I just read Mark Driscoll’s status update. It is print-screened above.
Does any other creature beside the human think such self-deprecatory thoughts? How could we bring our brains to this level of self-disgust….self loathing? We fight this tendency to think harshly and critically of ourselves on a daily basis. Some people struggle with a continual state of depression, self-hatred and thoughts that lead them to suicide. Christianity attempts with all its might to infect this meme deeper and deeper into the programming of our brains.
Does anyone really deserve hell? Does anyone really deserve to be tortured with fire for all eternity? What could motivate a person to think like this? How could this scenario ever be morally plausible? Could it be that the application of fear is an effective manipulator? Could it be that once our brains become affected by fear, we think less critically and we more easily accept other claims promoted by such person or philosophy (Christianity, in this case)?
Suva, there is a little problem here...death exists...existencial anguish also exists..these things exist beyond religion...so what he is saying is not negative because Christ is the solution for that, you don´t have to go to hell, etc...that was the message, so is not negative.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree that there is a little problem here, so hopefully we can get to the bottom of it. Please bear with me as I try to catch up with you.
DeleteDeath exists. Okay, I buy it. I've never actually seen anyone die in front of me, but I did attend my father's funeral, and have noticed that sometimes old people just... aren't around anymore.
Existencial[sic] anguish exists. Not quite sold on this one. I concur that it has a definition, so it does have that in common with, say, a unicorn (or rational Christian). I haven't personally experienced it, which I readily admit isn't evidence for its non-existence, but the burden isn't on me to prove it exists. As an argument for Christ, I would say it holds about as much weight as my current desire to open a bag of sour neon gummy worms. As anything other than a subjective vagary of human experience: no sale.
These things exists beyond religion. Okay, I'm with you again. I agree that death exists outside religion, and I also agree that my craving for neon sour worms, the definition of unicorns, and something defined as existential anguish exist apart from (or beyond, if you prefer) religion.
So what he is saying is not negative because Christ is the solution for that. Hold up. You lost me again. I may not possess the most analytical of minds, but I think I can recognize a non-sequitur when I read one. I wasn't even aware that death needed a solution. All this time I have been laboring under the delusion that death was just something that... ya know, happened after life had run its course (with a generous element of chance that it could end early due to some misfortune). Now that I know there is a solution, maybe I'll try to learn what the big fuss is about compound interest.
I do have to admit to feeling some relief about not having to go to hell. That really took a load off my mind. Now, I'm just trying to imagine how excited I would feel if I won an all expense paid flying-reindeer trip to Santa's workshop. Don't try telling me it doesn't exist, because I've SEEN it (on t.v.).
Fortunately, neither mass consensus nor tradition make something true. If you choose to let your ability to think rationally be fettered by Christian Flow Chart "Reasoning," then as a fellow human I respect your natural right to self-determination. Please respect ours and stop trying to infect us with your mind-disease.
Thank you for your lengthy, eloquent reply Andrew. I appreciate it and thanks for your contribution :)
Delete(I wasn't quite sure how to respond)
The psychological impact on people over time when believing this kind of doctrine cannot be anything but disastrous. And this is some of the milder stuff that Driscoll is known to say.. Sheesh, when will he fade away?
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ReplyDeleteI´m going to repeat my previous comment. Driscoll was talking to christians, that was the context of his comment on his facebook page...Suvarenee posted here that comment, and I was explaining why Driscoll wrote that comment in his page...about anguish and death: these things are being discussed by philosphy for thousands of years..because they are problems that need answers, solutions...nobody would care if it wasn´t like that...the problem with death is what happens after death...the difference between an unicorn and the Creator of the Universe is very evident...logic doesn´t need an unicorn to explain the first cause.
ReplyDeleteI,m writing about related subjects, which I will probably post in my Blog. Let me state for now the following:
ReplyDeleteAccording to Christianity, God sent “his Son” Jesus to establish a new pact with us, which required Jesus’ “sacrifice” in a harrowing, slow death. That holocaust supposedly made possible the life-after-death that Christians insist can be attained by accepting Jesus as our “personal savior,” who died as a scapegoat to atone for “our sins” (not his), so that we could all have eternal life.
Thus Christians use the seemingly immoral concept of vicarious atonement. But, for what was that vicarious punishment necessary? “For our sins,” they would answer. What they really mean is “for our nature.” Consider the following. When human beings noted that some little wolves were tamer than the run-of-the-mill wolf, they began a process of domestication that rapidly produced dogs. (Recently a Russian biologist obtained the same results with foxes). Because of that case of artificial selection, dogs cannot fend for themselves in the wild. In a very real way, we humans “created” dogs and we would find it immoral to send them to the wilderness, which would be equivalent to condemning them to a sure death because of their nature, which is of our doing.
According to Christianity, “God” created us. Thus, whatever our nature, it is of His doing. He made us human, that is, flawed and “sinful” if you will. And that botched job is not somehow His responsibility, but ours!
Suva, it's the oldest scam of the world, the snake oil vendors of yore's technique of selling a cure for a disease that doesn't exists at all or which cure doesn't relies in comforting palliatives.
ReplyDeleteIn extreme cases it erases the self at such extreme that they can't conceive themselves without the crutch of religion, they consider themselves meaningless and hopeless.
Can I take borrowed the screencap so I can post it in a facebook discussions page I co-admin?
ReplyDeleteThank you in advance.
I just stumbled at your blog and I'm like a kid in a candy store, it's fantastic!
No problem! Thank you so much for checking it out and sending me a response too.
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