Forgiveness

By Carl S ~

Findings of a recent academic study from the University of Oregon and University of British Columbia show that believers are just as likely to cheat on academic tests as non-believers (as reported in Secular Humanist Bulletin, summer 2011). The article further reports: "What matters more than whether you believe in a God is what kind of a God you believe in. There is a relationship: believing in a mean God, a punishing one, does contribute to non-cheating behavior. Believing in a loving, forgiving God seems to have the opposite effect." The article concludes with words from Azim F. Shariff, co-author of the study, warning that “…the results are preliminary and cannot necessarily be applied to other types of moral behavior."

I must say I disagree with the "cannot necessarily" part of Mr. Shariff’s statement. For starters, some believers I have known had no trouble or qualms of conscience about cheating on tests and/or spouses, and I'm sure many of you can attest to that yourselves. This study threw a spotlight on a problem that has concerned me for decades: How can believers who call themselves Christians, who supposedly follow the teachings of Jesus, of non-violence, peacemaking, forgiveness of others, and charity to the most needy, applied personally, be Mafia members, drug lords, assassins, and violent gang members? How do they kill without conscience, and beat, torture, rip off their fellow humans, and steal? How do some members of the clergy rape children while continuing to preach the gospel on Sundays?

Forgiveness is of prime emphasis in Christianity. The major lesson of the New Testament “good news” pertains to the Redemption License; i.e., one can be forgiven no matter how heinous the former or future "sins,” in spite of how many one injures or kills, for Father - God - is infinitely forgiving. The dogma stating Christ's death atones for all the evil done or to be done by humans gives one carte blanch to sin all he desires to - redemption is prepaid. I'm sure Christians will argue that this is not what is taught, but remind them of "deathbed conversions" of criminals, or of confession and penitence with forgiveness as an assured result (leading to heavenly reward), no matter what evil one does.

The messages of Jesus, and John the Baptist before him, involved repenting and forgiveness emphasized through parables and examples. The prodigal son who wastes his inheritance on wanton living is rewarded, while his virtuous brother is ignored and put down, is a strong example. Jesus was "sent" not to the already morally upright, but to sinners, and prefers their company, as his God, according to him, does likewise.

The forgiveness game has been grabbed by clergy with the enthusiasm of a gambler busting a Las Vegas casino. They love to be the agents of forgiveness for their god; prison ministries, conversions, seeking out the terminally ill . . .

One goes to heaven or hell based on his belief; all results are based on faith. Strictly speaking, being a rotten person, but forgiven, will get you eternal bliss, for God loves to forgive. Strictly speaking, according to St. Paul, the founder of Christianity who wrote its attitude-scriptures, forgiveness applies only among members of the faith and their relationships to each other, not to the "others." Anyone who leaves the fold of the forgiven, the "redeemed," must be treated, in Paul's own words, as "anathema."

Clearly, the New Testament forgiveness message undermines true morality, and I’ll never be forgiven by Christians for saying this.

Comments

Are You an Atheist Success Story?

By Avangelism Project ~ F acts don’t spread. Stories do. It’s how (good) marketing works, it’s how elections (unfortunately) are won and lost, and it’s how (all) religion spreads. Proselytization isn’t accomplished with better arguments. It’s accomplished with better stories and it’s time we atheists catch up. It’s not like atheists don’t love a good story. Head over to the atheist reddit and take a look if you don’t believe me. We’re all over stories painting religion in a bad light. Nothing wrong with that, but we ignore the value of a story or a testimonial when we’re dealing with Christians. We can’t be so proud to argue the semantics of whether atheism is a belief or deconversion is actually proselytization. When we become more interested in defining our terms than in affecting people, we’ve relegated ourselves to irrelevance preferring to be smug in our minority, but semantically correct, nonbelief. Results Determine Reality The thing is when we opt to bury our

So Just How Dumb Were Jesus’ Disciples? The Resurrection, Part VII.

