Monday, May 9, 2011
The Church as a Corporation - Part 3
The message of the church is not primarily led by the truth, but by its paying members. For the church to survive, the message need not agree with truth at all, it must agree with the church’s paying members. Truthful messages are not nearly as monetarily profitable as agreeable/popular messages. Quite the opposite, truthful messages can be quite offensive and repellent. The churches that are very monetarily successful have done a great job tailoring to what people want to hear, thereby attracting lots of people. People dislike having their strongly held views called into question, so they attend and fund agreeable churches that affirm their existing views. In their mind they’re going to hear the truth, but in reality they’re going to hear a message that they themselves are dictating with their funding. They go to church to hear themselves. The strong tendency of catering toward one’s sponsors is why the government has laws limiting campaign contributions and gifts to the government. But the church has no other way of surviving, so it must please its sponsors.
The Church as a Corporation - Part 2
Why do churches exist? Wherever society has a need, there’s an opportunity to earn a living by meeting that need. Where there is an opportunity to earn a living, inevitably somebody will discover and seize it. Mankind’s instinct to survive and prosper causes us to search out every conceivable niche. We can’t all survive doing the same job, so we’re forced to find new creative ways to earn a living. If a living can be made by selling fruit, designing webpages, moving furniture, being a pirate, poaching dolphins, asbestos removal, fortune-telling, kidnapping, chasing cars with Windex bottles, prostitution, dancing in the street, someone will do it!
One of mankind’s deepest needs is for truth and meaning. People have been seizing this opportunity for all recorded history. Churches exist because it is possible to make a living by selling purported “truth” and meaning. My point is not that all churches therefore teach lies, but that church existence and survival has nothing to do with being actually true or backed by God; if it did then only the true church would have survived. Because of the need for truth and meaning, a great number of people earn their livings by selling a great number of wildly different religious products.
The same is the case for any other need, like physical fitness; because of the need for fitness, a great number of people earn their livings by selling a great number of wildly different weight-loss products. Each seller wants you to believe you are overweight and unhappy, they have a superior weight-loss product, and you can’t afford not to purchase it. The pastor/priest wants you to believe you are lost and unfulfilled, he has the truth you need, and rejecting his product is equivalent to rejecting God. Usually the pastor genuinely believes these things however; he’s not intentionally trying to deceive people. Most pastors simply hold wrong beliefs, as is the case for any Mormon, Muslim, JW, Hindu, or Scientologist pastor, etc, the list is quite long. Non-Christians add Christian to the list, and exclude their own religion from the list.
Pastors are also aware of the economic forces surrounding their careers, but they maintain faith that their God is the real ultimate force driving their church. Earlier in life they were sold a religious product, and later they went on to sell some form of that religious product. Someone will buy their product, and go on to sell their own version. The career seats will continue to be filled in the name of God, but economics is the real force keeping pastors in a job. Churches exist because it is possible to make a living by selling purported truth and meaning. Rejecting the church is not rejecting God, it’s simply choosing not to purchase a product someone is trying to sell you.
One of mankind’s deepest needs is for truth and meaning. People have been seizing this opportunity for all recorded history. Churches exist because it is possible to make a living by selling purported “truth” and meaning. My point is not that all churches therefore teach lies, but that church existence and survival has nothing to do with being actually true or backed by God; if it did then only the true church would have survived. Because of the need for truth and meaning, a great number of people earn their livings by selling a great number of wildly different religious products.
The same is the case for any other need, like physical fitness; because of the need for fitness, a great number of people earn their livings by selling a great number of wildly different weight-loss products. Each seller wants you to believe you are overweight and unhappy, they have a superior weight-loss product, and you can’t afford not to purchase it. The pastor/priest wants you to believe you are lost and unfulfilled, he has the truth you need, and rejecting his product is equivalent to rejecting God. Usually the pastor genuinely believes these things however; he’s not intentionally trying to deceive people. Most pastors simply hold wrong beliefs, as is the case for any Mormon, Muslim, JW, Hindu, or Scientologist pastor, etc, the list is quite long. Non-Christians add Christian to the list, and exclude their own religion from the list.
