(note: this is long. feel free to skim or only read certain points!ve tried to organize it such that you can pick points of interest rather than reading tons of paragraphs all at once >__<)
Prologue
Those of you who have been following me on livejournal for about a year may remember my last post on religion. It came after attending several sessions of Elevate Youth Church with my best friend. At that time in my life, I would've identified myself as an agnostic. Post-conversion, I spent most of the first semester of college attending church weekly. It was definitely a genuine...emotional experience. However, my second semester of college, in many ways, made me question:
- What is the revelvency of religion in my life?
- Why do I need it, if I am capable of living a happy and productive life without it?
- Is religion an emotional crutch for people? And if so, where is its intellectual foundation (if it exists at all)?
- Why be a part of a body that condemns, from a lofty and disinterested standpoint, the lifestyle choices of myself and my friends--especially a lifestyle that is largely innocuous?
What I Learned at Summit
Most Christians Don't Represent the Teachings and Attitudes of Jesus
Going to Summit and being around a large body of Christians exposes the inconsistency of 'believers' with one another--even the inconsisntency within their own teachings. Not necessarily within The Bible itself, but in regards to the way to tell Christians to treat others. For instance, several speakers mentioned that Liberals tend to attack the arguer, rather than the argument (i.e. using ad hominem attacks). Then speakers turned right around and used Atheist philosophers and pop-culture icons as the subjects of their ridicule to make a point. (i.e. Paris Hilton doesn't think, yet she exists--yeah.)
This also leads one to wonder: Can we base our assumptions about the Christian religion on Christians themselves? Considering that people are flawed and consistently display that they don't follow their religion "correctly." In all fairness, we have to examine the doctrine as the first and foremost reason to believe or not believe in the God of The Bible.
Christians Are Just as Hostile Towards Liberals as They Claim Liberals Are Towards Them
Probably one of the most unnerving instances of the Conservative Christian mindset I experienced at Summit occured when the son of the famous (in Christian circles) James Dobson spoke. He was relaying a story about his pacifist Peace and Conflict studies professor, and the altercations he would get in over the issue of abortion with her. Dobson is adamantly pro-life, whereas his professor is adamantly pro-choice. In their final debate, Dobson brought his teacher to the point of crying in front of her entire class. She prompty dismissed her students and told him not to come back.
Upon hearing this story, the room full of Summit students burst into cheers and laughter and applause. Apparently, to this group of students, it was humorous/praiseworthy to degrade and humilate a professor in front of her students to such a point.
Now, to the speaker's merit, he told our class that it was not something to be clapping about. But the very fact that I was in a room full of people with that much disrespect for a person with an opposing view was very disorienting. Here I am in a room full of people with the beliefs I'm "supposed" to have, and I've never felt more alienated and anachronistic.
Christians Are Intolerant on PURPOSE
Apparently the notion of "tolerance" is logically flawed because someone who is truly tolerant is supposed to tolerate intolerance. If that's not the most idiotic idea I've ever heard, I'm not sure what is. In any case, that's the basis upon which they based the idea that no one is truly tolerant, so we shouldn't strive to exercise tolerance: because it is "fundamentally flawed."
Christians Think They Should Be the Exception
I can basically sum this up in a single story: A girl refused to take a required course at the University of Oregon about religious diversity, and SOMEHOW won the lawsuit over it. And everyone in my classroom applauded that she got out of taking the class, whereas I'm the only one shocked that she thinks she deserves special treatment because she disagrees with the contents of a course? REALLY?
Christianity DOESN'T Have to be a "Faith" Based on Ignorance
This point really does go to the merit of the crazy religious right. While many of them are uninformed and...quite frankly...very obnoxious about their opinions, there is a lot of scientific, historical, and philosophical evidence for a) the existnece of a single, personal god b) intelligent design c) the existence of Jesus and the validity of the historical documents to corraborate information found in the Bible. There are leading scientists, historians, and philosophers that aren't even CHRISTIANS which support all of these things simply because the evidence to the contrary is not convincing.
This, however, does not change the fact that a large portion of the religious right is absolutely nuts...which I know is not a valid reason to disregard the teachings of the Bible itself. If I were to say such, it would be just as bad as what they do themselves x___________x
Other, somewhat inconsequential insights:
- Christians are OBSESSED with the fact that the founding fathers were hardcore puritans and OBSESSED with maintaining this traditional aspect of the United States.
- Tradition > Progress ALWAYS. In fact I'm not sure if Christians believe progress is possible? O_o
- For some reason Christians are a fan of capital punishment (which I DEFINITELY don't support). I don't get it.
- Christians like making laws that put restrictions on other people groups. No clue why, I think it's a power trip or something.
- Christians are shocked by the simplest things. Like hi, I know you're homeschooled but educate yourself about the world once in a while. (Yeah that's mean, but I'm over it).
- Christians can say that the phrase, "You're imposing your morality on me." isn't valid as much as they want, but that's still EXACTLY what they are doing. There may be absolute moral truth, but Christians need to respect other people's ways of life.
- Most Christians epic fail at "speaking the truth in love" no matter how much they preach that.
- Apparently Christians think that jokes connecting homosexuality and AIDS are funny. This point definitely lands up there on the list of "Things That I Found Most Offensive."
Opinions of Mine That Have Changed
On the Abortion Debate
I believe that it can be proven conclusively that an unborn child is a full-fledged member of the human race. And if, as most people believe, it is wrong to take the life of an innocent human being, abortion is wrong and should absolutely be illegal. To be honest, I think most INFORMED pro-choice activists are aware of this but simply choose to ignore the facts because it's very very inconvenient.
Perhaps the underlying reason Christians are so obsessed with the issue of abortion is because they're hardcore sex-haters, so -technically- they shouldn't be affected by this law because they're not supposed to be having unwanted pregnancies anyways. I dunno, just a thought. (Another instance, I suppose, where they're trying to enforce a law which does not directly affect them.)
Opinions That Have Been Reinforced
- Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage with government recognition.
- Maximum social liberties as long as they do not infringe upon the rights of others or cause harm to others.
- Church and state SHOULD be separate.
My Favorite Quotations
"If you're going to be a liberal you might as well go smoke pot and fornicate with your dormmate."
"Don't live in the dorms on college. You never know what kind of sinner your college roommate could be."
"Don't use fire. This hotel is made of wood. Wood burns...and so do witches."
Conclusion
If you're gonna be religious, make sure you have intellectual reasons for it and can rationally justify your moral truths and beliefs in ways besides quoting Scripture. No matter what other people say, be tolerant and respectful of other people's beliefs, else no one will care one iota of what you have to say.
If you're going to be atheist or agnostic, make sure you have intellectual reasons for it and can rationally justify your moral truths and beliefs besides saying things like, "There is pain in the world, therefore there is no god." or "The universe is eternal, therefore there is no god." That just makes you sound like an idiot. And no matter what people say, be tolerant and respectful of other people's beliefs.
As for me, this experience has given me a lot to think about. In many ways, it has distanced me greatly from the Christian community and organized religion as a whole. It's weird feeling alone in a room full of people....for two straight weeks.
I've been given plenty to think about, but for now I'm going back to normalcy. PEACE!
(p.s. feel free to comment, ask questions, share personal insights, etc.)
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