Athiesm VS Christianity VS Logic
A lot of people seem to get the misconception that I am atheist. I am not. I do believe in a higher being.
Lets picture a painting ready to be painted --- a blank, naked canvas awaiting to be dressed. Lets picture it laying on the floor, with a table towering overhead. Now lets say that on the edge of this table, there are buckets of paint. Now say a cat comes sprawling past, climbing on the table and accidentally knocks the buckets of paint over, making their contents splatter and splash onto the canvas.
Now, the canvas would have its paint on it, it would have its array of colors --- but would it make sense as a painting? No, it would just be a random and abstract image.
Take a look at how the world functions, look at the complexity of the human body. Look at how plants just happen to be able to have the process of photosynthesis at its aid. Look at how everything just happens to work so well together. How there just happens to be oceans for fish to swim in. Anyone can agree that the world, in a biological sense, works very well together.
Are you seriously going to think that this is all just one big accident? One big "Oops, the digestive system just got accidentally invented." Such an idea is ridiculous to me.
I believe that there IS a painter that painted this picture.
But then who is it?
Is it Jesus?
Now, this is where people get confused with my ideals when it comes to religion. It is said that 1 out of every 4 Americans is a Christian -- so, it is not surprising that its often divided into "Atheists" and "Christians". Sometimes "Catholic". But besides that, no other option is considered. The reason for that is what makes me doubtful that Jesus is the higher being.
Let me give you a quick philosophy lesson:
Christianity started out as a philosophy just like Neo-Platonism, Atom-ism, etc. As a matter of fact, Christianity COPIED off Neo-Platonism. It wasn't even their original idea. Neo-Platonist, on one hand, believed that there was a higher being --- he just didn't give a damn about us. His creations, or the souls of them, just fell from him like the rays fall from the sun. The sun doesn't think about producing the rays --- it just does. Neo-Platonism preached that God was similar to the sun. They believed that this God was neutral. It is God after all, above us humans. Why would it care? Caring is a HUMAN emotion -- and if God can have one human emotion, then he can have the rest as well -- such as hate, envy, and desire. Now, to have "salvation" in terms of Neo-Platonism, you had to be wise. You had to be mature in your actions.
The Christians took this idea from Neo-Platonism and revised it. Instead of God not caring, God instead just happens to love EVERYONE and not only does he love everyone, he loves them all, UNDYINGLY. And you didn't have to be wise to be saved, you just had to believe and do everything their bible told you to.
Automatically people started migrating over to Christianity. Christianity made it easy, and humans like easy. They don't want to have to be smart, they don't want to have to search for truth, they just had to conform. And AUTOMATICALLY, you have someone who is ALWAYS there for you, no matter what. Automatically, we have someone to run to when everyone else was against us. Automatically, no matter what, you had someone who loved you unquestionably. Automatically, you have a purpose in life. How easy was that, compared to all the other philosophies of the time? Extremely. Especially to those who had no friends or family, who craved love and meaning.
And there, I explain to you the reason for Christianity's popularity -- humans are weak and like taking the easy road, because no one likes having to work for something.
I'm not saying that there isn't at least some work to being a Christian, having to keep up with prayer and practicing abstinence, being an over - the - top good citizen. Not lying, not committing adultery -- but then again, aren't these all things people should be doing out of common courtesy for others feelings? Whoever came up with the Ten Commandments must have been really unoriginal. But yet, these things were still a fairly easy price to pay for what these people believed they were receiving in return. And all the other philosophies just died away, or were thrown in the trash because according to those (or at least, quite a few of those), you needed knowledge to be saved. And who wants to have to be smart? Certainly not they.
Generations past, and it became a tradition. Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny -- we would all eventually tell our children that they didn't exist. But not Jesus. And they would accept it because it was what mommy and daddy told them was true.
Still to this day, Christians can't deny that they have no proof that Jesus ever even existed.
They call on the idea of "faith", although once again -- its taking the easy road. Faith is an easy word to say. I personally have "faith" that there’s a 3 headed dragon in my room. Where’s the proof? I don't have any, but I have faith -- so it must be true.
They call on the fact that its been around for such a long time. People started coming up with the idea that the Sun was not the center of the universe, but instead it was the Earth in the 1600's. The idea was called blasphemy because "God wouldn't do that to his children, we're special -- so we must be the center". You know when they FINALLY admitted they were wrong? 1991. Three whole decades later.
In addition to this, I also have little faith in humanity. I believe humans are very rarely strong. The long standing status, and the still strong popularity of Christianity does not bother me a single bit. Strength is not always in numbers. I do go to church, and have grown up in a Christian background. In a Christian school. I have read the bible, in its entirety, nearly 4 times. I am not someone who only assumed all these opinions -- I have done my research. I have observed Christians. About a month ago was Easter Sunday. Our ever popular church was PACKED. Packed to the point where they had to bring people into a room separate the main auditorium, where they could watch the service from TV screens. I have been around our church (7 years to be exact) long enough to know when it is time to stand for worship. In our separate room, we watched the big screens as worship began. I, by habit, stood. Halfway through the song, I looked around and noticed -- although I was sharing the same room as those who I usually see prancing in the isles and singing to the top of their lungs in the main auditorium, with the big crowd -- the only one standing was me. Me, the girl dressed in all black with the heavy eyeliner and the Marilyn Manson shirt. Me, with the chains and the spiked belt and the bright red hair. Me, the one who always gets funny looks at church because of the way I dressed, because a "real worshiper" of God would not look like such a "punk".
What happened?
Does the bible not ask you to stand for your Lord, even though you may stand alone?
And yet just because no one else was doing it, out of the nearly 80 people in that room, only one was standing. The one with the spikes and the chains and the Marilyn Manson shirt. At that point, I was only standing to prove a point. The point of their cowardice.
But, really this is running around in circles. It all boils down to:
Does God exist?
Does he not exist?
Is he Jesus?
Unfortunately, in the end, God's existence can never be actually proven nor disproved. And this is where faith does become important. You can go to Christianity's side, and have faith that your God will come, and it isn't all just going to be a waste, or you can go praise a different God and have faith that what you believe in is true. Or, you can believe in nothing and take full advantage of life now, because you have faith that its the only you'll ever have. I myself, am not even sure where I will end up residing. Even I have the fear the Bible's version of the apocalypse, because if it actually happens --- myself, and pretty much everyone I know is screwed. I guess that sums it up then.
God speed.
Or not.