RE: What is your complaint with Christianity?
May 10, 2012 at 1:05 pm
(This post was last modified: May 10, 2012 at 1:09 pm by NoMoreFaith.)
I have no complaint with Christianity.
I have a just one or two niggling little issues, its not much, and I don't wish to impose, but just one or two minor, titchy criticisms. By no means held to purely the christian religion, and certainly doesn't apply to all adherents, but the religion at its base encompasses all these things.
1. Christians like to pretend they are a dominant religion.
Its bullshit. The second one sect does something utterly christian, like a bit of bigotry, sexism, bugger some boys, manslaughter or one of a hundred different immoral actions, the no true scotsman fallacy gets whipped out so fast your head spins for half an hour.
They're christian enough for you when you want to skew the statistics, but most of the time.. not christian enough.. hypocrisy at its basest level.
I thought I'd start with this one, since most christians go through a list like this shaking their head full of this fallacy, so I want you to admit right now at the start... YOUR christianity, is probably quite a small religion in itself until you start skewing those numbers by reincluding the "not christian" faiths you previously dismissed for their behaviour.
2. Christianity preys on the innocent
Indoctrination of the foulest kind, historically through missionary work (read the bible and declare your faith or you starve little african boy!), american "hell" depictions to young children, terrifying them so much when a friend dies who wasn't christian, they torture themselves with the concept this person is burning in eternal flame.
Don't even get me started on the Catholics...
3. Christianity breeds a egocentric 'chosen' mentality.
Smug superiority based on an irrational belief chosen by the fact, that in the majority of cases, you simply fell over into the nearest and most popular religion going, perpetrated by said "preying (praying..) on the innocent".
This in itself would only be mildly irritating, if it weren't for the same superiority which gives itself to murder and mayhem on the basis of this superiority complex. Through Crusades, Northern Ireland, even small scale conflicts such as threatening to rape and kill a young girl because she wanted a prayer banner taken down in line with the law.
4. Your religious text is bullshit.. and even your scholars agree
Breathe, breathe, you probably choked a bit.
If the historicity of the bible could be proven, including the miracles, and wacky bits, there would be very few non-christians in the world.
When even a group of distinguished scholars(Jesus Seminar, 1985), embarked on a quest to identify how much of the new testament was accurate, could only decide on 18% of the five gospels.
This you would have us believe.. is the absolute truth, and then behave offended when we question it. Assholes.
5. Christianity is intolerant
I could have padded this out listing homophobia, sexism, and the plain hysterical nature (especially in the USA) of being victimised.
There is no doubt however, throughout its history that Christianity has been homophobic and sexist. In itself, this is understandable in light of the times in which it was written, however, once you stamp it down as the true™ word of God, it is perpetrated far further that it should have been.
In modern times especially, the USA is particularly hilarious in having the gall to thrust christianity down each and every persons throat, and when one person objects, ... its the CHRISTIANS who are being victimised.
How the hell does 87% of a country get victimised anyway? That's merely minority dissent, but goddamn, will you stamp down on the minority who dares to have a different opinion.
6. Christianity is anti-knowledge
By irrationally asserting that God IS knowledge, you deny the search for truth.
At the risk of building a strawman, the christian rights objection to something like evolution is a prime example.
We didn't fucking invent evolution to prove your bible wrong, even Darwin didn't consider his theory of natural selection as some kind of anti-theist propaganda... it just makes sense in light of the evidence provided.
The real issue, is that it contradicts what "knowledge" the bible gives, and therefore MUST be wrong.
Seriously, if ALL the evidence points towards a natural scientific reality, in contradiction to your faith. You should re-think your faith, because the natural world is not for changing.
Christianity stymied the advance of religion relentlessly over the centuries, from the fall of the roman empire, hundreds of years passed with little scientific innovation.
7. Christianity sanctioned slavery
Not only does the bible actively endorse slavery, the actual infliction of slavery upon Africa, the Americas was entirely Christian. The irony is not lost on me that one of the first ships to carry slaves to the "new world" was called.. wait for it.. the Good Ship Jesus.
