The world today, the world yesterday and a fundamentalist
Sometime, perhaps last term or the term before I witnessed an inter-school debate. The topic was ‘The world today is better than it was a thousand years ago’. Or something along that time frame. The debate itself was quite sterling, I enjoyed listening to the two teams argue out their points with total brilliance and expertise.
It brings back memories.
These memories stir up in my mind, they swirl to the surface like oil on water. They bubble, demand my attention, they call to me. I answer.
A meeting. A church. An office. A church pastor. Black suit, tie.
Me?
A Puma jacket, green trousers and a brown belt.
We sit opposite each other. I hand him a paper. He reads.
‘Why did you write this?’
A shiver of nervousness comes by.
Confidence spikes through.
‘I felt I needed to express myself and also make you people aware of my situation’
‘What do you mean by “I questioned man’s existence itself, mankind’s future…”?’
‘I had come to the conclusion that mankind is doomed’
‘You know what that perspective is called? Nihilistic’
‘But mankind can be saved. There is hope’
‘Man cannot be saved, except through Jesus’ grace’
Fundamentalist. Faith. Unwavering.
‘Mankind cannot be saved and it is not getting better, you know what ethnic cleansing is?’
‘Yes. It’s where certain people are killed because of their race…’
He cuts me off.
‘You look at Palestine, Hamas and that other one?’
‘Fatah?’
‘Yeah, they are brothers! They shouldn’t be fighting. See how bad the world is becoming?’
Pity about ethnic cleansing in the Bible. Namely the Old Testament and God’s orders for the Israelites to slaughter every animal, man, woman and child of a particular tribe.
Also apparently he doesn’t think that Catholics and Protestants are brothers and that there is such a place as Ireland. After I mention Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon he does the typical thing that I should have foreseen.
That was the Muslim’s fault.
The rest of the meeting ended up being him going on about Jesus and ignoring EVERY single point I make about atrocities in the old testament. I’ll para quote.
‘So all the stuff that happened in the old testament can be forgotten because of the new testament?’
‘Yes because of Jesus and the Resurrection’
You can’t ignore the injustices of the OT just because of one event. You have to take the Bible in it’s single form. OT and NT. All events are valid and still stand.
Anyway, he said that the world is getting worse. Technology, science, the UN, numerous peace keeping organizations and Aid programs, media attention on perpetrators, advances in communications, they are all helping to forward our world. It may not be that great, but it is definitely greater than the past where we had none of this. I am definitely willing to admit that this world is in a bad state, poverty, war and famine. But is Jesus going to change all this? Is spreading the word of Jesus going to change the situation? The answer is plain and simple.
No.
Preachers exhort to the masses, evangelists hand out tracts, men and woman convert and go on living like they did. They go to church on Sundays. I have days off on Sundays. They are horrified by events on TV. So am I. They read the Bible. I read Warhammer novels and write books. They celebrate Easter. I see it as a holiday. They believe in Heaven and Hell. I believe in an empty nothingness of an afterlife.
If converting people to Christianity guaranteed world peace I would be curious to know how, especially with Moses and the other prophets constantly waging war in the ‘Holy land’. God definitely chose some prime real estate for his chosen people which was inhabited by other tribes who ended up getting eviction notices and being forcefully thrown out of their homes.
In regards to the world of the past and religion, there was a time, called the Dark Ages which started at about 476 AD. Religious superstition reigned. We can quite easily say that the Dark Ages were not the best of times. But I imagine if we never threw off our superstition and remained steeped in religion our society would be in such a state. Maybe not technologically or scientifically, but socially and if you really want to put it, spiritually.
Then look again at the Bible. Today slavery is outlawed and deeply loathed by the general populace of the world. In the NT even Eph 6:5 “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ”
Worse is Luke 12:47-48
“And the servant, which knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, if him they will ask more”
I can imagine Jesus and many of the OT prophets would be ‘filled with righteous anger’ knowing that slavery is outlawed today.
