I wondered whether to write about the 7th July London bombings or not. Today marks the third anniversary of those events and for many still far too recent. I’m guessing that for Americans the London bombings echo too closely the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon or for the Spanish the train bombings in Madrid. 7/7 killed 52 commuters, 4 suicide killers and injured over 700 people. They were horrific attacks against unarmed and uninformed civilians.
Why did these events occur? is a question that I’ve asked myself many times. I thought to blame religion, after all al-Qaeda officially took responsibility for the attacks. Al-Qaeda is a fundamentalist Sunni Islamic terrorist organisation. Except that it isn’t really an organisation at all, it’s more an approach, a way of living. Al-Qaeda cells generally seek an end to foreign influence in Muslim countries and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate. As such they hold a philosophy that is fundamentally religious.
I’ve come to understand that the Islamic faith believes in the same deity as that of the Jews and the Christians albeit in different forms. Muslims attacking Christians or Jews and Christians attacking Muslims to me, the atheist, it seems no different from Protestant attacking Catholic and vise versa. A pointless and futile attempt to prove who is right about their holy book. I’m generalising, of course, not every Muslim is a crazed jihadist just as not every Christian is a bigoted fundamentalist. In fact these represent a tiny, unpleasant minority in the faiths.
I’ve never believed in God but I became an atheist following the attacks in New York in 2001. I starting to speak out against religion after the attacks in London in 2005. It’s been a little over a year since I came to realise that attacking religion is just another “pointless and futile attempt to prove who is right”. I think I’m right, you think you’re right. As long as we fight about it none of us are ever going to win.
I hope that we can put aside our differences and try to remember that before religion or race, before creed or colour we are human beings and citizens of the same world. I’m learning things all the time about Christians and atheists by contributing to this site and to several others. Whenever I learn something I win a little or at least I don’t lose. Whenever someone learns something from me there are two winners. Nobody loses.
Posted in Atheist/Christian Dialog, Jason | 11 Comments »On Thursday Mike wrote about the S.H.A.P.E workshop and heart\passion and gave a list of questions to try out to help us to extend out understanding of our own passions. The last question raised some difficulties for me.
Write down the ten most wonderful things God could do with you, for you, through you, and in you, for the rest of your life? The dreams or desires that you have always wanted to pursue. Don’t limit your list by any obstacle or circumstance such as education, finances, location, gender, or age.
Not only do I not believe in God or gods on any kind but should a humble and loving Christian really be asking for things from God? Even if the things he or she asks for are to benefit others. Isn’t it part of the Christian ideal to accept with grace the trials and tribulations of life? Doesn’t asking for something imply that the divine plan is somehow flawed and in need of correction?
If I did believe in God, the god of the New Testament transformed and reinvented from the Old Testament, then I think I’d have to accept that God had already done everything for me. I say everything because God the Creator is responsible for everything, quite literally. If I believed that then asking for more, anything more, would feel disrespectful somehow. It is as if I were saying, “Look at this wonderful world we have, food enough for everyone, more knowledge than any one person could hope to learn, shelter and warmth for all, companionship and love in abundance. Truly it is an awe inspiring wonder. Now, can I just have a little more money.” I don’t know, maybe Christians accept that and believe that God sees their pleas in a positive light.
Now, as an atheist, I do not believe that there is a god who made the world. I don’t believe that our wishes, thoughts or prayers can change anything in the world. It is only action that changes things. If I want to transform my life in some way or pursue a dream then I must follow that path. Asking that someone or something else take those steps for me means, to me, that I am not actually doing anything myself. Transforming some part of my life requires effort on my part. If I want to pass an exam I need to learn the subject, if I want to get rich then I need to work to earn money and spend what I have wisely.
I hope I haven’t just insulted every Christian who believes that their prayers are answered but I don’t think that they are. More than that, I don’t think that they deserve to be. Not while the world has such injustice and inequality in it. When we, the human race, make the world a better place for everyone on it then maybe we can indulge ourselves.
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts, Atheist/Christian Dialog, Jason | 13 Comments »Last week I tried a little experiment on the Friendly Christian site. I took a parable from the bible and put my atheist take on it. I don’t think there was much surprise that I got the same sort of idea about what was written as the Christian reader or the ex-Christian. It was the first time that I’d ever read it though. I usually gain a slightly different perspective when I give it a second reading.
This is my second interpretation of the Parable of the Guests.
Luke 14:7-15 (New King James Version)
7 So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them:
8 “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him;
9 and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.
10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.
11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.
14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
15 Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
First some context. Jesus in this story is a guest at the home of one of the rulers of the Pharisees. He’s been invited to have dinner with some of the lawyers and Pharisees who we can all assume are important figures. I think a modern equivalent is a district attorney inviting lawyers and legal experts to his home. Of course the law and religion was much more integrated in biblical times so it doesn’t translate across that well. Extending the metaphor though the figure of Jesus could certainly take the place of a modern day social reformer or idiolistic law professor. Let me know if this seems like an unfair comparision.
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