That's not entirely fair thou, lots of people are called Jesus, but that's still can't be too heartwarming.
Don't worry, the no true scotsman fallacy is easily invoked. It was indeed a small, and vilified group of Christian who helped remove slavery.
Keep that in mind.. a small.. and vilified group... opposing slavery.
8. Christianity's perversion of Evil
We've seen recently, some interpretations of Evil as merely "against God's will" which forgives a multitude of horrors, but beyond this thought, is an age old history of blindness to the real evils of needless pain and suffering, whilst Christians instead focus on imaginary evils.
I need not spend too much time on this;
But if you are more concerned with biblical thinking on Gays in the military, rather than the violence and murder for unsubstantiated reasons by the governing body behind that same military force... you are FUCKED.. IN... THE... HEAD.
This isn't recent, Christianity has ALWAYS done this, "Don't worry about us covering up the buggering of little boys, what you SHOULD be concerned about is someone leaking documents from our church! How Sinful!"
When your religion spends more time hunting down and persecuting minorities based on biblical thinking, than trying to help social evils such as poverty.. your religion is also.. fucked .. in ... the .. head.
Anyway... this is just a quick friendly list of a few things that I find.. quite irritating.
There's plenty more, and little time, and frankly, recovering from a sickness bug, I would hate to get rude and 'intolerant' about it.
I don't have many objections to christianity you see, its just the ever so slightly annoying aspects of cruelty, misogynistic, homophobic, anti-intellectualism, slavery sanctioning, unreliability, lack of historicity, contradictory, plagiarism of other faiths, unhealthy preoccupation with sex, transplantation of imaginary evil to hide genuine evil, egocentricity, authoritarianism, dishonesty, fear-mongering, innocent abusing, and arrogance that gets me down a little.
I have a just one or two niggling little issues, its not much, and I don't wish to impose, but just one or two minor, titchy criticisms. By no means held to purely the christian religion, and certainly doesn't apply to all adherents, but the religion at its base encompasses all these things.
1. Christians like to pretend they are a dominant religion.
Its bullshit. The second one sect does something utterly christian, like a bit of bigotry, sexism, bugger some boys, manslaughter or one of a hundred different immoral actions, the no true scotsman fallacy gets whipped out so fast your head spins for half an hour.
They're christian enough for you when you want to skew the statistics, but most of the time.. not christian enough.. hypocrisy at its basest level.
I thought I'd start with this one, since most christians go through a list like this shaking their head full of this fallacy, so I want you to admit right now at the start... YOUR christianity, is probably quite a small religion in itself until you start skewing those numbers by reincluding the "not christian" faiths you previously dismissed for their behaviour.
2. Christianity preys on the innocent
Indoctrination of the foulest kind, historically through missionary work (read the bible and declare your faith or you starve little african boy!), american "hell" depictions to young children, terrifying them so much when a friend dies who wasn't christian, they torture themselves with the concept this person is burning in eternal flame.
Don't even get me started on the Catholics...
3. Christianity breeds a egocentric 'chosen' mentality.
Smug superiority based on an irrational belief chosen by the fact, that in the majority of cases, you simply fell over into the nearest and most popular religion going, perpetrated by said "preying (praying..) on the innocent".
This in itself would only be mildly irritating, if it weren't for the same superiority which gives itself to murder and mayhem on the basis of this superiority complex. Through Crusades, Northern Ireland, even small scale conflicts such as threatening to rape and kill a young girl because she wanted a prayer banner taken down in line with the law.
4. Your religious text is bullshit.. and even your scholars agree
Breathe, breathe, you probably choked a bit.
If the historicity of the bible could be proven, including the miracles, and wacky bits, there would be very few non-christians in the world.
When even a group of distinguished scholars(Jesus Seminar, 1985), embarked on a quest to identify how much of the new testament was accurate, could only decide on 18% of the five gospels.
This you would have us believe.. is the absolute truth, and then behave offended when we question it. Assholes.
