Up until about seven years ago, I believed in God. The reason that it took me sixteen years to decide that God wasn’t real was because I didn’t know one absolutely vital piece of information. I always felt Christianity was based on some fairly precarious logic, but there was a pearl of wisdom that I lacked, which is this:
It’s okay to not believe in God.
Post-enlightenment, it seems a bit strange that all the reason in the world isn’t able to break through that barrier, but there it is.
As a Christian child you are trained to fear the very thought that deep down you don’t believe.
It’s not the fear of going to hell (although, what the fuck is with that shit?!), or even the fear that once you strip away the fantasy it will leave a gaping hole in your reality.
It’s the fear that your doubts will separate you from others.
There’s probably plenty of people out there who shrugged off their childhood Christianity with ease. Perhaps their family wasn’t as pious, perhaps they had a broader community, perhaps they didn’t have such a crushing need to be loved. All I know is that without the above key I wouldn’t have a hope of making it out.
If I gave up God at 16, it was many more years before I was able to believe that religion is immoral.
Here’s some stuff in a list format:
1. Forcing a child to censor their own development of logic is as dumb as a butt.
2. Cultivating neurosis as a form of discipline is a jerkish manoeuvre.
3. I’ve written the word manoeuvre a hundred times but I still have no idea how to spell it. What the fuck is going on with the vowels in that shit?
4. Teaching people not to question established practice will never result in a better world.
5. Forcing a child to spend 50% of their weekend going to a more boring version of school is a terrible, terrible thing.
6. Teaching a child a bunch of facts that turn out to be false is a gigantic waste of time and effort. Seriously, the other day someone started reading a random verse from the bible, and not only did I know how it went, I actually knew the chapter and verse! (it was Psalm 103 v1, so kind of a famous one, but it was genuinely random) If I had’ve been learning to recite actual history or something maybe I wouldn’t have wound up at art school. - A chilling lesson for the parents of the world.
7. Why not teach people the real reasons to value morality? Why does it have to be “Because I said so”? That wasn’t an answer when I was five; it’s not an answer now.
8. Teaching people to fear change is a good way to aggravate every single global problem.
9. Teaching people to fear being unsure is just as bad. Think about it – How many agnostics of any vareity do you see picking fights?
10. Science is such a wonderful alternative.
Often times religious people will refer to a devotion to the principals of science as nothing more than an alternative set of beliefs. There’s a fundamental difference, however, between science and religion. Which is this:
Science is never really sure.
Science is always changing, always adapting to new evidence. If you argue against science, and your argument turns out to be found fundamentally correct, then your argument becomes science.
Science can be understood as a collection of all the views that have been proven to make sense.
That’s why it’s so strange to oppose science. If in your mind there is evidence against science, then you must believe in science, because using evidence to support an idea is what science is.
Plus science actually produces things.
Sure, God knows everything, so why do you need Google? Why are you googling, Christians? Why don’t you ask God?
Why do Christians hire babysitters?
Is God not up to the task of looking after a child?
And if something bad would have happened to your child in the absence of a babysitter, surely God orchestrated this, and therefore wants something bad to happen to your child.
How is an underpaid teenager going to prevent God from unleashing his wrath upon your child?
Do Christians even believe in quantum physics? How could they turn on their computer in order to hire a babysitter to fight against the wrath of God without the use of quantum physics?
There is something that religion provides that science does not provide: Community.
This is the real reason behind all the robe wearing, scripture murmuring, evangelizing and so on.
People need to feel part of a team. But there are so many alternatives out there.
What about a chess club?
“Ah” I hear you say, “But I’m not good at chess.”
A few weeks ago I would’ve agreed that this would inhibit your enjoyment of a chess club, however I have since been enlightened.
Most people who play chess in clubs or online are at a beginner level.
The captain of the online chess team that I belong to is a 32yr old truck driver from Minnesota. He’s played over 1000 games of chess on the site, and he’s rated lower than 98% of the 34,500 people on the site.
Isn’t that fantastic?
In fact the majority of people on the site are rated at or below a beginner level.
I just scrape into the top 10% on the site, and when I look at his games against other low-rated players I can’t believe the level of absurdity in the moves being made. But the wonderful thing about chess is that when a Master looks at my games they would appear just as ridiculous. And when a computer looks at a Master’s games they’d also look ridiculous.
The fact is that actual skill level is meaningless. There’s always someone else on your level, so you play against them. You win some and you lose some, what does it matter how you rank against the rest of the world?
Anyway, I found that really inspirational.
Here’s some things I like about chess:
1. The mental exercise is probably good for your smarts.
2. Chess is an ideological debate where one person will objectively win.
3. “Chess is the way life should be; on the chessboard it’s not who you know, but what you
know.” RIP GM Larry Evans.
know.” RIP GM Larry Evans.
4. You can’t make excuses on the chessboard, not even to yourself. You have to take
responsibility.
responsibility.
5. Chess is an argument without words, only thoughts.
6. Chess is the only sport in which the highest rated woman has beaten the male world
champion.
7. Chess has absolutely no relevance to the greater questions and equations of life. Its
just masturbation for your brain. Hurray!
8. Chess is really old! Far older than Christianity. Plus a lot of old people play it, and they
have funny faces.
9. Chess pieces can be passed down through the generations. I have my Hungarian
Grandfather’s pieces. They don’t wear out very fast.
10. And some other 10th thing.
So anyway, that’s a post about three different things that I wanted to write about.
Praise the Lord for segues.
(apparently that’s how you spell ‘segways’. WHAT?!)
Old people do have funny faces. I can't agree with that point more.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree, I've been advocating getting together for a singalong for years. Everyone always thinks I'm joking. But yeah, church was a good way to participate in music.
ReplyDeleteWhat about people who can't sing? You guys are so discriminatory towards my people.
ReplyDeleteSinging in a singalong is 99% attitude and 1% dance moves. Singing ability just doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteI relate singing to the above point about playing chess. If you sing with people of your level its all grand. You all sound terrible together!
ReplyDelete