It rained long, and it rained hard. The sort of weather that is accompanied by chilled winds and shadowed skies. A storm which feels at home out to sea. I walked through the storm, hood up and coat zipped - for reasons I'll tell you all about some other time. While walking I passed a small Methodist church. I have passed this church countless times, and whenever I do it has a witty sign outside. Usually the sign humorously encourages people in, or advocates a pro-God message. Today's message felt somewhat more sinister. The inky letters printed on dank, wet page read:
'Nobody is too bad to come in
Nobody is too good to stay out'
An interesting dichotomy. In two lines, the preacher has managed to capture everything I hate about organised religion. Nobody is too bad to come in? I dare say there is a plethora of minorities unwelcome in the Church - one only has to look as far as Christians blocking gay marriage to see that some of us are more welcome than others in this little community.
However, this is frivolous to me. A little white lie - a masking of the truth to save face. It is the second line that I find disgusting and utterly toxic. 'Nobody is too good to stay out.' This notion, that we are all evil or impure in some way. Regardless of the good we do, or the moral actions we take - we are still not good enough for this 'omnipotent creator'. I fear this is how we are to be suckered in. The Church tells us we are ill. From a position of authority and apparent wisdom, it tells us we are plagued. As if this news was not enough, it tells us there is no cure. 'No matter your course of action you will not treat this disease...
Unless!
Unless you come in. Come into our humble church. Accept our deity and praise Him with all your heart. Leave your families and friends. Leave your passions and ambitions to follow Him. Only then will you be on the path to a cure. But you will never be fully cured, you must remember this.'
What a truly rotting ideology. To forgo everything you know and love and aspire to be - in order to pursue blind faith and reward in a fictitious afterlife. If you'll permit me, I would like to raise an argument for the defence. An alternate ideology - one that you can choose to accept or discard as you see fit. My belief is this. You are not sick. You are not damaged. You are good enough to stay out. You are you - defined by your loved ones, your passions and your possessions. You do not need to dedicate your life to a phantom. Be truly great. Not for eternal life, nor because your deity commands it. Be truly great because you can be, and because you deserve to be.
You were created in the image of you
Image Owner: Maslavista
I'm somewhat religious/spiritual/something but yeah, I don't really like the 2nd line either. I know many people who haven't been religious and they're nice people.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment (: that's exactly it - religion doesn't have a monopoly on good. People should be honest and fair for the sake of it :)
DeleteHm. (Yeah, this is Tim. Your advertising paid off, apparently.) I can't say I really agree with most of this: the Bible tells us that yes, we are all impure. This means we cannot be with God. But every time we do something bad, we get further from God. The idea is that you want to remain as close to God as possible.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely sure I agree with the wording of the sign, but you're overthinking things a little. The message was certainly not meant to be insidious - it simply says that it'll welcome anyone. Members of the church who automatically turn minorities away are not living God's way, and in so doing are sinning. However, that does not mean that murderers will simply have their actions overlooked. People shall rebuke them for their actions, but this is hardly discrimination. If a tree requires support, it is supported by the gardener. Such is what occurs within the body of the church. Whether these comments seem negative or discriminatory is entirely in the motive of the person rebuking and in the mind of the receiver.
You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. I think you've supported both my points in your first paragraph. The Bible says we are impure, I disagree. And your saying we should be good in order to remain close to God...a god with no evidence of even existing. Why not be good for the sake of being good?
DeleteWhile I'm sure those who wrote the sign meant as witty and harmless, it certainly doesn't come across that way. It literally says no matter how good you are, you are not good enough - which is a toxic message.
I suppose all I can encourage you to do is look objectively at the beliefs and teachings of the Church. Look at how it shifts from literal fact to symbolism. You might try to answer Hitchen's question:
Name me one good and moral action, or phrase, that could be done by a theist but not by an atheist.
Now name me one horrible, immoral action or phrase that could be done by a theist, because of their religion, but not by an atheist.
I'm yet to find an answer to the former. However, the latter encompasses all manner of genocides, holy wars and crusades, genital mutilation, indoctrinations, cults, KKK, suicide bombings, honour rape. Perhaps this helps you see my disagreement with organised religion.
Hi Sam,
ReplyDeleteWhile I am of course, incredibly cynical about organised religion, I do think there is more to it than you are portraying.
Of course there are a lot of ignorant, really zealous preaching religious people around. And they do a lot of stupid things. And they brainwash people into believing something that isn't true. And there is a lot of homophobia and discrimination etc. attached to religion.
However, I do think you are trying your hardest to ignore some positive aspects of religion that do exist. The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of uncaring people in the world who probably would not give to charity and take care of their families or whatever, if a book didn't tell them to do so. They do these things essentially out of fear of god, which is the worst possible reason. But they do them nevertheless.
The other point I would say, is that although there are a lot of really orthodox silly religious people, that most of the people (in my country anyway) just go to church or synagogue or whatever because they want to fit in, and keep up a tradition and belong to a community.
Yes, organised religion is an outdated practice with many bad points and I hate the discrimination and the fear of god and all that stuff which is attached to it, and I could rant all day about the ignorance of people who buy into religion. But you aren't being critical enough of the whole picture.
It was a good post though :) Just I think it wasn't balanced enough.
Hey (:
DeleteYeh, I'm aware this post covers the bare basics. I could have spent hours critiquing, but nobody would want to read through that. In terms of positive aspects of religion, I cannot think of any moral/good action a thiest can take than an atheist cannot.
Certainly for those Christians who give for heavenly reward, or because they're told to - this is the very opposite of a moral act. It is blind faith and obedience, or reward-seeking. If someone gives because a book tells them to, are they genuinely acting like Christians? Any true Christian would give regardless theoretically.
Further, I find it quite hypocritical that Christian authorities tell their followers to donate to charity - while sitting in their ornate golden palaces with their fine clothes, food and servants. The whole organisation reeks of hypocrisy in that sense
Thanks for the feedback (:
Hi! Came across your blog on TSR. I found this to be quite an interesting post and you write very eloquantly.
ReplyDeleteThat sign outside the Church seems a bit too heavy-going to attract new worshippers in my opinion. The Methodist Church closest to me just has a clock on the outside, an arrow pointing to it with a sign saying "It is time to praise the Lord," which seems a much more humorous and friendly approach.
And while you may not agree with the message on the sign, I suppose the fact that it turned out to be quite thought provoking could go down as a positive.
I've just started a blog - http://chenko7.blogspot.co.uk/
Don't feel pressured into looking just cos I've read some of yours! But any feedback would be appreciated :)
Cheers for following and for the feedback (: left some on your blog too
DeleteHmm, just a shame the thoughts it provokes aren't very positive ones :/ but hey ho