By Robert Conner ~ T he first mention of Jesus’ resurrection comes from a letter written by Paul of Tarsus. Paul appears to have had no interest whatsoever in the “historical” Jesus: “even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, we know him so no longer.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:16 ) Paul’s surviving letters never once mention any of Jesus’ many exorcisms and healings, the raising of Lazarus, or Jesus’ virgin birth, and barely allude to Jesus’ teaching. For Paul, Jesus only gets interesting after he’s dead, but even here Paul’s attention to detail is sketchy at best. For instance, Paul says Jesus “was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” ( 1 Corinthians 15:4 ), but there are no scriptures that foretell the Jewish Messiah would at long last appear only to die at the hands of Gentiles, much less that the Messiah would then be raised from the dead after three days. After his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus—an event Paul never mentions in his lette

Christian TV presenter reads out Star Wars plot as story of salvation

An email prankster tricked the host of a Christian TV show into reading out the plots of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Star Wars in the belief they were stories of personal salvation. The unsuspecting host read out most of the opening rap to The Fresh Prince, a 1990s US sitcom starring Will Smith , apparently unaware that it was not a genuine testimony of faith. The prankster had slightly adapted the lyrics but the references to a misspent youth playing basketball in West Philadelphia would have been instantly familiar to most viewers. The lines read out by the DJ included: "One day a couple of guys who were up to no good starting making trouble in my living area. I ended up getting into a fight, which terrified my mother." The presenter on Genesis TV , a British Christian channel, eventually realised that he was being pranked and cut the story short – only to move on to another spoof email based on the plot of the Star Wars films. It began: &quo

ACTS OF GOD

By David Andrew Dugle ~ S ettle down now children, here's the story from the Book of David called The Parable of the Bent Cross. In the land Southeast of Eden – Eden, Minnesota that is – between two rivers called the Big Miami and the Little Miami, in the name of Saint Gertrude there was once built a church. Here next to it was also built a fine parochial school. The congregation thrived and after a multitude of years, a new, bigger church was erected, well made with clean straight lines and a high steeple topped with a tall, thin cross of gold. The faithful felt proud, but now very low was their money. Their Sunday offerings and school fees did not suffice. Anon, they decided to raise money in an unclean way. One fine summer day the faithful erected tents in the chariot lot between the two buildings. In the tents they set up all manner of games – ring toss, bingo, little mechanical racing horses and roulette wheels – then all who lived in the land between the two rivers we

Morality is not a Good Argument for Christianity

By austinrohm ~ I wrote this article as I was deconverting in my own head: I never talked with anyone about it, but it was a letter I wrote as if I was writing to all the Christians in my life who constantly brought up how morality was the best argument for Christianity. No Christian has read this so far, but it is written from the point of view of a frustrated closeted atheist whose only outlet was organizing his thoughts on the keyboard. A common phrase used with non-Christians is: “Well without God, there isn’t a foundation of morality. If God is not real, then you could go around killing and raping.” There are a few things which must be addressed. 1. Show me objective morality. Define it and show me an example. Different Christians have different moral standards depending on how they interpret the Bible. Often times, they will just find what they believe, then go back into scripture and find a way to validate it. Conversely, many feel a particular action is not

Why I left the Canadian Reformed Church

By Chuck Eelhart ~ I was born into a believing family. The denomination is called Canadian Reformed Church . It is a Dutch Calvinistic Christian Church. My parents were Dutch immigrants to Canada in 1951. They had come from two slightly differing factions of the same Reformed faith in the Netherlands . Arriving unmarried in Canada they joined the slightly more conservative of the factions. It was a small group at first. Being far from Holland and strangers in a new country these young families found a strong bonding point in their church. Deutsch: Heidelberger Katechismus, Druck 1563 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I was born in 1955 the third of eventually 9 children. We lived in a small southern Ontario farming community of Fergus. Being young conservative and industrious the community of immigrants prospered. While they did mix and work in the community almost all of the social bonding was within the church group. Being of the first generation born here we had a foot in two

Search This Blog

Forgiveness

Labels