Hard Hearts. Closed Minds. Locked Doors

The Methodist Church needs a motto Change.  Open Hearts.  Open Minds.  Open Doors.  Bullshit.  The Methodist Church just voted to ban LGBT marriages and clergy. 

Time for a new motto:  Hard Hearts.  Closed Minds.  Locked Doors.

I’m done.  I am officially pulling out of the local Methodist Church.  I will no longer give money to such a shallow, hateful place.  This vote reflects all that is wrong with the conservative movement in the US.  It is mean, hateful, and divisive.  Unless one is lucky enough to choose Methodist approval for one’s source of sexual arousal one may not be a full participant in the church.  That is just wrong for a group who claims Christianity and illustrates the growing threat of religious fundamentalism in the US and the world. 

Not that Jesus even speaks to the issue of LGBTQ.  Only Paul addresses the issue and at best Paul is thinking like other Bronze Age thinkers ignorant of psychology, biology and science in general.  This is the same Paul who condones slavery.  The very thought that something written 2,000 years ago should be literally followed today is total nonsense.  The Bible was written by men, not God.  The Bible was not meant to be a scientific book, a sociological book, a psychological book, or even a history book.  To take it as such is pure ignorance and a rejection of all that we have learned through science.  Methodists who support this position should be required to surrender their cell phones, computers, microwaves and all modern medicine.

So sad in a world that so desperately needs inclusion and love that a major church rejected the opportunity to model such.  I’m done.

The Problem of Discussing God with Christians

I feel no need to convert Christians to atheists, though I do believe if they could really take out their faith and look at it they would abandon the notion of a god, and I am willing to provide prompts for Christians to engage in that sort of self-examination.  What I have learned, however, is that Christians really do not want to talk about whether there is a god or not.  They so desperately want to believe in such a supernatural being that even the first tentative step toward logic can end the discussion.  I have wondered why.

Belief is such a powerful state of mind that even confronted again and again with evidence to the contrary believers will hold on to their beliefs.  We have seen this phenomenon historically as Copernicus declared that the earth orbited the sun and had the evidence to prove it.  Did not matter.  He was tortured.  We have seen it when archaeologists declared the earth to be about 4.5 billion years old and believers opened a museum depicting dinosaurs and men sharing the planet at the same time.  Believers will go to great lengths to hold on to their beliefs.

I suspect there is great fear and possible great pain that accompanies actually accepting something that is contrary to a previous belief.  As a preacher’s son I grew up in the church and when in my 60’s I began to question the existence of a god I found it very painful and very scary.  I also found it shaming.  Have I really been talking to an imaginary friend all this time?  Have I really given that much money to a group that makes stuff up?  Am I really willing to lose friends because I now know what I did not know before?  How about the alienation of family members?  Wouldn’t it be easier to just keep my mouth shut and pretend?

But I also suspect there is something deeper going on here.  Christians talk about never being alone, god is on their side, he is always with them, he wants the best for them, all things are possible with him, etc., etc.  Even though I know all that is poppycock and balderdash it must be incredibly comforting to humans who fear actually living a life alone within the boundaries of their brains and accepting events as natural phenomenon rather than a grand plan.  And for some it must be terrifying to know that death is death, you die and you are done.  I am no longer afraid of being alone or of dying and feel kind of silly that I thought there was some being who was in here with me and that I would somehow have consciousness beyond life.  Yes, we made god in our own image and fashioned him to meet our needs.

This fear, this need for security, is so great that pondering an alternative is impossible for many.  Accepting that death is final must be equally scary.  I have no desire for heaven because it appears to me that if there was such a place all the things I’d want to do would violate the rules, and I have no fear of hell because I know there is no such place, no GPS coordinates, no parallel dimension that houses billions of specters without form or substance.  How does one punish a being with no corporeal body?  At any rate, I quit.  I have given up offering my prompts for discussion or even hinting that there is no god.  Should someone ever ask I will be delighted to explain a host of reasons why I know there is no god.  Until then, I will seek to tolerate those who believe they have spoken with this being and that he has told them they are right. 

There are few things worse than a human who believes he or she has a god’s blessing.  With that belief people feel empowered to commit the most heinous acts against each other.  It would not be so bad if Christians really made an effort to follow the guidelines for living established in the New Testament, but they do not.  I hear no Christians in this neck of the woods arguing for open borders because we are to welcome the stranger, or arguing that there are better ways to spend billions of dollars when people are hungry, homeless and without medical insurance.  Not happening, so the hypocrisy of Christianity continues.

But if you want to know that Christians will banish you to their hell just point out any of the above.  It seems to be impossible to discuss god with Christians so I should just quit trying.

And yet, sharing truth in the face of false beliefs is a human imperative or we will never advance.  If the best we can be lies in the past and in false beliefs then when we kill ourselves by destroying the environment of the only planet where we can live, or an asteroid hits us, or the Yellowstone volcano erupts, I wonder if believers will have a quick insight that if human extinction is part of their god’s plan what is the point of worship and belief?

But it is pointless to point that out to believers.  And that is the problem.