Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Godless and The Ugly

I find myself finding it hard to say that I have faith. Like if I say that I have faith that I'm lumping myself into some group. I guess the group that I'm afraid of belonging to is the group that is afraid to own up to the harsh facts of reality. So I explain away the coldness of death with irrational explanations of some sort of afterlife. My subscription to a worldview involving the supernatural is certainly not new. Neither is the view of godlessness.

I would be lying if I didn't say that I found Atheism appealing. At a purely tangible level, the thought of not existing after dying is actually I think relieving. Growing up Christian the thought of hell and not making the rapture is very gripping. It often times acts as a governor. I've grown up around atheism all my life. I've had more Atheist friends than Christian friends. Like all that are reading this I've gone through public education. Public education teaches evolution. Even in my college science courses I learned about evolution. My exposure to creationism and the Christian sub culture didn't really come until I turned 21. I'm quite familiar with what evolution teaches. I'm not sure if it's the rearing I had from my parents, genetic disposition, or simply that I wasn't convinced. It could be a mixture of all three for all I know.

I'm not really bothered by some of the insensitive remarks made to me over the years due to my beliefs. In fact I'm not offended at all by the cartoons and articles on the internet that would be considered blasphemy by Christians, or even by the ill-treatment of true Christianity by the media. I am embarrassed though by the insensitivity towards Atheism and other beliefs by the Christian community. Especially when I hear Christians in the media or in my own church cast off other Atheism and different religions as stupid and should be ignored totally. The word "stupid," when used in reference to Atheism bothers me quite a bit. I can't say this about all adherents to Atheism but for the most part the figure heads of Atheism like Richard Dawkins or Carl Sagan aren't ignorant twits quite the opposite actually. Unlike some of the more modern figure heads of Modern American Evangelism. Who constantly seem to make pseudo-doctrines out of cultural misinterpretations of scripture.

Its sad really. I feel like I'm on the losing side. If we were to take Atheism and assume that all Atheist believe in evolution and take Christianity and assume that all Christians believe in creationism. Then lets assume that both are opposing institutions. Atheism would be a rising tower whose shadow blocks the sun from the windows of Christianity's once proud castle. Christianity at least in the American tradition took on the poor traits of American Culture that once was considered to be its winning features.

Atheism is fluid and swift. Well organized and a heavy weight contender. Finding its strength at all levels. This it seems to be the first era of cultural revolution that Christianity hasn't benefited from. When the bible was translated into the native tongues of people towards the of the middle ages, there was an explosion of converts. When the Bible was printed for the fist time. Convert numbers grew exponentially. Onward to the electronic age, with the introduction of the radio, television, satellite, cassette tape, vhs, and dvd. All these have contributed to the growth of the Church. Now with the information age. Social networking and the ready access to the internet we find the Church is losing clergy and members. Its just not Atheism that is garnering strength either. it's a number of groups. Wicca, Buddhism, and even Islam are finding more and more members.

This downward spiral for the Church is the best thing to happen to the world I think. There's a growing number of Christians who have removed themselves from the Church. Who find themselves not wanting their lives and relationship with Christ to be defined by Old American Agrarian Traditions left over from the 17th century. Meeting at homes and doing Christianity at a grass roots level separate from "traditional" church. This is the new church. Which ironically is like the first church, before the great awakenings, before Bush, before the Vatican, like the ones held in the books of acts.

This Church won't directly go against Atheism. It will learn from Atheism and take on its beneficial traits and make them its own. Taking from all disciplines it becomes more flexible while gaining strength. Never losing its core. While this is happening the Dinosaur that it separated itself from will die from immobility and unhealed bedsores. Sad to say no will come to its funeral.

1 comment:

starsarebent said...

Awesome.

I think it's important to not feel as though you're on the "losing team". For me, doing this would reinforce the thinking of not being on the side of man. It might be hard to do that because everything in our life is based on sides of man. Since we were kids. "Who's kickball team are you on?" Or even as adults. "Who are you voting for." Thinking outside that spectrum may remind us that there's only one side to be truly concerned with, and man has little to none to do with it.

Great post. While reading, I found it hard to break free of some of the very things you wrote about.