Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Mutual Hatred, a Thing to be Celebrated!

So I’m sitting here in front of the computer, with WGN on in the background.

Now, because I’m on the computer, I’m just tuning in and out of what’s being said on TV (Unless it’s “Scrubs” which is the only reason I watch WGN in the first place), when suddenly I hear something that made me stop dead, and think “What???”

It’s was one of those Christian Religious shows.

Basically, the guy was getting all worked up and said something like:

“You can have ‘guilty by association’, you can ‘lie by association’, and you can also be ‘unholy by association’. If you have a friend or a business partner who doesn’t believe in the Lord, you’re being ungodly by association.”

What…the…fuck?

This, right here, is the exact reason I became an atheist. I won’t quote any more, but he went on for about 15 minutes preaching that associating with non-Christians is a sin.

Why do these people feel the need to preach hate? He’s essentially saying have nothing to do with non-christians. That’s you’re a sinner and will be punished if you have anything to do with non-christians (Unless you’re trying to convert them, I assume).

It’s the classical thing. You take something that was designed to bring people closer together, make people appreciate each other and treat each other with respect, and then twist it into something you can use to say “I’m better than you.”

A literal case of “Holier than thou.”

I mean, the Bible says “Thou Shalt not Kill”, “Judge not, lest ye be judged” and “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”

Can someone point out the passage in the Bible where it says “Thou shalt not kill, unless the other guy isn’t a Christian and has shit you want”, “Judge not, lest ye be judged, unless they’re a stinking non-Christian, and in that case should be ridiculed and outcast”…and “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you…but if they’re non-Christians, have at it, God boy.”

The show after it wasn’t much better.

In this one, a guy was saying that the Bible says the “spirit” is in the body, and therefore we don’t actually need our brains. (Which might be true, he obviously wasn’t using his). Here is a direct quote:

“We could surgically remove our brains, and that wouldn’t kill us. We’d still be alive and in our bodies, but just unable to express ourselves, because the brain is the organ through which the spirit communicates.”

He then went on to say brain-dead patients shouldn’t be taken off life support, because they’re still alive, and to do so is murder.

I thought that was great.

Yep, take up hospital space and life-sustaining equipment, deny a grieving family closure, and not allow the widow/widower to go on with their lives, just because something that was written by a bunch of guys 2000 years ago, none of whom had any medical or modern scientific knowledge said so.

Veering slightly off topic here for a second, how can you even live by something that was written so long ago?

Know when you where a kid and you’d ask a parent a complicated question, like “how are rainbows made?” and your parents would feed you a bullshit story because you wouldn’t actually understand the truth? Technically, that’s the kind of level that the authors of the Bible where working on.

In other words, the concept of your body being kept alive by a machine didn’t come anywhere close to appearing on their mental radar, so how can something these people wrote have any bearing on modern medicine?

Basically, these people had no idea how the body works. In Pythagoras’ time, they thought the heart was where the mind ‘lived’, and the brain was just an organ to “cool the blood”. These where the top minds of their time, but today, if you have mental problems, they don’t treat the heart…so why should ideas from the Bible come into play?

Long story short, these people just didn’t know that you can be dead, but through machines, have your heart still beat.

In conclusion, this is something that needs to be stamped out.

Believe what ever you want to believe, just don’t preach hate against people that don’t believe the same as you, and religion should never come between a person and their well being.

A classic example is Jehovah’s Witnesses. They refuse blood transfusions because of what the Bible says. Basically, if a child was dying and could be saved by a simple blood transfusion, they’d refuse it because of their beliefs.

If Christianity is all it’s cracked up to be, I don’t think any truly benevolent God would want anyone to die from a very easily treated condition. As above, blood transfusions where not around at the time of Christ. If he can cure a leper by a laying on of hands, I’m sure he wouldn’t begrudge a doctor giving someone a pint of so of ‘A negative’.

3 comments:

OzzyC said...

Dude, you're implying that the crackpots you're listening to genuinely represent all Christians. They don't.

I am a Christian. I don't believe that the Earth is 3000-odd years old. I do believe in evolution. I do believe that transfusions are a good thing. Please don't lump moderate Christians in with the right-wing Jerry Falwell group.

Paulius said...

Sorry Ozzy, I should have been clearer.

If you read my other posts on religion, you'll see I beleive that everyone should be able to beleive whatever they like...and the vast majority of Christians are nice, sane people.

In this post I was talking ONLY about, not just the christians, but ALL the religious leaders and people who choose to prerach hate, or go to dangerous extremes

lolly said...

Ok, i'm no Christian, and i'm no atheist either. However, I am firmly on your side on this one.

I believe there is more to life than what we see, I believe in something greater out there. Do I call 'it' God? Hmm, sometimes, perhaps for want of a better name. I may also say Goddess, or spirit.

Point i'm trying to make I suppose is that extremists ruin it for everyone. You know I have never even read the bible, and have no plans to do so. If someone wanted to pigeon hole me - I guess I would be called a Pagan. This has been the cause of more than one christian telling me that that for my 'satan worshiping beliefs' I will burn in hell. That I should go to the lord and beg forgiveness.

Frankly it annoys the hell out of me!! I don't even believe in the damn devil much less worship the fella!!

Anyway, that's my rant.

Oh, and I wonder how these Jehovahs would feel about the fact that I have just signed up to give some blood on Monday and will also be signing on as a registered Bone Marrow Donor at the same time?

Gosh - I really should burn for that I guess?!!

(Apologies to those non offensive Christians who do not try to ostrasize all other religious beliefs)