I recall that same pastor saying that churches should not get involved and attest to political matters and instead stick with spiritual matters only. An example for him being the Anglican church and David Hicks. Well perhaps the church should stop saying that evolution is a lie? Because that is NOT a spiritual matter at all. Maybe they should just practice what they preach and leave it to the professors and science teachers to deal with…
So in all essence is a world of religion what we really want? Or should we stick with secularism like we have in most societies today? Does anyone wish to revert back to the times of the Dark Ages? Do we want to lose scientific knowledge? Have it condemned as a lie? Have our children surrounded and drowned in faith and religion?
I think not. I hope not.
The memories swirl to the depths. They have been sated. They will stay in my mind, I will remember them for a long time to come. They will sink down, eventually disappearing forever. But in my head, I will always remain an atheist.
Hi, you probably know who this is from my username
I have just read your essay on our world and religion and being both a Christian and a highly opinionated individual, I plan to rebut every point put forward that I do not agree with (which is most of them). However being extremely lazy, I think ill aim for one a day.
But firstly, many complements for what I think is a very well constructed essay on what ever you were trying to say.
Okay now for my own ramblings (in semi point form, again because I’m lazy)…
You said that:
“I can imagine Jesus and many of the OT prophets would be ‘filled with righteous anger’ knowing that slavery is outlawed today.”
Backed up by your quotes from the Bible, Ephesians 6:5 and Luke 12:47-48
Ephesians 6:5
“Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ”
To some, this may sound like some sort of support for slavery. However, you must look to the end of that paragraph in verse nine which reads:
“And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.”
This clearly orders the masters of these servants to pay the same respect and to “forbear threatening” the servants. It is obvious that what is being encouraged is not slavery, which involves forced, uncompensated labour, but employment in a workplace relations system possibly more advanced than that of WorkChoices.
Um that’s sort of my first point. I’ll add one more tomorrow if possible.
PS. You’re with TGP right? I heard you get some sort of IP TV, if so can you watch Al Jazeera?
yours mum,
Seb
Yes true. The only other problem being Luke 12:47-48 and the fact that these ’servants’ may not be ‘beaten’ or ‘mistreated’. Although they msot certainly still were (people back then probably wouldn’t change their whole perception of hurting slaves so readily, besides most of them were illitarate) also these slaves were still slaves. No pay? They were treated as a possession and despite the theoretical fact they were NOT beaten they were still used as a commodity and traficked around like weapons into Iran. I look forward to your next point.
By the way, would you like to meet up over the holidays or something? Watch a movie?
Sorry for the late reply i have been sleeping for the past two days.
Anyway, to me Luke 12:47-48 is part of a parable which compares faithful/unfaithful servants of a master to faithful/unfaithful servants of God, a fairly simple analogy which is told in terms familiar to the people of the time. I’m not denying the fact that chattel slavery did exist at that time as still does today, just that the Bible actually condoned such behavior, as seen in Leviticus 25:39-40:
“If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you;”
As well as lots of other points in and around that story of the Poor Countrymen
PS. This debate has been raging for centuries will, no doubt, continue on for centuries to come. And if your say that “But in my head, I will always remain an atheist.” And I will always remain the opposite; there is probably no point to this discussion anyway. We could continue endlessly with you responding, then me responding, then you responding, then me coming to your house and eating all your carpets, then you getting pissed off at having no carpets and firebombing my house, then me making ASIO raid your house, but being ASIO they’ll probably raid your neighbour’s house, at which point you’ll be rolling on the uncarpeted floor laughing your ass off so hard that the luscious old ladies from that pine forest retirement village will think your having a seizure and call an ambulance, leaving me ample time to kidnap Osama Bin Laden from your basement and exchange him for US$25000000 at my nearest American embassy, and you’ll be crying at home because you’ll have too much leftover hair dye which you can use and ill be so rich that I won’t even bother collecting $200 when I pass go on the way home, pay for the free parking, turn Piccadilly Circus into an actual circus like I used to think it was and as a consequence get sent directly to jail(or gaol) where I will run out of Monopoly references. But until then the Bourne Ultimatum looks good just that I cant go tomorrow.
Just one of many reasons why drugs don’t appeal to me.
Hey! Tell me who was the one who claimed ‘Nightwalker’was about the ‘Giant Flying Spaghetti’? I’ll be sure to bring sedatives and a strait jacket along on Thursday when we go see Bourne. Oh yeah and Receuvium, I assume you have received my SMS/invitation?