5. Christianity is intolerant
I could have padded this out listing homophobia, sexism, and the plain hysterical nature (especially in the USA) of being victimised.
There is no doubt however, throughout its history that Christianity has been homophobic and sexist. In itself, this is understandable in light of the times in which it was written, however, once you stamp it down as the true™ word of God, it is perpetrated far further that it should have been.
In modern times especially, the USA is particularly hilarious in having the gall to thrust christianity down each and every persons throat, and when one person objects, ... its the CHRISTIANS who are being victimised.
How the hell does 87% of a country get victimised anyway? That's merely minority dissent, but goddamn, will you stamp down on the minority who dares to have a different opinion.
6. Christianity is anti-knowledge
By irrationally asserting that God IS knowledge, you deny the search for truth.
At the risk of building a strawman, the christian rights objection to something like evolution is a prime example.
We didn't fucking invent evolution to prove your bible wrong, even Darwin didn't consider his theory of natural selection as some kind of anti-theist propaganda... it just makes sense in light of the evidence provided.
The real issue, is that it contradicts what "knowledge" the bible gives, and therefore MUST be wrong.
Seriously, if ALL the evidence points towards a natural scientific reality, in contradiction to your faith. You should re-think your faith, because the natural world is not for changing.
Christianity stymied the advance of religion relentlessly over the centuries, from the fall of the roman empire, hundreds of years passed with little scientific innovation.
7. Christianity sanctioned slavery
Not only does the bible actively endorse slavery, the actual infliction of slavery upon Africa, the Americas was entirely Christian. The irony is not lost on me that one of the first ships to carry slaves to the "new world" was called.. wait for it.. the Good Ship Jesus.
That's not entirely fair thou, lots of people are called Jesus, but that's still can't be too heartwarming.
Don't worry, the no true scotsman fallacy is easily invoked. It was indeed a small, and vilified group of Christian who helped remove slavery.
Keep that in mind.. a small.. and vilified group... opposing slavery.
8. Christianity's perversion of Evil
We've seen recently, some interpretations of Evil as merely "against God's will" which forgives a multitude of horrors, but beyond this thought, is an age old history of blindness to the real evils of needless pain and suffering, whilst Christians instead focus on imaginary evils.
I need not spend too much time on this;
But if you are more concerned with biblical thinking on Gays in the military, rather than the violence and murder for unsubstantiated reasons by the governing body behind that same military force... you are FUCKED.. IN... THE... HEAD.
This isn't recent, Christianity has ALWAYS done this, "Don't worry about us covering up the buggering of little boys, what you SHOULD be concerned about is someone leaking documents from our church! How Sinful!"
When your religion spends more time hunting down and persecuting minorities based on biblical thinking, than trying to help social evils such as poverty.. your religion is also.. fucked .. in ... the .. head.
Anyway... this is just a quick friendly list of a few things that I find.. quite irritating.
There's plenty more, and little time, and frankly, recovering from a sickness bug, I would hate to get rude and 'intolerant' about it.
I don't have many objections to christianity you see, its just the ever so slightly annoying aspects of cruelty, misogynistic, homophobic, anti-intellectualism, slavery sanctioning, unreliability, lack of historicity, contradictory, plagiarism of other faiths, unhealthy preoccupation with sex, transplantation of imaginary evil to hide genuine evil, egocentricity, authoritarianism, dishonesty, fear-mongering, innocent abusing, and arrogance that gets me down a little.
Self-authenticating private evidence is useless, because it is indistinguishable from the illusion of it. ― Kel, Kelosophy Blog
If you’re going to watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo. That show was so cool because every time there’s a church with a ghoul, or a ghost in a school. They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The f**king janitor or the dude who runs the waterslide. Throughout history every mystery. Ever solved has turned out to be. Not Magic. ― Tim Minchin, Storm
If you’re going to watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo. That show was so cool because every time there’s a church with a ghoul, or a ghost in a school. They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The f**king janitor or the dude who runs the waterslide. Throughout history every mystery. Ever solved has turned out to be. Not Magic. ― Tim Minchin, Storm
