Subject: continuing a tradition of me getting hated: Religion
Squire-of-Gothos
Fanatic
Posts: 206 Registered: 1/1/2003 Status: Offline
posted on 30/7/2003 at 10:04 PM
Today at work a woman overheard me talking about a moral epiphany I had
during a late night Finnegan's Wake and pot session I had a few days
earlier. Needless to say, I quit smoking, drinking, insulting, and eating
red meat. She had some sagely advice for me though. In a thick Caribbean
accent she said, "Whatcha' need ees some Jesus, me boy. Praise da lord!"
Well I personally have nothing against Christianity or the Bible, so I
simply told her that that was nice, but no thank you. It did not end. I
have to go to church with her she says. That I'll burn in hell for not
believing. So I told her I was a Buddhist, and then came the storm. I was
definitely going to hell. I was a sinner. And no earthly man can be a god,
or answer my prayers. My reply, juxtaposed, for your viewing pleasure. To
wit:
1. Jesus is your lord and savior, and he was an earthly man.
2. God told man not to persecute, and "not judge, lest he be judged"
3. Buddha is not a god, I've no reason to pray. I need only live a life or
Karmic goody ness. Buddha, like Jesus and Muhammad, where profits, and
sayers of wisdom and morals.
4. The mass of inconsistencies, the contradictions, its being tainted by
revisions, it structure, its rigidity, and its removal of power from man to
decide what is good and what moral code to live by, is so against what I
want in life, that Bible is NOT for me, and you should leave the store.
Please.
I'll say again, there not necessarily anything wrong with the Bible. It a
book of morals and life lessons, and if they are what you want, by all
means take them. I think though, that often times you have a situation
where it is taken so literally that anything remotely out of sync with its
message is perceived as an affront to there religion. This is not your
everyday Christian mind you, but devout Christians and Catholics. Any hint,
any whisper of something besides Jesus’ word, and your either insulted,
ignored, or an attempt to convert you is made. Its as if you are not a
human anymore but some slimy infidel, trying to change them. The attitude
is that your either with or against, and to me, that seems rather
unethical, and it is said in the Bible these actions are not Gods way.
Especially when you talk to me, because I have always held that in a
religious or social or political convo, the goal is to express, absorb, and
perhaps learn, not to change or win the opinion or argument. But my
nonchristianity somehow becomes a message of "I'm not, neither should
you!"
So I want to know what people think. I want to hear Christians up in this
thing, I want atheists who've got the same crap, I want anyone who feels
they've participated, been victim of, or observed this kind of display. I
want people who think I'm full of it, and people who think this is right
on, because this whole thing fascinates me. Honestly I'm all for
egalitarianism, and this kind of stuff makes a guy a might bit fussy. It's
de classe to see a normally affable, concomitant catholic just burst out in
anger becuase you quietly discuss something with someone, and they don't
agree. Its all about calm, cool and collected if you want people to listen
to you, and if they want me to change my mind, (which they really shouldn't
be) they should try a little bit better. or nicer.
Case in point after work, Starbucks, eventide......
A catholic woman, as I sat with a friend having a theological convo, told
me to shut up because I was annoying her. "Am I talking to loud mam?" I
ask. "NO, I don't care if you don't believe in Jesus, go to hell if you
want, but I don't want to hear it in front of me!". So, trying to be nice,
I say "Well I'm sorry to offend mam, but I was talking with my friend here
in private, if you overheard and don't like I apologize, but I wasn't
talking....", she cut me off with, "Don't try that shit with me son! I'm a
born and raised catholic, that is not the way you should be speaking!" Keep
this in mind if you ever speak to me: You yell, I often yell back, if you
don't want to be calm and logical, fine, have it your way, so I said, "was
I talking to you mam?". "No!" she replies. "Then shut the fuck up. If you
don't like what you hear, don't listen. Is your belief in god and Jesus so
weak, so flimsily balanced, that hearing someone speak against it shakes
you? I recommend a reprisal of faith mam, or at least a thicker skin."
(For the sake of the situation, I was telling my friend how I thought
people fear their freedom, and are thus inclined to cling to religions that
solve all of life’s mysteries, and tell them how to live, and what’s wrong
and right etc. "It is", I said "A virtual life instruction manual. Take a
god fearing Christian and tell him to go find himself and discover the
meaning of self and the universe, and he will most likely freak out.
Eastern, and for that matter, many native American beliefs, always seemed
superior because the mind is free to explore itself totally. With the Bible
its either too things. A book that has good morals and teachings, or a full
blown historical document, a plexus of everything you need. Its modern mans
moral Swiss army knife. Let me elucidate my friend, we live in a society
where Christianity is no longer the sterling silver statue of pious
worship. She's put on a nasty patina, because before, people generally fell
into bourgeois belief structures. They where pretty religious, but not the
pontificating born again's you run into, neither where they the
lackadaisical "oh, yeah I'm a Christian. I guess" proletarian mainstream,
to whom religion is just a birth right and a matter of trifling
unimportance. So now the two extremes are totally aloof. They are the same,
but woefully different. So the uber devout cling like holy hell to it,
pardon pun, the others, don't. Now its not the status quos to be Christian
in America, and its not even that important. Liberal Larry's are pulling
the word God and Christ from every wall, poster, and pledge of allegiance,
so those who believe, are now fighting for it even more. The farther the
distance between mainstream Christians and the pious get, the deeper they
will recess into the holes they've dug for themselves. People of that ilk
need to learn to cantenate again, be concomitant darn it! The devout think
the others are weak, and the "weak" think the devout are nutty. Sticks my
Élan Vital right through the floor damn it. I don't want to caught in the
middle.")
Was It really that bad? Discuss.
____________________ “The only thing that can alter the good writer is death.”
“You know that if I were reincarnated, I’d want to come back a buzzard.
Nothing hates him. He is never bothered or in danger, and he can eat
anything.”
Faulkner