Pastors are also aware of the economic forces surrounding their careers, but they maintain faith that their God is the real ultimate force driving their church. Earlier in life they were sold a religious product, and later they went on to sell some form of that religious product. Someone will buy their product, and go on to sell their own version. The career seats will continue to be filled in the name of God, but economics is the real force keeping pastors in a job. Churches exist because it is possible to make a living by selling purported truth and meaning. Rejecting the church is not rejecting God, it’s simply choosing not to purchase a product someone is trying to sell you.
The Church as a Corporation - Part 1
Sometimes it’s easy to be mesmerized by the size, beauty, and organization of the Christian church. Some of the larger churches are so beautiful, and have so many cheerful Christians performing various different functions within, and everyone professing a love for Jesus Christ. In those moments, it’s difficult to imagine how it could have come about without the provision of God. However, I’m similarly mesmerized by large corporations, including the one I work for. I walk around the numerous test labs in awe of all the fancy electronics and systems that somebody designed and manufactured. I see tons of paperwork, tons of revenue, huge buildings, industry strategy, and it’s hard to understand how it could have ever come to be. I could never build a corporation like that on my own, nobody could. I realized that this big complex corporation was the result of many small efforts from hundreds of individuals over a long period of time. That helps me understand how the church and its beliefs grew to be so big and complex. The Christian institutions have developed much like giant corporations, the result of millions of individual efforts over thousands of years. I don’t need God to explain the size of Christianity any more than I need God to explain Samsung.
God vs. Man's Definitions of God
Man’s definitions of God are simply that: man’s definitions. God has not handed mankind a definition of himself *, rather definitions of God all originate from people like you and I. When a person attempts to define God, he usually does so based on what he feels God would be like. It was critical for me to realize that the definition of God I grew up with was the random result of the people I happened to grow up with, and growing up with different people would have likely meant a different definition of God. Since my definition of God was created by people and was a random inheritance, I realized that I currently had no reason to view other’s definitions as less valid.
* Christians might argue that God has handed us a definition, the Bible. But it is men whose hands wrote the Bible and men who claimed God inspired the words. It is a matter of Faith to believe man’s claim that God inspired the words, but nonetheless the Bible comes to us from men and is endorsed by men.
I realized that a true search for the most valid definition of God mustn’t be confined within randomly inherited boundaries. In searching I quickly discovered there are innumerable schools of thought, not enough time to study even 1% of what’s out there, and no way to absolutely know which is most valid. Regardless of how much searching I do, any conclusions I reach will simply be my best guess, improvable and debatable, heavily influenced by what I’m exposed to and what resonates with me at various times. Ultimately, the definition of God I arrive at will be, as with my upbringing, random. I will escape randomness only to return to randomness. The difference is that this new view will be very personalized for myself, and will sit well with me instead of causing anguish.
* Christians might argue that God has handed us a definition, the Bible. But it is men whose hands wrote the Bible and men who claimed God inspired the words. It is a matter of Faith to believe man’s claim that God inspired the words, but nonetheless the Bible comes to us from men and is endorsed by men.
I realized that a true search for the most valid definition of God mustn’t be confined within randomly inherited boundaries. In searching I quickly discovered there are innumerable schools of thought, not enough time to study even 1% of what’s out there, and no way to absolutely know which is most valid. Regardless of how much searching I do, any conclusions I reach will simply be my best guess, improvable and debatable, heavily influenced by what I’m exposed to and what resonates with me at various times. Ultimately, the definition of God I arrive at will be, as with my upbringing, random. I will escape randomness only to return to randomness. The difference is that this new view will be very personalized for myself, and will sit well with me instead of causing anguish.
Written Aug '10 - Negative Effects of Christianity on Me
I understand that many Christians do not feel affected in these ways, but the following is a list of ways I've felt adversely affected by Christianity:
• Psychological captivity: having a mind chained down by man’s claims, difficulty thinking outside of those claims, unable/afraid to take back control of your own mind.
• Feeling spiritually deficient: “My lack of closeness to God is my fault.” “I can’t seem to be an effective light to the world like I should be.” “I’m still not sure what my spiritual gifts are.”
• Feeling spiritually confused: “I don’t understand what God’s trying to tell me. I’m just so pathetic at understanding God’s perfect wisdom.”
• Trying to make divine sense out of situations that simply aren’t supposed to make sense.
• Relying on a being that doesn’t exist.
• Making decisions based on what you think a non-existent being wants you to do.
• Time and emotional energy wasted in prayer.
• Tons of money and energy wasted on spreading false beliefs instead of providing real help to people in need.
