By Carl S ~
First of all, here's a great comment from a BBC series: "Being a vicar doesn't make him right. It just means others assume he's right." To which we might add: All houses of worship with their pastors and apologists are encyclopedias of assumptions.
Now, I am not making this up. It's Christian dogma: "that unless you become as a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven." Got that? You must become a trusting, gullible, unquestioning, obedient child. (Too bad that these adults forgo being the kinds of children of curiosity and questioning who become the scientists who keep their childhood sense of discovery and wonder.) Which leaves me, as a curious, questioning, rebellious, free thinking and skeptical mature adult, ineligible for entrance. As such, I'm not only barred from any future "heaven," but from all churches.
This child/adult difference explains some previously mysterious but now obvious questions. Believers are like the above described children. Therefore, you're banging your head against a brick wall trying to talk any sense to them; if you can get them to talk seriously about what they claim to be the most important thing in their lives, their faith (following the examples of their shepherds, the masters of avoidance). And churches give their inner child the place to act up.
Like a child clinging to a security blanket, the believer is on guard for any perceived movement that might threaten to take "it" away. Sometimes you get the feeling that they have been warned that YOU, oh you agent of doubt, are trying to tempt them with candy and will make them the next victims.
Frequently, outspoken Christians exhibit spoiled child behavior such as having tantrums when they're questioned, or whenever they don't get their way. Often, also like spoiled (chosen) children, they try to make the ones opposing them out to be persecutors, and themselves the persecuted. Like such children, they insist on, naturally, preferential deference because they believe...whatever it is they believe. No matter how ludicrous their beliefs are. Give people like that power and you've got troubles
Like a child clinging to a security blanket, the believer is on guard for any perceived movement that might threaten to take "it" away.In fact, these "children of God" in the U.S. are engaged in religious warfare. They have influenced the government to the extent of getting away with making internecine warfare in traditional ways. For example, the Catholic Church is using the legal system in making war by depriving non-Catholic patients in their hospitals of their Constitutional rights, by forcing them to comply with its doctrines. Christian denominations are making war on each other through the power of discriminating in their employee hiring, doctrinally purging workers within their government-supported ranks, by firing them strictly for their beliefs. Typically, members of one Christian denomination want the right to refuse to issue licenses to same-sex marriage partners of other Christian denominations, who believe differently than they do.
Some believers want the right to death with dignity, while others are fighting against them because THEY believe the opposite is "God's will." And "God's will" can be interpreted to mean anything within each denomination, sect, and even in minor cults! "God's will" is a weapon wielded to enforce. It's about domination. When one denomination dominates over another in any way, it's war. As usual, Christians are the ones persecuting Christians.
And the U. S. judicial system, which should never be involved in religious battles of any kind, is being sucked into them, to the consternation and disorder of our society and legal system, which was established to protect the rights religious denominations would revoke. Thus, spoiled-brat exemptions to the very laws the electorate is sworn to uphold are causing needless pain and the waste of time and taxpayer money. But the temper-tantrum throwing children refuse to give an inch of accommodation. So much for virtue, charity, ethics, fairness, and freedom of religion itself, there!
And so many problems are because religions insist they are entitled to the utmost respect because of tradition and the fact that they believe, even though WHAT they believe is just plain bizarre. And that’s all there is? Maybe they should NOT be respected because of what they REFUSE to believe, which is just about everything uncomfortable in reality. But then, growing up and taking adult responsibility for moral decisions and facing the facts of life isn't easy. And it certainly won't get you into the fantasyland heavens or paradises. No thanks, I'll take maturity.
Now, I am not making this up. It's Christian dogma: "that unless you become as a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven." Got that? You must become a trusting, gullible, unquestioning, obedient child. (Too bad that these adults forgo being the kinds of children of curiosity and questioning who become the scientists who keep their childhood sense of discovery and wonder.) Which leaves me, as a curious, questioning, rebellious, free thinking and skeptical mature adult, ineligible for entrance. As such, I'm not only barred from any future "heaven," but from all churches.
This child/adult difference explains some previously mysterious but now obvious questions. Believers are like the above described children. Therefore, you're banging your head against a brick wall trying to talk any sense to them; if you can get them to talk seriously about what they claim to be the most important thing in their lives, their faith (following the examples of their shepherds, the masters of avoidance). And churches give their inner child the place to act up.
Like a child clinging to a security blanket, the believer is on guard for any perceived movement that might threaten to take "it" away. Sometimes you get the feeling that they have been warned that YOU, oh you agent of doubt, are trying to tempt them with candy and will make them the next victims.
Frequently, outspoken Christians exhibit spoiled child behavior such as having tantrums when they're questioned, or whenever they don't get their way. Often, also like spoiled (chosen) children, they try to make the ones opposing them out to be persecutors, and themselves the persecuted. Like such children, they insist on, naturally, preferential deference because they believe...whatever it is they believe. No matter how ludicrous their beliefs are. Give people like that power and you've got troubles
Like a child clinging to a security blanket, the believer is on guard for any perceived movement that might threaten to take "it" away.In fact, these "children of God" in the U.S. are engaged in religious warfare. They have influenced the government to the extent of getting away with making internecine warfare in traditional ways. For example, the Catholic Church is using the legal system in making war by depriving non-Catholic patients in their hospitals of their Constitutional rights, by forcing them to comply with its doctrines. Christian denominations are making war on each other through the power of discriminating in their employee hiring, doctrinally purging workers within their government-supported ranks, by firing them strictly for their beliefs. Typically, members of one Christian denomination want the right to refuse to issue licenses to same-sex marriage partners of other Christian denominations, who believe differently than they do.
Some believers want the right to death with dignity, while others are fighting against them because THEY believe the opposite is "God's will." And "God's will" can be interpreted to mean anything within each denomination, sect, and even in minor cults! "God's will" is a weapon wielded to enforce. It's about domination. When one denomination dominates over another in any way, it's war. As usual, Christians are the ones persecuting Christians.
And the U. S. judicial system, which should never be involved in religious battles of any kind, is being sucked into them, to the consternation and disorder of our society and legal system, which was established to protect the rights religious denominations would revoke. Thus, spoiled-brat exemptions to the very laws the electorate is sworn to uphold are causing needless pain and the waste of time and taxpayer money. But the temper-tantrum throwing children refuse to give an inch of accommodation. So much for virtue, charity, ethics, fairness, and freedom of religion itself, there!
And so many problems are because religions insist they are entitled to the utmost respect because of tradition and the fact that they believe, even though WHAT they believe is just plain bizarre. And that’s all there is? Maybe they should NOT be respected because of what they REFUSE to believe, which is just about everything uncomfortable in reality. But then, growing up and taking adult responsibility for moral decisions and facing the facts of life isn't easy. And it certainly won't get you into the fantasyland heavens or paradises. No thanks, I'll take maturity.
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