Drive-By Thought of the Day

On my route today, I drove by a rather prosperous looking church. You know the kind. They have a message board by the road. Some of these are used to announce sermon topics or upcoming activities, like fish fries, Christmas pageants or book burnings. A lot of them, however, are used to harangue passerby with a Christian Thought of the Day.

The ubiquitousness of this practice leads me to believe that there is an extremely successful sign salesman somewhere with a free book of profound-sounding quotations, like 'Let Go or Let God.'

Today, the sign said, "The Greatest Evil is our Indifference towards Evil."

I gave this statement some careful though, as one is able to do when one has forty miles of rural interstate to drive and a broken XM radio.

This statement says a great deal about Christianity.

One reason is that the sign itself is symbolic of the Christian insistence on getting out in your face with their Righteousness. This is the building equivalent of a street preacher condemning passing strangers for their sins. This sign doesn't mean that this church has a problem with indifference to evil. It means that they think you do.

Well, actually, it means that you do, also.

Which brings us to the other things the sign tells us.

In Christianity, essentially everything human beings ever encounter, do, or think, is evil. This is inherent in the sinful nature of man and the world he lives in, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Devil, Inc.

It is impossible, therefore, not to be indifferent about some evil, making this sign's statement apply to everyone (based on the definitions of Christianity.)

That's all to the good, because for Christianity to work, everybody must be a sinner. Thoughts are as bad as deeds, ignorance is as bad as complicity, ommission is as bad as commission, and indifference is as bad as enthusiasm.

You cannot win because you aren't supposed to. It isn't allowed. Everybody has to need a savior.

This mindset is expressed in many directions by Christians of all types, be it the bizarre persecution complex held by many of this huge majority, or the "Hell-in-a-Handbasket" syndrome--the idea that things used to be so much better back whenever and if only we could do X, everything would be great again--or the desperate need to tell people that they need more Jesus, etc. All of this is about reinforcing the idea that all humans are unsalvageable scum who can only gain an undeserved happiness by doing what 'we' say. 'We' being whatever particular sect of Christianity is currently doing the telling.

This is often referred to as 'Christian Love' and it can annoy people. Not just atheists. For instance, Baptists don't enjoy poor deluded Mormons telling them they're wrong, any more than Mormons would like Baptists doing so.

Another aspect is "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin." This is about depersonifying actions. Its purpose is to let those doing the hating continue to hate without guilt. But it is impossible to separate persons from their actions. Those actions are literally all we know about other human beings, assuming words count as actions, which they must, really. Otherwise blasphemy wouldn't be a sin.
This aspect relates to the "Everybody's Evil" premise quite easily, because it permits the Christian to point out other peoples' evil to them while giving them a free pass on the sinful feelings of superiority this gives them.

Okay, by this point, I can hear some of you out there sharpening your mental pencils that I'm assaulting a straw man.

"Nonsense" you say, "I don't hold those beliefs and neither does my church or anyone I know. Atheists just don't understand Christianity."

Au Contaire.

Formerly Christian atheists--which are a lot of us-- understand it quite well. It is frequently the process of understanding it that made us atheists.

What's more, it is a failure to understand Christianity that keeps believers believing.

It isn't really that complicated. It's only considered to be complicated to prevent believers from actually understanding it. When you step outside the fold, you can finally see what it looks like.

You see, if you don't hold the beliefs I was attacking above and are a Christian, then you aren't doing it properly. Because those attitudes are Biblical. They are the natural and logical outgrowth of reading your Bible. If you don't have these beliefs, then you should, if you are a Christian.

The Bible, you see, is all Christianity has got.

That's it.

No Bible, no Christianity. There's nothing else to base it on. If you want to change what's in the religion, you either have to write a new one, like Joseph Smith, or...

Or you can develop theology.

Theology is the practice of using complex rationalizations to come to predesigned conclusions about religion. So if you want to hear that devoting your life to acquiring wealth is wrong, you can look in the Bible. If you want to hear that it is a holy calling, consult a theologian.

Here' an analogy: Take the following syllogism:

1) All Elephants are Pink.
2) Jesus is an Elephant.
3) Jesus is Pink.

A theological approach to these statements will generate centuries of violent arguments over what exactly constitutes an elephant. Theologians will burn each other at the stake over the definition of pink. Eventually, theology will conclude that emerald green is a form of 'pink' and that 'elephants' is a term that encompasses leeches, given proper interpretation.

They will never consider it noteworthy to address the fact that elephants are not pink, or that, in fact, the other two statements are also almost certainly false. It isn't what they are paid for. Nor is it of any significance that their interpretations are at odds with either the plain language involved or the actual beliefs held in regard to the statements. Their job is to create a space within an existing religious framework for people to believe whatever they want and still stay within the framework.

This is not to be confused with the work of apologists. While theologians tend to concern themselves with warping the first two statements, while apologists focus on explaining why the third statement must be true. The same lack of concern for reality applies, however.

This has gone on far too long and I still haven't made much of a point, have I?

The point is that atheists are probably in the very best position to understand exactly the message of Christianity, and we can't go outside out homes without getting splashed with it. It isn't very clean, either. It loathes the world we live in as evil and then exempts itself from criticism, even as it lives in the same world. And it takes every opportunity to go out of its way to express those concepts to all and sundry, all the while insisting that it should be running things.

Steve "That would annoy anyone." James