• Wearing masks: social pressure to uphold the strong Christian image.
• Superiority complex: “I have everyone’s solution. I’m right. They’re all lost and hell-bound. By God’s authorization I speak boldly with knowledge of the absolute truth.”
• Judgmental complex. It may not be what Jesus taught, but it’s what belief in Jesus often produces in people.
• Unhealthy views of sex. Glorification of sex: viewing sex as eternal bond, as giving a piece of your soul which you can’t get back. Viewing non-virgin singles as damaged and less suitable. Criminalization of sex: viewing other’s sex as immoral when their circumstances don’t fit your beliefs.
• Alienation from our own world. “This world is not my home. In the world but not of the world. I’m just passing through.”
• Deemphasizing/devaluing our only life over false expectations of an afterlife. “God has something better in store for us if we devote this life to Jesus.”
• Pressure to never deny your (false) beliefs even when threatened at gunpoint.
• Abandoning the search for real answers.
• Inability to comprehend meaning and moral basis outside of your own.
• Inability to cherish that someone else has found meaning and happiness if it doesn’t align with your beliefs.
• Adopting an external value system instead of building robust internal values.
• Holding your relationship with a non-existent being as more important than your relationships with your family and friends.
• Believing you are worthless and defiled on your own, only redeemed and given value by Jesus.
• Psychological captivity: having a mind chained down by man’s claims, difficulty thinking outside of those claims, unable/afraid to take back control of your own mind.
• Feeling spiritually deficient: “My lack of closeness to God is my fault.” “I can’t seem to be an effective light to the world like I should be.” “I’m still not sure what my spiritual gifts are.”
• Feeling spiritually confused: “I don’t understand what God’s trying to tell me. I’m just so pathetic at understanding God’s perfect wisdom.”
• Trying to make divine sense out of situations that simply aren’t supposed to make sense.
• Relying on a being that doesn’t exist.
• Making decisions based on what you think a non-existent being wants you to do.
• Time and emotional energy wasted in prayer.
• Tons of money and energy wasted on spreading false beliefs instead of providing real help to people in need.
• Wearing masks: social pressure to uphold the strong Christian image.
• Superiority complex: “I have everyone’s solution. I’m right. They’re all lost and hell-bound. By God’s authorization I speak boldly with knowledge of the absolute truth.”
• Judgmental complex. It may not be what Jesus taught, but it’s what belief in Jesus often produces in people.
• Unhealthy views of sex. Glorification of sex: viewing sex as eternal bond, as giving a piece of your soul which you can’t get back. Viewing non-virgin singles as damaged and less suitable. Criminalization of sex: viewing other’s sex as immoral when their circumstances don’t fit your beliefs.
• Alienation from our own world. “This world is not my home. In the world but not of the world. I’m just passing through.”
• Deemphasizing/devaluing our only life over false expectations of an afterlife. “God has something better in store for us if we devote this life to Jesus.”
• Pressure to never deny your (false) beliefs even when threatened at gunpoint.
• Abandoning the search for real answers.
• Inability to comprehend meaning and moral basis outside of your own.
• Inability to cherish that someone else has found meaning and happiness if it doesn’t align with your beliefs.
• Adopting an external value system instead of building robust internal values.
• Holding your relationship with a non-existent being as more important than your relationships with your family and friends.
• Believing you are worthless and defiled on your own, only redeemed and given value by Jesus.
Written Mar '10: Where I'm at
It's been over 1 year since I started to question Christianity. I wrote a list of my concerns with Christianity, to which I could have added much more by now. In fact, there seems to be no end to the concerns we could come up with. Every different angle of approaching Christianity produces new concerns, which is why I often try not to think about it.
While I’d much prefer Christianity to just be absolutely true, that claim would be a denial of my actual thoughts, and not an honest internal reflection. I’ll state my honest assessment of Christianity here.
