Something EpicEncouraging radical lives that matter

Very interesting article over at Steve Pavlina’s blog entitled “The Meaning of Life: Intro“. Steve is a smart guy who has some great ideas. He’s also an atheist, which obviously colors his perspectives and my perceptions of him.

In the article, one of his conclusions is that Christianity and other deity religions are “disempowering” because they have a fixed perspective. I can’t entirely put my finger on exactly what about this idea bothers me so much, but I think it has to do with beliefs versus reality. Basically, reality is what is. Beliefs are what I think is true.

Obviously, as a Christian, beliefs are important to me. But what I (or Steve, or you, or anyone else) hold as beliefs do not change reality. Regardless of whether I believe in gravity, I am under its effects as long as I live on earth. Similarly, if there is a God who rules the universe, it doesn’t matter if I find Him empowering or not. That belief does not change the reality of existence (or not). If there is no God, then all of my belief won’t make Him exist. So to dismiss belief in a higher power because it is not “empowering” (an idea I also disagree with, but even assuming it is true) is not logical. Dismiss it if it’s untrue, but it makes no sense to dismiss something because I don’t like it.

More than the original post, which had some really good points, I dislike some of the comments. Take this one, for example.

“I have never believed in a God, in fact, I have never even gone to Church except for religious events. However, I consider myself an extremely moral person. For some people a belief in God can structure their life and fill them with the true message of Christianity, which is to be a moral and a good person. The only problem with the world to day is that their are a lot of corrupted people who can twist the ideals of any religion or belief system into one of hatred and anger.

One thing I always find interesting (in my belief that religion doesn’t equal morality) is that Al Capone went to Church every Sunday.”

This comment is bothersome to me not because the commenter has a different worldview than I do, but because he so completely misunderstands mine. This tells me that Christians as a whole have done a poor job of explaining to the world what we’re all about. The true message of Christianity is to be a good and moral person?

The commenter was not being sarcastic or making a joke. He truely believes that’s the point. Nothing in there about glorifying God, or accepting salvation through Jesus, or anything of the sort. If it’s just about being a good and moral person, why doesn’t he consider himself a Christian? Or Steve, the blog author? And the idea that going to church every Sunday makes you a good person? Why would you even expect that to be true? After all, our Leader pointed out that “healthy people don’t need a doctor”, that is to say, perfect people don’t need a savior (or a church). This is pretty fundamental, and yet it is clearly not getting through to people.

I don’t have any particular suggestions, because things like this aren’t corrected by PSA’s or marketing campaigns. I think the point only gets through when atheists or other nonChristians know true Christians well. I guess, then, that one step for those of us who are Christians is to get serious about authenticity. It’s easier to let people think that we’ve succeeded as Christians because we’re “good and moral” than to point out that we’ve succeeded because we gave up control of ourselves and that they should do the same. That’s a hard message to give and to get. I guess that’s why the road is narrow.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 7th, 2005 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Christianity. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.