Welcome to Christian Agnostics, my blog about religion. I want to offer my insights, and ask for yours. I am a scientist who used to be a fundamentalist Christian. I have now been driven away from doctrinal Christianity, not just by the things that I have learned but by the evil behavior of millions of people who claim most fervent adherence to Christianity. This makes me an agnostic: I know nothing about what sort of God there may or may not be, and believe all the doctrines about heaven and hell to be mere figments of human imagination, created by religious leaders who used them to control the minds, hearts, and pocketbooks of other people. I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which recently mourned the death of Oral Roberts, whom many here consider to have been a great prophet of truth, but whom I consider to be a great manipulator of minds and a parasite upon people’s good intentions. In these blog entries, I will not attempt to conceal my rage against those who have used Christianity as a tool of oppression.
But I cannot believe that good and evil are merely arbitrary states. I do not believe that what is good is merely what natural selection has favored in the evolution of the human mind. I believe that what is good to the human conscience is also good for the entire cosmos. And that supreme goodness is love. In philosophical terms, I believe that love is a transcendent good, so called because it transcends beyond human circumstances. This, I believe, is the fundamental truth of Christianity. The Apostle John said, “Love one another…He who loves is born of God and knows God, he who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” This makes my agnosticism Christian. I am taking a step that conventional Christians do not take: I claim not that God is love, but that love is God. There may be nothing more to God than the transcendence of love. But that is a pretty important thing, isn’t it? In these blog entries, I will not attempt to conceal my enthusiasm for the insights and example of the man called Jesus of Nazareth whose followers felt obligated (since humans are religious animals) to call the Christ.
Join with me, and share your insights, as I begin the new year and the new decade by proclaiming that an agnostic can have something to live for: love.
Hi Stan, I agree with so many of your points, the most important one for me being, "love is God." To me that says it all. I've believed that in my heart and soul since my earliest memories, which is probably why I felt very conflicted growing up in a fundamental church that preached hell, fire, and brimstone (as you did) on one hand, God's grace on the other...and Jesus somewhere in the middle. Reconciling my "internal civil war" has been a very long journey, which is still a journey of faith, BTW! What can we *really* know, absolutely? In many ways, even *science* is based on faith, isn't it? Over the last several years I've been wondering why God doesn't interfere or intervene more in human life, especially with regard to injustice and abuse. The clichés "what goes around, comes around," or "that person will get his/her just desserts in the end," tends to offer temporary emotional relief, but still doesn't really answer the question. For years I told myself that God doesn't interfere because natural, universal law would not permit it...if natural law were to be suspended for one person, then another, and another, and so one (because how could God choose one person's injustice over another?), there wouldn't be any natural, universal laws, right? Our natural laws (like gravity for instance) as we know them would be continuously in a state of flux. However, that reasoning seems creepily similar to the worn out excuse I really hate: "Well, if we did *it* (fill in the blank) for one person, we'd have to do it for everyone!" So, now that I don't believe that line of reasoning as much, though it may be logically true, I'm entertaining the idea that perhaps God *accepts* our free will choices...(yeh, that's new??)...without judgment!! But wait! If God did that, what happens to "judgment day"? What happens to the concept of "hell"? Have we just removed the power to control the masses? What does that say about morality, ethics, etc.? If we throw out the possibility that God can judge and condemn us to hell, does that mean we also throw out teaching morality and ethics or being moral and ethical? I personally don't think so. But society could make those choices as a group eventually...or has that already been our history? Are we moving *up* the spiral of ethics, morality, and love? I'd like to believe so. Which motivates me to believe more in *love is God* versus *God is love* (although I do believe the latter is true too). I think as a society in general we've learned that our positive choices in life lead to peace, calmness, fulfillment...as we know them. However, after working for a little while in forensic psychology, I've also learned that for some, peace, calmness, fulfillment may be felt as a result of behavior we *normal* people would call *sick." Which again is partly what motivates me to believe *love is God,* and that God's compassion and omniscience would make judgment impossible. But what if God did judge...what if God does have an opinion about what we do here on earth? Would God's compassion and understanding rule out consequences?
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ReplyDeleteWhat if *all* our consequences, negative and positive (Hell and Heaven), are experienced right here on earth? And, because of all the suffering we go through here because of our choices and lack of perfection (lack of being able to give or be perfect love)...what if *Heaven* is something we will *all* experience no matter what...as a *reward* literally for *living through Hell on earth*? When I look at the great teachers of the world...Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Gandhi, MLK, The Dali Lama, and others, all seem to place great emphasis on peace and love...many to the extent of being murdered for their stand. What would be worse...condemning a person to hell for eternity (whatever that really means), or...during a life review, that *wicked* person (in our judgment) really, fully, and completely understood/felt the consequences of their behavior during life, and his/her soul grew in that understanding so that he/she would not engage in that behavior ever again? But...a sociopath doesn't have the ability to feel guilt, etc.? Maybe after he/she crosses over, he/she does...