Christian apologists speak of the hole in our hearts that needs to be filled. I think this hole is our basic question, “why are we here?” While most everybody has this hole, virtually nobody has the capacity to figure it out on their own, and relatively few have the capacity/energy to try to figure it out. To rephrase: everybody wants the answer, nobody is capable of determining the answer, and very few have the energy to try. So we have masses of people prone to accepting a sufficient answer. This is why the world is a petri dish of religions. When a person is presented with a popular idea that an all-powerful God has specifically placed them here for a purpose, their basic question is answered to a level of sufficiency which they’re not prone to compete with. While they’ll probably spend the rest of their life feeling a little confused and spiritually deficient, they’ll be able to insist they are here for a purpose when that basic question arises. Whether or not their answer is true, it suffices for them. But their answer, unless true, is actually just an escape from several issues: we may not be able to know the truth, there may be no cosmic purpose to our existence, there may be no cosmic moral authority upon which to base our choices, sometimes there may be no hope, and death may be the end. I currently view Christianity as the best form of escapism we have. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since we are escaping issues which we have no other solution to, issues which most of us understandably don’t wish to face.
Regarding the issue of cosmic moral authority, the masses generally need authoritative rules, as we often can’t otherwise muster the motivation to behave morally. Christianity provides a sufficient set of rules, and claims unquestionable authority from God. This provides moral motivation for many people who were unable to find it elsewhere, or who never really looked. Aside from demanding agreement to a list of doctrines such as the trinity and virgin birth, and the shattered hopes that can arise from thinking that Jesus literally exists today (albeit invisibly and silently) and wants to help, the general love-oriented moral teachings of Christianity present a good way to live.
Based on a better understanding of why Christianity is so important to many people I care about, and the realization that my whole life is intertwined in Christianity (wife, family, friends), I’ve decided that I shouldn’t leave Christianity. I have to stay with it in some form, else my life will be torn apart. The ramifications of not sharing Christianity with my wife and family are very dismal. I believe that differing worldviews accounts for much of the walls and hatred in the world. While leaving Christianity might tear down some walls between me and the world, it would create walls within my Christianity-soaked life. I’m much better off emphasizing areas of agreement between my worldview and that of my wife, family and friends. For example, Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord, and the second is to love your neighbor. I completely agree with the second commandment, which presents a strong common ground.
One thing appears certain to me, Christianity (like all religions) might be false. Most Christians would naturally hesitate to agree with this, yet will likely concede that you cannot prove Christianity is true. Well if you can’t prove something’s true then there’s a possibility it’s false. But I’m not just talking about a remote possibility that Christianity is false, to me it appears there’s a fair likelihood. With the perspective that Christianity might be false, it’s difficult to be passionate about it, or honestly witness to people.
While I’d much prefer Christianity to just be absolutely true, that claim would be a denial of my actual thoughts, and not an honest internal reflection. I’ll state my honest assessment of Christianity here.
Christian apologists speak of the hole in our hearts that needs to be filled. I think this hole is our basic question, “why are we here?” While most everybody has this hole, virtually nobody has the capacity to figure it out on their own, and relatively few have the capacity/energy to try to figure it out. To rephrase: everybody wants the answer, nobody is capable of determining the answer, and very few have the energy to try. So we have masses of people prone to accepting a sufficient answer. This is why the world is a petri dish of religions. When a person is presented with a popular idea that an all-powerful God has specifically placed them here for a purpose, their basic question is answered to a level of sufficiency which they’re not prone to compete with. While they’ll probably spend the rest of their life feeling a little confused and spiritually deficient, they’ll be able to insist they are here for a purpose when that basic question arises. Whether or not their answer is true, it suffices for them. But their answer, unless true, is actually just an escape from several issues: we may not be able to know the truth, there may be no cosmic purpose to our existence, there may be no cosmic moral authority upon which to base our choices, sometimes there may be no hope, and death may be the end. I currently view Christianity as the best form of escapism we have. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since we are escaping issues which we have no other solution to, issues which most of us understandably don’t wish to face.
Regarding the issue of cosmic moral authority, the masses generally need authoritative rules, as we often can’t otherwise muster the motivation to behave morally. Christianity provides a sufficient set of rules, and claims unquestionable authority from God. This provides moral motivation for many people who were unable to find it elsewhere, or who never really looked. Aside from demanding agreement to a list of doctrines such as the trinity and virgin birth, and the shattered hopes that can arise from thinking that Jesus literally exists today (albeit invisibly and silently) and wants to help, the general love-oriented moral teachings of Christianity present a good way to live.
