The first comment to my last blog post was spot-on. So much so that I wanted to write more about the sadness of what my mother (and others) have done in the name of faith.
It is a well known fact that the Christian god cannot be proven, that one has to take him on faith. Christians say it all the time: We can't prove god but we feel him in our hearts, or some other nonsense that make little sense to those of us who take evidence seriously.
Now take me for instance. I'm provable. My mother gave birth to me on a dark late October night in San Diego in the early 1960's. She was there and knows I exist. I can be seen and touched and I respond in like. I'm not mysterious or invisible. Other people can attest to my existence. Signs of my existence are everywhere within my family and with friends and enemies. There is no doubt I exist. Ask my doubles partners.
So Christians, if you have shunned a non-believer in your family just because they are skeptical about faith and accept only reality and evidence then the shame is on you. Every time I think about how my mother, the woman who is supposed to love me unconditionally, shuns me just because I happen to think her god is non-existent, it makes me wonder about how wonderful this god belief really is. Sorry, but if I was in a similar situation, the god-belief would be gone. The love for my daughter would win every time.
But that's just me.
Side note: I may be an atheist but I'm not a monster. I'm a law-abiding, middle aged tennis fanatic. I have to watch what I eat because I gain weight easily. I hate to work out. I got a speeding ticket last week. I don't do drugs but like a glass of wine nightly. Sound like anyone you know? Yeah, I'm average too.
If you're a Christian and can't talk to your atheist relatives you need to get over yourself. Do it now before your relative doesn't give a shit anymore and it'll be too late.
Me? This has been going on for a long time. I finally don't give a shit.
13 comments:
So sad when families and friends stop being such because they believe in a magic book.
Well, lucky for me, I have never really been close to my family, and when it came out that I was atheist, nothing really changed dramatically.
I'm so sorry. No one should be treated in such a way no matter what they believe. Jesus tells us to love people no matter what for that is what He would do.
Karla, Jesus teaches that one should hate their family and love only him. Shunning is very much a Christian attribute. Many atheists and gay people suffer because of this intolerant dogma.
Summer Squirel Jesus said that if you say you love Him, but hate your brother you don't love Him or know Him at all and the truth isn't in you. He doesn't endorse hate at all. He said we are to honor our father and our mother.
Someone doing something that is out of God's order gives no cause to mistreat them. Jesus loved to hang out with the prostitutes and other outcasts of society. He was often ridiculed for doing so by the religious leaders whom he often rebuked for following the letter of the law, but not understanding the heart of God.
When the woman was caught in adultery and the people prepared to stone her Jesus stopped them and said that he who is without sin is the only one who can judge her. Then he who was without sin sent her on her way without judgment. He showed her love and mercy.
This is the Jesus I know and I follow.
Karla,
I'm not sure what part of Luke 14:26 you've chosen not to understand. It clearly says:
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
The Greek word used in that scripture translates to "hate." I looked it up.
Jesus supposedly said and did lots of things. Some of those things are moral in today's world but many are not. A good example is the fact that slavery in our society is immoral and we acknowledge that women have the same rights as men. That is not what Jesus or the bible teaches.
Many of the Christians in my family do not judge me but my mother does. The only reason she does it is because of the bible and because of Christianity.
summer,
It means by comparison. When you love God first and foremost you are enabled to love your family and yourself. It is because we need God's loving running through us so that we can love. If we don't go after that first and foremost our love will never be to it's fullest potential. That verse is not a license to treat anyone with contempt.
I John 4:20 says "If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen."
Scripture interprets Scripture. When we want to know what something means we have to look at in context of the other things taught.
It may very well be your mother's religion that keeps her from showing you the love she ought to. But it's not Jesus that keeps her from this, it's her understanding of God's love that keeps her from loving you like a mother ought to love. I am seeing time and again people who have 'religion' without really knowing God tangibly hurt people and they don't understand why, they think sincerely they are doing the right thing. I used to have some of this mentality. I got to know God better and found His heart. That is why I write so much about Him to others who have been hurt by religion. I want to help undue the damage. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I have such compassion for you and others like yourself. I just don't want to give up trying to show you God's love.
I share not to earn anything, but to give what has been given to me. Jesus said he would leave the 99 to go after the one that was lost. He was always going after the one who was the outcast, the one others had given up on. He pursued them. He enjoyed loving them.
summer,
It means by comparison. When you love God first and foremost you are enabled to love your family and yourself. It is because we need God's loving running through us so that we can love. If we don't go after that first and foremost our love will never be to it's fullest potential. That verse is not a license to treat anyone with contempt.
I John 4:20 says "If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen."
Scripture interprets Scripture. When we want to know what something means we have to look at in context of the other things taught.
It may very well be your mother's religion that keeps her from showing you the love she ought to. But it's not Jesus that keeps her from this, it's her understanding of God's love that keeps her from loving you like a mother ought to love. I am seeing time and again people who have 'religion' without really knowing God tangibly hurt people and they don't understand why, they think sincerely they are doing the right thing. I used to have some of this mentality. I got to know God better and found His heart. That is why I write so much about Him to others who have been hurt by religion. I want to help undue the damage. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I have such compassion for you and others like yourself. I just don't want to give up trying to show you God's love.
I share not to earn anything, but to give what has been given to me. Jesus said he would leave the 99 to go after the one that was lost. He was always going after the one who was the outcast, the one others had given up on. He pursued them. He enjoyed loving them.
Karla,
Nice try but the word is "hate" not "love." It's amazing to me how you (and others, like my Mom) can twist the scripture around to be warm and fuzzy. Sorry, but I'm not buying it.
Besides the bible isn't what you think it is. It is the same collection of out-dated morals and stories as is in other ancient holy books. It's a shame you and my mother look to this book of myths as a source of inspiration when there is so much more in the real world.
I have studied the origins of what is commonly known today as the bible and it isn't what you think it is. It is not divine and it is not moral.
Karla, if you came here to convert me you are wasting your time. The fact is the bible is just a collection of ancient texts and your god is imaginary. You have yet to prove the existence of such a powerful being to me.
I know the difference between reality and wishful thinking. It takes a certain amount of maturity to give up childish things.
I'm sorry you see it that way. I am just hear to let you know I care and that I am sorry Christians have been unkind to you.
I will never be able to understand why someone should feel sorry that I chose not to believe in an ancient mythological book or in an unproven god. I guess I should feel sorry that you don't believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, or the tooth fairy. It's all the same thing: make believe to help one feel better about the big, scary world.
Thanks for saying that you care, but why would you? I mean, really? Just because your Christian religion says that you should? How hollow is that?
Like I mentioned in my post: I don't care that my mother holds her invisible god in higher esteem than me. It's her right.
As much as I hate to pull out bible verses, here's another nice quote from sweet Jesus:
Matthew 10:34-37 (King James Version)
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Ugh, now I gotta go take a shower.
Hello Mrs Squirrel
"
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
The Greek word used in that scripture translates to "hate." I looked it up."
I'm sorry , but to do some serious contextual exegesis .
In Greco-Roman writings extreme language and hyperbole was often used to make a point
see
Poimandes 4:6:
If you do not hate your body first, O child, you will not be able to love yourself.
What the Greek people literally hated their own bodies!!
Spartan saying
"must count his own life his enemy for the honor of Sparta"
Spartans literally hated their own lives!!!
I think you get the point
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