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Concerning God, Jesus Camp, and My Opinions Thereof

December 31, 2007 3:34 AM

am not a Christian. I was raised Catholic, and I even did my First Communion. But somewhere between that and my Confirmation, I came to see that the whole thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense. At the time, that was due almost exclusively to the extremely lazy catechism teachers I had when I was growing up. As I've gotten older, I've come to understand that there are many people of faith that are intelligent and articulate and that have real, substantive, internally consistent answers to tough questions. My teachers were nothing like that. It never made sense to me why an all-powerful God would have to jump through metaphysical hoops like having a son and then having that son die in order to forgive our sins. Why not just cut out the middle man and, you know, forgive the sins? I've heard answers that make me think, even if they don't convince me. But my teachers couldn't offer anything more sophisticated than "Who are you to question God?" It wouldn't have been very effective to point out that such an answer presumes the omnipotence of God when my question was just one in a series aimed at discovering whether such omnipotence could even make sense. And my classmates, who were just in a rush to get that hour-long class over with anyway, wouldn't have appreciated that, either. So I didn't bother.

And so, I became an atheist. Atheism gets a bad wrap, and that pisses me off. Being an atheist doesn't mean that you don't have morals or that you don't believe in something. I always believed in myself and my family and my friends. And I always had morals, even if I wasn't always strong enough to live according to them. Being an atheist didn't mean anything to me other than that the idea of the Christian God didn't make any sense to me at all. But more than that, I thought the idea was pretty fucking stupid.

I softened up a little bit in college. Due in part to all the awesome philosophy classes I was taking, I went back to the idea of god and started thinking about it in much the same way I had been taught to look at other ideas. I put the fact that the religious people I had met were stupid aside and concentrated on the idea itself. The most I could say then--and the most I can say now--about God is that I don't know one way or the other. And no one else does, either. One time in high school, I saw a light in the sky move around quickly and erratically before zooming away and disappearing. I don't know what it was. It could have been that I imagined the whole thing. Or maybe it was an alien spacecraft. Based on the information I have, I don't know, although I'm pretty sure that I can exclude certain possibilities completely and that other possibilities are extremely unlikely. It's the same for God. There are some possibilities that are clearly absurd, and there are others that are less so. But as for which ones are correct, I have no idea.

If I were pushed, I'd say that God almost certainly does not exist in the way that certain of his supposes proponents claim he does. I'm fairly certain that God doesn't want me--or anybody else--flying planes into buildings or bombing abortion clinics. I'm pretty sure God doesn't have an issue with his self-esteem--he probably doesn't care one way or the other if I worship him. But these beliefs are all subjective and without any justification. If you believe, as Plato did, that knowledge is justified true belief, then my beliefs about God, unjustified as they are, cannot rise to the level of knowledge. And no one else's can, either. My beliefs--or yours--might be true. But if they are, they are so by coincidence.

This is all a fancy way of saying that religion is an area where everyone's beliefs must be treated as though they are valid because, by definition, no religious belief can be invalid. Whether you believe in Jesus or invisible, benevolent purple elephants, no one has standing to challenge those beliefs. But the implications of that assertion are limited. I cannot logically challenge you when you tell me that Jesus died for our sins or that Muhammad ascended into heaven because those are matters of faith which science can neither prove nor disprove. But I can--and will--challenge you when you suggest that the Earth is 6,000 years old. And your beliefs cannot give you the right to subject someone else to your will.

I'm thinking about all of this tonight because I just watched the movie Jesus Camp, a year-old documentary about three children who attend an Evangelical Christian summer camp. It was entertaining and, frankly, scary. Some parents believe pretty fucked-up things, and they see it as their duty to force those beliefs on their kids. It's their right, I know, but that movie was really sorta scary in some ways. And I'd love to see a follow-up documentary showing where the kids are ten years from now and, most importantly, if they're still as fervent about their beliefs as they were when they were twelve.



4 Comments


dicta said:

i think this is a very well written post. it also articulates a lot of the thoughts and feeling that i have had on the subject of religion.

atheism gets an incredibly bad reputation. as you wrote, those who believe in 1 god or another usually equate atheism with a lack of morals. that couldn't be farther from the truth. i'm not saying that all atheists have morals, but rather that there is no necessary connection between one's religious beliefs and one's having morals (or what those morals are if they have any).

i have to admit that i probably make atheists as a whole look bad sometimes, because when people will ask me what religion i am (which is bold depending on the scenario) i often joke around by saying something to the tune of "golf is my religion." it has structure, rules, rewards, and punishments. it reminds me of my days in college. one of my philosophy professors was talking about the movie "a river runs through it" and how fishing was their religion. so i guess i sort of jumped on that when i say golf. but the reality is that i pride myself on some things that i think many religious people would accept as being moral. for example, i'm big on family, close friends, i'm generally kind to someone unless they give me a reason to be otherwise, i'll do some charitable things (but i won't pay charities), i try to be consistent/not hypocritical in what i say vs what i do, etc etc. what's wrong with having many of the same ideals without subscribing to some big bad invisible god up in the sky? i'd argue nothing.

i agree with you that it doesn't make any sense to challenge another's religious beliefs. there really isn't any ground to stand on there. and for the most part, i live and let live. but i do have a problem when religious people try to force their religion or their beliefs on others. i've encountered this in most religions. a perfect example are jehovahs witnesses. tomorrow is 2008. stop coming to my front door. if i want to join, i'll google you.

i am conflicted on things like the jesus camp documentary. i certainly believe that parents have the right to influence their children and teach the kids their religious beliefs. i guess my problem with that is when those beliefs begin to infringe upon the lives of others. i don't really know where the line is drawn between those two. at least not without a lot more reflection.

thanks for an interesting and thought-provoking post. that's something that's been missing from the blogs lately.

December 31, 2007 9:11 AM



Ismael Tapia II said:

I completely agree about people forcing their beliefs on other people. I don't think there's anything wrong telling curious people about your religion, obviously. And I don't think there's anything offensive about people talking about their religion per se. But how stupid is it to wake my ass up at 8:30 on a Saturday and expect me to be open to your religion? That's not only disrespectful and rude, it's guaranteed to be ineffective. And commercials for religions are just tacky. And don't get me started on those assholes with the pictures of aborted babies and whatnot. But I can live with people trying to convert me--it's their right, after all.

What really gets me--and what I really don't understand--are the people who think that they have the right to force other people to act as though they believed in some religion without regard to whether they believe it or not. Opponents of gay marriage do this all the time. They say that God intended marriage to be a union between one man and one woman. That is a perfectly valid religious belief. But how does that mean that the government should prohibit people who love each other from getting married? If you think it's wrong, don't marry someone of the same sex. Discourage your children from doing so. Don't talk to gay people. Don't let them come to your church. Don't let your clergy perform marriages for them. But how does that give you the right to keep two people that are completely unrelated to you from doing what they want? That's what I don't get, and that's what makes me really, really angry.

Thanks for the kind words.

January 4, 2008 12:58 AM



Lotta said:

Haha, shouldn't you be charngig for that kind of knowledge?!

July 9, 2011 11:42 PM






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