Evangelical Atheism
As many of you know, I left Christianity in 2002/3 over a period of a few months. I went from born-again, die for Christ, Bible literally true style protestant to agnostic. After a few more months I gathered the courage to acknowledge that I was truly an atheist
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I am a Christian. Not, by any means the best Christian, but still a Christian. Granted, I have grown distant from the Lutheran church, but that's mainly because my parish's pastor has no idea what he's talking about. Apparently, Lutherans will ordain a failed math teacher even if his faith is "wavering" as long as he can pay for seminary studies, but, hey, at least he's not molesting our acolytes. And yes, my current view of Christianity has become much more fitting with the early pre-catholic Gnostic Christian (I hate Dan Brown for distorting Gnostic teachings), but that's mainly because I truly believe that the Roman Catholic Church is evil (sorry Bradley). However, I still conform with all the main points of Christianity, ie, God created the world, Jesus saved us, try not to be a giant dick, and that all my sins will be forgiven as long as I am truly pennetant, etc, etc.
Does it make me a religious zealot? No, frankly Fred Phelps and his ilk frigthen me, and I do not consider any of them as Christian. I'm pro-choice, pro-stem-cell research, and I believe homosexuals and lesbians are just as welcome in God's love any of His followers are. Frankly, I honestly don't give a damn whether a person is a different religion than me. I mean, I could just as easily be wrong about Christianity and the Zoroastrian be right, in the grand scheme of things. Or, maybe I'm a nu-BSG Cylon sorry, the scifi references fly out ten fold when I'm inebriated).
I have faith, which is, as you pointed out earlier, "firm belief in something for which there is no truth." So, yeah, perhaps I am a weak-minded fool like Bib Fortuna, (sorry, again, the inebriated/geek thing) I mean, anything is possible. But what is all comes down to is this: I'm a Christian, and I have faith. Big Fucking Deal. That makes me no better nor worse than any other human being. Except an athiest. I mean, an agnostic believes in a higher being, he's not sure what kind of being, but hey, at least he believes in a higher being. He has faith that he was created by something that had at least some iota of an idea of what it was doing. An athiest, however believes in nothing. Nothing. The faithful, whatever religion they may suscribe to, believe in something so completely that that every fiber of their being tells then that they are correct. An athiest will never know that. Ever. As sure as they might be that God, Allah or Jebus does not exist, it will never equal a believer's faith. Of course, I may be wrong; I'm far from perfect. Faith may be my crutch, but it's a comforting crutch, and, ultimatly does not cause anyone else harm.
Anyway, if I lead the rest of my life as a faithful Christian, and by some accident, it does turn out that I'm right, then I lose nothing. But the athiest, he loses everything.
Damn, I love that joke.
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1) You state that you completely accept homosexuality. The Bible states that "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." Leviticus 20:13.
2) You state that you accept other religions completely. The Bible states that "If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people." Deuteronomy 13:6-9.
You clearly have decided to invalidate certain parts of the Bible in forming your beliefs. How did you decide that these sections were lies and the sections about salvation were true? What if the salvation bits were lies...after all, they were written later. If you claim that later is better, why don't you believe in Islam which came 600+ years after Jesus?
Believing without evidence is very dangerous because people are essentially believing what they want. People will do horrible things in the name of god. In the absence of evidence, nothing grounds people to a non-violent interpretation of their religion. This is why religion is so dangerous; it can make well-meaning people into serial killers.
I did have faith and belief prior to 2002. What is so great about believing something without evidence? The costs of faith extend beyond fear of violence. Faith creates disappointment when the world as a whole does not fit in with the delusion of god's existence. Faith causes great sums of money to be spent on preaching...that money could have fed and cared for many desperate people. Faith causes much wasted money and effort on mission trips. Faith causes people to accept the world as it is while they wait for the afterlife. In that way, faith makes necessary social changes harder to implement.
On this subject, I recommend Richard Dawkins's documentary "The Root of All Evil" which is available on youtube.com
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We don't have Romans or Pharisees anymore either, so why keep even the new testament?
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