A Christian Focus

 

As previously indicated, this blog will focus primarily on the Christian concept of God. A few years ago, I maintained another blog. Although its focus was personal matters, there were quite a few entries dedicated to religion and politics. The few followers I did have complemented the analysis but criticised my lack of consideration for any religion other than Christianity. I always easily dismmissed these criticisms just as easily as most people with a particular religious faith dismiss all other religions. I believe Richard Dawkins said it best:

"We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."

I, an agnostic, easily ignore the tenets and warnings of all religions except Christianity for some of the same reasons that Christians ignore them. Most Christians believe that their religion is the "one true" religion, therefore by default all other religions range from "entirely wrong", to "some element of truth", to "true but badly interpreted" and therefore falling short of the "absolute truth". Many theists contend that atheists or agnostics do not believe in God because they "don't understand" the "deep concept" of God and the related faith. I can only wonder how many Christians tried to understand the deep concepts surrounding the Muslim/Jewish/Sikh/Buddhist/Jainist/Hindu faiths before rejecting those. I dare say that some people – even if they only admit it to their peers or to themselves – even consider these religions, whose religious tenets they so deeply understand, as being somewhat silly. But as I always contend, all religions sound somewhat silly unless you were raised being taught it wasn't. All you have to do to make your religion sound silly is to replace certain key words with other words with the same general meaning but without the political correctness (e.g. exchange "sacred/holy/blessed" with "magical"). We can so easily do this for other religions.

The cow in Hindu society is traditionally identified as a caretaker and a maternal figure, and Hindu society honours the cow as a symbol of unselfish giving.

"I made chicken; I hope that isn't one of the animals that you people think is magic." - Mary Cooper to Rajesh Koothrappali, the Big Bang Theory

For the Mormons, a faction which is under the Christian banner yet still considered on the fringe, temple undergarments are "viewed as a symbolic reminder of the covenants made in temple ceremonies and are viewed as a symbolic or literal source of protection from the evils of the world"... TRANSLATION: "magical underpants".

People think of Jews as clannish people with funny beards and no foreskins, although the bases of these came from the bible:

"You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your heads, neither shall you clip off the edge of your beard" – Leviticus 19:27

"Speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'If a woman conceives, and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her monthly period she shall be unclean. In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.'" – Leviticus 12:2-3

Of course that can feed into a debate of the Old vs the New testament.

We cannot fathom why a Muslim woman is bound by faith to keep her head covered, although this too, is supported by the bible:

"But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered." – Corinithinans 11:5-6

That's right – that came from the NEW testament, although it does appear to suggest the covering of the head only while praying or preaching. And it also does not appear to agree with bald headed women whatsoever (cancer aside perhaps?). So all Christian women heading into church with their heads uncovered or bald, need pay heed. It is something I should probably research though – why Christianity does not currently require women to enter church only if their head is covered. I will surely add that to my list in "The Framework."

Being agnostic, and therefore going one version of God further, I similarly regard with some level of mockery, traditional/cultural Christian tenets. Like when I bought my car, people kept insisting that I have it blessed. I am not certain that they understand that I view that as having some guy say "magic words" over my car to protect it. And no, I have never gotten into a serious accident with my car. Yes, it gives me trouble – but that may have to do with my NOT TAKING PROPER CARE of a CHEAP CAR that is MADE IN SOUTH KOREA.

I will accept however that all of the examples I have given thus far is more or less baseless mockery and not the primary reasons these other religions are rejected by Christians (other than their not being the "true" religion). What I am trying to demonstrate is that after dismissing someone else's religion without understanding it, we respect this other person's religious beliefs but only to the extent that we respect his belief that his wife is beautiful and his children smart. While we may agree that his wife is more beautiful than the average woman and that his children are well spoken for their age, as outsiders, we are less likely overlook his wife's crossed-eyes or his children's tendency to dyslexia. What I am seeking to do here is point out the crossed-eyes and dyslexia within the Christian faith and give these seeming flaws the level of analysis that most Christians don't bother to give to other religions.

In covering the Christian faith, I will by extension be touching on the Jewish and Muslim faiths as both of these also consider the Old Testament to be (one of its) sacred (texts). Popular religions considered even less directly may include Buddhism, Sikhs and Hindus as my knowledge of these are very limited. Despite knowing very little of it, I still always wonder how many Hindus take Hinduism seriously. Quite a high number of Hindus reside in Trinidad, hence Divali being a national holiday. I was quite tempted to put up, as my BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) status on this day "everyone knows that hinduism is stupid" but was restrained by what little tact I am alleged to have – there were Hindus on my BBM list after all. But frankly I must attribute this general sentiment to how monotheists view "polytheistic idol-worshippers". Yes – some people do feel this way of Hinduism although it is a variant of monotheism ("variant" because it is not precisely like Christianity and its views on the "plurality" of God such as the Holy Trinity or lesser holy beings such as angels) and "worships" idols in the same way that Catholicism is alleged to do.

The extent of my consideration of non-Abrahamic religions will be my general consideration of the concept of God. The Hindu Supreme Being, like Christianity, has elements of anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism, and so will be inevitably affected by conclusions there. Some comparisons have been made to Buddhist/Sikh concepts and Spinoza's God, which I also intend to write about. Invariably, however, the focus will always be Christian, because for all of the years of my life, people have been trying to convince me of the beauty and intelligence of the Christian God so this is where I most struggle to find the hideously daft cracks that lie between.