Dec. 6: Religion in the modern day
I used to know a pastor who liked to tell people that he wasn't very
religious. What would happen was a young couple would ask him to marry
them, but they'd stress that they didn't want a whole lot of "God stuff"
sprinkled into the service. "We're not religious," they would say and
my pastor friend would reply with "neither am I?"
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Society actually tells potential converts that religion will not get you to heaven. Only Christ will.
Is this double-talk? Maybe. Is it inherently dishonest? Maybe.
If you're a Christian and someone asks you if you're religious, you should probably answer yes. Christianity might not qualify as a religion under some definitions but it probably does when someone is inquiring about your spiritual life. When someone asks me if I'm religious, I usually pretend they're asking me if I'm a theist. "Are you religious?" means "Do you believe in God and do you think there are things that this God likes and things this God doesn't like?"
*
Perhaps it's to my shame that I haven't read the Koran. I have Christian friends who believe that all Muslims are either Jihadists or Jihadists-in-waiting. Others believe that Muslims are largely benevolent and that the actions of a few terrorists should not paint the sect as a whole.
*
Christians tend to gravitate to right-wing politics because conservatives are more likely to take hardline stances against abortion and gay rights, arguably the two biggest social issues of our day. I think the Bible is pretty clear on these matters; less clear to me is the notion that socialism is also unbiblical. Jesus said to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's but I don't remember him putting a tax cap on it.
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I have a book called An Atheist Defends Religion. Its author, Bruce Sheiman, is reluctant to find he's unable to accept the concept of a creator God while still finding much to admire about religion. His book cites numerous studies showing that regular churchgoers tend to be happier, less depressed and healthier than their more secular counterparts.
Any town planner will tell you that the church plays a vital role in a community's day-to-day life. I don't think that religion is going away any time soon.
*
I'm not qualified to speak about the other world religions but when it comes to Christianity, I'm willing to state that it won't be a good thing if it's adopted as a means to an end. This is why it just isn't a good idea to mix Christianity with politics.
When Christianity is adopted as an end itself, it is wonderful. But that can only happen to an individual. Then that individual will want to seek out other people who believe the same thing.
That's what church is for.
*
One of my favourite quotes about religion comes from the late novelist Kurt Vonnegut, himself a lifelong atheist. In his novel Timequake, he confesses that he wouldn't recommend humanism for the great majority of the planet's population.
"Humanists, by and large educated, comfortably middle-class persons with rewarding lives like mine, find rapture enough in secular knowledge and hope. Most people can't."
Once I was talking to Ron Barrier, former spokesperson of American Atheists. He told me about a radio show he was doing and some guy called to tell him that if he stopped being a Christian, he would probably start doing all sorts of terrible things. Ron recommended that the guy keep on being a Christian.
*
Sometimes, secularists tell Christians that if they're only being good because they're afraid of divine retribution then they aren't very good people in the first place.
As for me, if my house was going to be visited by an unrepentant thief or a would-be thief who isn't going to steal my computer because he's afraid of going to hell, I do believe I'll choose the latter.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Society actually tells potential converts that religion will not get you to heaven. Only Christ will.
Is this double-talk? Maybe. Is it inherently dishonest? Maybe.
If you're a Christian and someone asks you if you're religious, you should probably answer yes. Christianity might not qualify as a religion under some definitions but it probably does when someone is inquiring about your spiritual life. When someone asks me if I'm religious, I usually pretend they're asking me if I'm a theist. "Are you religious?" means "Do you believe in God and do you think there are things that this God likes and things this God doesn't like?"
*
Perhaps it's to my shame that I haven't read the Koran. I have Christian friends who believe that all Muslims are either Jihadists or Jihadists-in-waiting. Others believe that Muslims are largely benevolent and that the actions of a few terrorists should not paint the sect as a whole.
*
Christians tend to gravitate to right-wing politics because conservatives are more likely to take hardline stances against abortion and gay rights, arguably the two biggest social issues of our day. I think the Bible is pretty clear on these matters; less clear to me is the notion that socialism is also unbiblical. Jesus said to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's but I don't remember him putting a tax cap on it.
*
I have a book called An Atheist Defends Religion. Its author, Bruce Sheiman, is reluctant to find he's unable to accept the concept of a creator God while still finding much to admire about religion. His book cites numerous studies showing that regular churchgoers tend to be happier, less depressed and healthier than their more secular counterparts.
Any town planner will tell you that the church plays a vital role in a community's day-to-day life. I don't think that religion is going away any time soon.
*
I'm not qualified to speak about the other world religions but when it comes to Christianity, I'm willing to state that it won't be a good thing if it's adopted as a means to an end. This is why it just isn't a good idea to mix Christianity with politics.
When Christianity is adopted as an end itself, it is wonderful. But that can only happen to an individual. Then that individual will want to seek out other people who believe the same thing.
That's what church is for.
*
One of my favourite quotes about religion comes from the late novelist Kurt Vonnegut, himself a lifelong atheist. In his novel Timequake, he confesses that he wouldn't recommend humanism for the great majority of the planet's population.
"Humanists, by and large educated, comfortably middle-class persons with rewarding lives like mine, find rapture enough in secular knowledge and hope. Most people can't."
Once I was talking to Ron Barrier, former spokesperson of American Atheists. He told me about a radio show he was doing and some guy called to tell him that if he stopped being a Christian, he would probably start doing all sorts of terrible things. Ron recommended that the guy keep on being a Christian.
*
Sometimes, secularists tell Christians that if they're only being good because they're afraid of divine retribution then they aren't very good people in the first place.
As for me, if my house was going to be visited by an unrepentant thief or a would-be thief who isn't going to steal my computer because he's afraid of going to hell, I do believe I'll choose the latter.
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