Based on a better understanding of why Christianity is so important to many people I care about, and the realization that my whole life is intertwined in Christianity (wife, family, friends), I’ve decided that I shouldn’t leave Christianity. I have to stay with it in some form, else my life will be torn apart. The ramifications of not sharing Christianity with my wife and family are very dismal. I believe that differing worldviews accounts for much of the walls and hatred in the world. While leaving Christianity might tear down some walls between me and the world, it would create walls within my Christianity-soaked life. I’m much better off emphasizing areas of agreement between my worldview and that of my wife, family and friends. For example, Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord, and the second is to love your neighbor. I completely agree with the second commandment, which presents a strong common ground.
One thing appears certain to me, Christianity (like all religions) might be false. Most Christians would naturally hesitate to agree with this, yet will likely concede that you cannot prove Christianity is true. Well if you can’t prove something’s true then there’s a possibility it’s false. But I’m not just talking about a remote possibility that Christianity is false, to me it appears there’s a fair likelihood. With the perspective that Christianity might be false, it’s difficult to be passionate about it, or honestly witness to people.
Written Mar '10: Evil, Free Will, Robots, Heaven
The main Christian solution to the problem of evil is that God didn’t want robotic worshippers so he created humans with free will. We humans made poor decisions under Satan’s temptation, so God is not responsible for what his creation does. I’ll put aside the counterpoints of omniscience and omnipotence to address the free-will/robot argument directly. The robot argument does not come from the Bible but is a later invention by people who’ve tried to logically know God’s mind (the same people who’ll say you can’t logically know God’s mind). But is the free-will/robot argument actually a fair Biblical implication? The Bible is cover-to-cover exceptions to that argument. From Cain’s curse to Paul’s vision of Jesus, the Bible is a book about God’s interactions with man, interactions which all violate the free-will/robot argument. In order to support the free-will/robot argument, it is necessary to explain why the argument didn’t apply during Bible times. I know of no reasonable explanation, which renders the free-will/robot argument quite crumbly by Biblical standards alone.
How is it that there will be no sin in Heaven? If God doesn’t want robotic worshippers, then I’m assuming God doesn’t strip us of our free will once we’re in Heaven, otherwise he’d end up with robotic worshippers anyway. If we have free will in Heaven, then can’t we choose to sin? What is going to prevent Heaven from turning out just like the Garden of Eden: God brings free-willed man into Eden, a sinless paradise intended for man to live in perfect harmony with God, but man utilizes free-will to disobey God once and Earth immediately plummets into chaos. The best response is that Satan and evil are banished from Heaven, so maybe there is absolutely no temptation and therefore no sin. But I have to give myself a reality check here by asking, “Am I incapable of making bad choices without help? Is all temptation from Satan?” I’m convinced the answer to both is no; I don’t need anyone’s help to screw up, and there exists situational temptation; life’s complex situations present me with plenty of tempting/difficult/morally-complex decisions without the need for Satan. As long as there are millions of separate free-wills coexisting in the same society, complex situations and imperfect decisions seem unavoidable. As soon as someone experiences a moment of jealousy over the jewels in someone else’s crown, Heaven will plummet into chaos. Either Heaven will be a repeat of Eden, or God does indeed ultimately want robotic worshippers in Heaven and the Christian solution to the problem of evil deteriorates.
How is it that there will be no sin in Heaven? If God doesn’t want robotic worshippers, then I’m assuming God doesn’t strip us of our free will once we’re in Heaven, otherwise he’d end up with robotic worshippers anyway. If we have free will in Heaven, then can’t we choose to sin? What is going to prevent Heaven from turning out just like the Garden of Eden: God brings free-willed man into Eden, a sinless paradise intended for man to live in perfect harmony with God, but man utilizes free-will to disobey God once and Earth immediately plummets into chaos. The best response is that Satan and evil are banished from Heaven, so maybe there is absolutely no temptation and therefore no sin. But I have to give myself a reality check here by asking, “Am I incapable of making bad choices without help? Is all temptation from Satan?” I’m convinced the answer to both is no; I don’t need anyone’s help to screw up, and there exists situational temptation; life’s complex situations present me with plenty of tempting/difficult/morally-complex decisions without the need for Satan. As long as there are millions of separate free-wills coexisting in the same society, complex situations and imperfect decisions seem unavoidable. As soon as someone experiences a moment of jealousy over the jewels in someone else’s crown, Heaven will plummet into chaos. Either Heaven will be a repeat of Eden, or God does indeed ultimately want robotic worshippers in Heaven and the Christian solution to the problem of evil deteriorates.
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