Irreverent Secular Humanism and Pop Culture
For those who followed me on Xanga, I apologize. I’m migrating my favorite posts over here.
Moving on to Genesis 4, we learn about Adam and Eve’s two sons: Cain and Abel. As if the story of the “fall of man” didn’t seem like it was written by an underachieving sixth-grader, we’re now going to dumb things down so all you fourth-graders out there have something to read. As expected, this story has problems and I’ll tell you exactly what some of them are.
In my news feed on Facebook I will be served a daily dose of Christian affirmations from friends. In this series of posts, which I call “Facebook Affirmations™,” I will post and discuss some of these gems. Here’s the affirmation for today:
I personally believe in Jesus Christ. One facebooker has challenged all believers to put this on their wall. The Bible says, if you deny Me in front of your peers, I will deny you in front of my Father. This is a simple test. If you love God and you are not afraid to show it, re-post this…
And, as usual, my analysis of this copypasta:
For those who followed me on Xanga, I apologize. I’m migrating my favorite posts over here.
The Christian story of the “fall of man” is a tale of magnificent power, poor decision-making skills, cunning linguists, and problems…lots and lots of problems. I’ll give you the ones that immediately spring to mind. This takes into account the literature from the Bible in Genesis 1:26-31, Genesis 2, and Genesis 3:1-19.
In my news feed on Facebook I will be served a daily dose of Christian affirmations from friends. In this series of posts, which I call “Facebook Affirmations™,” I will post and discuss some of these gems. Here’s the affirmation for today:
When u carry a Bible, the devil gets a headache. When u open it, he collapses. When he see’s u reading it, he faints. When he see’s u living it, he flees. And just when ur about 2 re-post this, he will try & discourage u. I just defeated him. Like, Copy & paste this if ur in God’s Army
There are a number of problems with this affirmation so I’ll list them out as I see them and give my reasoning for each:
everal times during my childhood I heard a pastor preach on the creation story in Genesis. While I was still a Christian I thought it was just about the coolest story I’d ever heard — every time I heard it. Here’s the run-down:
In the beginning there was god. God got the urge to create stuff so he fashioned a planet with land and water and light so he could put plants and animals on it. In order to make this his crowning achievement he then placed humans and a talking serpent on the planet. The habitable area on this planet was constrained to a garden, in the middle of which was a tree that god had created knowing that it would destroy the humans someday.
Pretty awesome, right? Well, kind of. When I was a Christian I followed along in my book while the pastor read and never asked questions. This is how the sermon almost always went:
“Genesis 1: 1 — In the beginning, GOD. Now, that’s all I need to know. This tells me that god was always there, is there now, and will always be there even after I die. Praise the lord!”
I don’t want this to come off as a bitch fest or anything, but I’m a little confused by the attitude I’ve seen from a Xangan who voiced her emotional opinion on the Casey Anthony trial and then got extremely angry with a couple of people (me included) when they began to address specific points she had made — even going so far as to tell someone that addressing her points was off-topic to her blog post.
It seems to me that if you’re going to post something on a public forum you should expect that it will not only be subjected to public scrutiny but that you may very well be confronted about assumptions and emotionally-charged statements you make. If I held a view that I knew would be controversial and I didn’t want to be questioned about it, I’d keep it to myself. It’s the only way to ensure that you can hold your opinion without having to defend it.
So this person started out by taking respectful comments from me and replying to them respectfully. When she made another point I’d address that point and wait for a response. Eventually she accused me of being an unintelligent troll (she also said people who don’t agree with her are idiots) and told me to get the hell off of her blog. So I did, and I never intend to go back. I was in it for the discussion, not the attitude.
Thinking of it now, I have no idea why she was on my friends list but she was. I’ve removed her in order to get away from that negativity. Do any of you have experiences like this where a person airs their views and then abuses everyone who disagrees?
here’s a very strange movement in some Christian circles called “The Prosperity Gospel” that posits some kind of supernatural investment scheme where the more money you give to god (read: churches and/or pastors) the more material wealth god will give to you. While most Christian denominations denounce this theology as false or even blasphemous most of them also have their own, more subtle versions of the prosperity gospel whether they know it or not.
The churches in which I grew up always passed the offering plate/basket around during services expecting members to give at least 10% of whatever they had. This is standard practice for Protestant churches under a doctrine of tithing. Some churches go as far as asking (“asking” is a funny word since the whole thing is done with an air of, “if you don’t, god will know”) the congregation to make pledges as to how much they’ll give for the year. This helps the church make a budget but it also very clearly shows the churches are just businesses.
itting in Sunday School and church, you’re constantly confronted with the idea that man’s knowledge is not only flawed (a point with which I wouldn’t necessarily argue) but foolish. For example, 1 Corinthians 3:19 states:
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”
Whenever this comes up in a lesson or a sermon you always hear a resounding, “AMEN!” from the congregation. While I was a believer I never really thought about the implications and I doubt that many believers really do. In the light of debates over evolution, the Big Bang, and the ever-narrowing god-shaped gap in our knowledge it’s nice to be able to point to a verse and say, “See? The things you think you know are utter nonsense in the face of god’s wisdom!” The Bible is a never-ending source of derisive rebuttal to anything even remotely logical. That’s why I loved it so much as a kid. No matter with whom I was talking, I could always feel confident that my god considered them fools and I was right.
Brother Sam Singleton is trying to produce a professional DVD. He’s got a Kickstarter project set up and is taking donations. You can give as little as $1 but you can also skip one trip to Starbucks and donate $5 instead. If you’re familiar with Sam Singleton then you know this is entertainment worthy of your time. If you’re not familiar with Sam Singleton then you need to head on over to his YouTube channel.
here’s a very popular Christian hymn titled, “Are You Washed in the Blood?” It’s catchy enough to be stuck in my head now that I’m writing about it. Here, have a listen:
I used to love this hymn and now I really can’t stand it. The thing I hate about this hymn is that it trivializes the brutal concept of vicarious redemption via the slaughter of an innocent. When I was a Christian I thought it was a great song (and even better when my uncle would sing it because instead of “washed” he would say “warshed”) but when I was a Christian I also didn’t think too much about the concepts being presented. To me, Jesus’ death was simply a gift from my creator because he loved me and wanted me to be with him forever, avoiding the punishment and suffering I deserved, just for having been born. This made perfect sense at the time. Here’s what I missed:
