wife that he didn’t believe. To his surprise, she expressed similar reservations about belief.
At the societal level, a study released by the University of Minnesota in May of 2006 showed that atheists are the most disliked subgroup in America – more than gays, more than Muslims, more than any other subgroup. No known, declared, atheist candidate has won a Congressional election in recent memory. General society does not respect the non-believer. The first President George Bush, while still in office, once told a reporter, “I don’t consider atheists to be Americans.” The current President Bush has toned that attitude down a bit but the U of Minn. Study shows it’s still a prevailing attitude.
Of course, others have had it worse. But that doesn’t mean atheists have it good.
I can not see a reduction to these clashes other than bringing all the facts and information to light so that people in both groups are working towards a common truth because they all have a common set of facts. There will be different interpretations, but over time, as more and more information is brought to light; common truths and common perspectives will emerge.
In the past, it may have been that the information wasn’t available to discern which perspective is the true perspective or which is the false perspective. That is not true today.
Christianity is the faith of the majority. Christianity has strong organization and well-funded social support structures. It’s easier to go with the majority.
I think, in the short-run, a person who has Christian faith, but then rejects that faith, is going to have a difficult time as they learn that things aren’t the way they’ve thought and been taught. A particular problem is the teaching that believers go to heaven and non-believers don’t. That ‘belief’ leads society to value “good” people over the “bad” and the person that leaves Christian beliefs behind is also going to find that they will have lost some things – maybe some friends, maybe some family, maybe a place to go and things to do.
But social support structures are beginning to evidence themselves in the secular community. And they will grow because they need to.
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