Religion: It’s almost like being in love
When I criticize Christianity believers will say I was never a Christian because I now treat it like it really is, a belief system of doctrines. Christians tell me instead it's a relationship with God-in-Christ. You know, the more I think of it the more they are right. They DO treat their religion like it's a relationship. They are madly and passionately in love. The problem is that there is no object of their love, and this is a problem of enormous consequences, primarily in that people in love are blind to their lover's faults.
Think of all of those young couples “in love” who are at each other’s throats only a couple years later. While they are in the romantic love stage, they are “caught up in the emotion.” Their lover can do no wrong. Their lover is perfect. Their lover has no faults; oh, sure he or she has idiosyncrasies, but nothing that could possibly impede this relationship. At least not until the fairy dust settles and they are able to start seeing each other as flawed human beings, sometimes horribly flawed. Amazing as it seems, strong emotions can cause massive distortions in perceptions. They can make A look like Not-A. Strong emotions can also completely shut down our ability to think self-critically. Link
12 comments:
I think I have the whole "you were never a real Christian" like of crap pinned down. I think it stems from the fact that in religious communities it is really not uncommon for individuals to exaggerate or outright fabricate their religious past. Ergo: Christine O'Donnall's remarks on Bill Maher some years back about having been on a date on a satanic alter or that fellow in Bill Maher's film who claimed he was a former: pimp, drug kingpin and high priest in the "church of Satan." I don't know how many proselytizers have told me that they used to be Atheists. One fellow in particular I found odd because I know his mother and she assured me that he had been to church no less than three times a week since the day he was born. I didn't confront him with that but past experience tells me that it is usually safe to trust someone's mother on these kinds of things.
Hey! That's not true about love blinding you to people's flaws. My girlfriend* is 100% perfect in every way, and I can prove that with a deductive argument:
1. My girlfriend exists
2. I couldn't be THIS CRAZY IN LOVE with my girlfriend if she weren't perfect
Ergo, my girlfriend is perfect. As my girlfriend, so with Jesus. Or something.
* By "girlfriend", I mean Civilization V
As long as you continue to believe in the religious nonsense, no one can find fault in you, therefore you're the perfect xtian.
As long as you don't make waves and continue to tell others how wonderful they are for being an xtain, you'll fit right into the cogs of christianity.
It's basically an ass licking contest,
According to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia:
The plain rings worn by certain orders of nuns and conferred upon them in the course of their solemn profession, according to the ritual provided in the Roman Pontifical appear to find some justification in ancient tradition. St. Ambrose (P.L., XVII, 701, 735) speaks as though it were a received custom for virgins consecrated to God to wear a ring in memory of their betrothal to their heavenly Spouse.
Thanks for the link. Brilliant blog post.
I have encountered the "I love God" theme amongst college-age women. They have been worked up by some social pressure to the point of being drowned in oxytocin whenever they think of God.
The men don't seem to do this. Although in theory it's a non-sexual love, it would be faggy of them to go around saying they "love" God.
If you can bring the emotions associated with romantic love and procreation into religion, that solidifies the bond to that religion.
Lady A,
The men don't seem to do this.
I often read appeals to a "muscular Xtianity" and protestations that JC wasn't a dirty wimpy peace-lovin' hippie. It's a bromance.
And like love, looking at it as an outsider you can clearly see the impending train wreck and it seems unfathomable that they can't.
This is why I love the OTF.
I don't see love for God as a romantic type of love. Out of love for those who did not love, the Father gave the Son, the Son gave His life, and the Father and Son together have sent the Spirit, to save sinners from misery and lead them into glory. Believing in and being overwhelmed by this amazingly reality of Divine love sustains my love for God and others that the two great commandments require.
Love God above all else and love your neigbor and your enemies as yourself.
"..I now treat it like it really is, a belief system of doctrines..."
Yes, a belief system of sound (true) doctrines (teachings) is essential to rightly understand the Christian faith. Why would that be seen as something bad?
"Some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." THAT is what is to be avoided.
This point, however, is evasive to the cosmic logic of being in LOVE with your Creator (not only for the things He has given you, but for the things you have learned about the Creator such as Self-Sacrificing Love, faithfulness (to you personally - and salvation is ALWAYS personal), and His Grace/Mercy to forgive you of wrong doing - something other god-constructs DON'T have, btw).
There more we examine this we will see that there are actually REASONS to be in Love with God.
Listing off the problems of the temporary creation which we are in (and NOT dealing with the real reasons as to why they actually exist)doesn't invalidate how these things apply to "you" personally.
They are only an appeal to "fairness" (as far as equal opportunity). A concept which does NOT exist in this universe and is therefore an illogical appeal.
As far as your Christianity is concerned... (perhaps you are still on a journey. Perhaps you have some more kicking and screaming to do before you finally come back and acknowledge that partial (incomplete)philosophy has lied to you about your Heavenly Father and that you need forgiveness for everything you have been doing for the last several years).
If you do come back to Jesus Christ and allow Him to answer many of your questions...then all of the glory will logically go to God for your salvation and NOT to yourself. You will enter eternity knowing that salvation belongs to the Lord.
And you will be humble again.
This point, however, is evasive to the cosmic logic of being in LOVE with your Creator (not only for the things He has given you, but for the things you have learned about the Creator such as Self-Sacrificing Love, faithfulness (to you personally - and salvation is ALWAYS personal), and His Grace/Mercy to forgive you of wrong doing - something other god-constructs DON'T have, btw).
There more we examine this we will see that there are actually REASONS to be in Love with God.
Listing off the problems of the temporary creation which we are in (and NOT dealing with the real reasons as to why they actually exist)doesn't invalidate how these things apply to "you" personally.
They are only an appeal to "fairness" (as far as equal opportunity). A concept which does NOT exist in this universe and is therefore an illogical appeal.
As far as your Christianity is concerned... (perhaps you are still on a journey. Perhaps you have some more kicking and screaming to do before you finally come back and acknowledge that partial (incomplete)philosophy has lied to you about your Heavenly Father and that you need forgiveness for everything you have been doing for the last several years).
If you do come back to Jesus Christ and allow Him to answer many of your questions...then all of the glory will logically go to God for your salvation and NOT to yourself. You will enter eternity knowing that your salvation (personal)belongs to the Lord.
And you will be humble again.
I love God, but I am not 'in love with' God. I am not emotional about my faith, and I have never had a 'religious experience' of God. When it comes to evaluating my faith and the existence of God, you would be surprised how 'cold' my reasoning is, pondering arguments pro and con. If the evidence would have turned out in favor of atheism, which to me necessarily implies the rational feasibility of naturalism, I would have switched quite a while ago; I have, in practical terms, taken the OTF many times. However, the evidence is in my view still in favor of theism -- naturalism does not cut it for me --, and I stick with the evidence. For me, decisive arguments for the existence of God are cosmological arguments and the argument from reason, see here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~almoritz/cosmological-arguments-god.htm
(Arguments for a specific religion, if any, follow different lines than those for the existence of God.)
Of course atheists will come with the old standard reply that religious indoctrination prevents me from thinking things through properly. How can you know that? How do you know that your reasoning is more objective than mine *), and how do you know that you are not biased at all?
*) and no, science alone does not yield naturalism, that worldview is a philosophical view just like theism
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