Message #8226 - HolySmoke
Date : 16-May-93 04:34
From : Sean McCullough
To : All *conferees*
Subject : Cynicism v. Christianity
Location: FidoNet's HOLYSMOKE Echo
Hail, HolySmokers!
One question which has occasionally arisen in our various
adventuring here on HolySmoke is: Why is it that [whoever] is so
hostile towards Christianity in general, and so-called "Bible-
believing" Christianity in particular.
This question has been exhaustively addressed by some of us
skeptico-cynics here in this Forum, especially Steve Rose, Steve
Quarrella, Fredric Rice, David Rice, Martin Goldberg, etc.
THIS line of inquiry has always ended up with the universe as
represented by the Bible being compared with the universe as
discovered by observation; and the latter, being based on
observable reality rather than blind unquestioning faith, always
ends up victorious. (Assertions of vindication of the Biblical
accounts arriving in some future time are NOT to be considered
significant here!)
At the same time, what we are hearing now in this tack of argument
is the same as what we have heard in this forum, over and over
again, before. All that changes is the name and writing style of
the poor fundamentalist idiot who was dumb enough to stumble into
the trap of trying to convert the educated amongst us THIS time.
Hence, I think it is fair to state that the line of inquiry
referred to above HAS in fact been exhausted.
Please be so kind as to allow me to address this issue of the
validity of Biblical religion and teaching from another angle.
Bible believing Christians, when faced with Atheists, Pagans,
Freethinkers, and others who are irreparably not of their ilk,
almost always ask: "What is it that drove you from the 'One True
Faith' ?? " First, this is a most arrogant statement, today heard
only in the United States of AmeriKKKa. In most of the rest of the
industrialized world, religion is no longer taken seriously by
much of ANYONE. In Great Britain, only about half the people
believe in God at all (Michael Wolff, , Bantam
Books, New York, 1992, ISBN 0-553-08199-5), and most Europeans and
Australians find it somehow sadly amusing that we Amerikkkans
permit religion to have any effect on our public policy making AT
ALL. (Ibid.) Furthermore, it is STILL an arrogant statement, even
so; how does one -- how CAN one -- know that a certain person
wasn't brought up, say, Jewish, or Muslim, or Hindu?
Further, even if we grant the fundamentalist this more-than-
arrogant assumption, and assume that, if a child is brought up as
an American, that this somehow implies that (s)he was also brought
up as a fundamentalist Protestant Christian; assuming that we *do*
in fact grant this solely for the sake of argument, we still face
the fact that in ever more cases, the Protestant upbringing isn't
"taking". And it is only fair that we ask, in more and more of
such cases, WHY it is that it isn't!
The answer isn't, as it turns out, hard to find.
One must look no further for it than the basic "facts of life"
about ANY/ religion. Specifically, that NO religion, regardless of
what it may teach, can long or healthily survive the loss of its
hold on the hearts and minds of its adherents; and that no
religion can long survive if it cannot duplicate this hold on the
hearts and minds of future generations as they arise.
With this in mind, let us consider the history of the
fundamentalistic Protestant religion for a moment.
The sects of the Protestant faith which teach Biblical inerrancy
are, none of them, very old at all. The TERM "fundamentalist" was
coined early in the twentieth century of the common era to
describe what were then the newest growth sects of Protestantism -
- those which taught that the Bible was inerrantly, word-for-word,
ironclad Truth. The sects in question were almost all American in
origin, also, deriving their major inspiration and doctrines from
John Wesley, founder of Methodism. In fact, most of the
fundamentalist sects were either various offshoots from Methodism
(Assembly of God, Church of God, Church of God in Christ, etc.),
offshoots from the European Anabaptist movements (Baptists of
various kinds), or brand-new movements entirely American in origin
(Pentecostals, Foursquare Gospel). These latter are an entirely
twentieth century phenomenon, arising from the preaching and
teachings of one Aimee Semple McPherson in the earliest years of
that century of the common era.
As humanity in general, and Americans in particular, became better
educated and more literate, they began to discover that the world
described by their religions, and by their Bibles, was NOT all
that there was "out there". The former unquestioned authority of
the Christian religion in general was also under siege from other
fronts as well. Science began making all manner of discoveries
both about humans themselves, and about the world in which they
live, which in no way whatsoever could be reconciled to the
literal wordings of the Bible. Social movements began demanding
that women have equal rights and powers to men -- categorically
denied by the Bible, which unequivocally taught that women were to
be the chattels of men all their lives, never to be allowed self
determination. The hideous atrocity of absolute indissoluble
marriage was now coming to be known in public, as the lack of
civil divorce in Amerikkka resulted in ever more marriages ending
when a DELIBERATELY CAUSED death (usually by way of a well-aimed
bullet) did the couple part. Homosexual and bisexual men and women
discovered, with the aid of free-inquiry science, that their
sexual orientation was just as natural and just as right for them
as Bible-sanctioned heterosexuality was. Humanity learned that
just because the Bible permitted the practice of slavery did not
make it any less of an inherently inhumane, atrocious practice.
Medicine and psychology began to make headway against sociopathic
mental illness -- and discovered that almost all such illnesses
could be causally traced to abrasive and abusive childhood
experiences sanctioned by the Bible, such as beatings and incest.
(I challenge any Bible-believer reading this to demonstrate to me
exactly where the Bible literally and directly states that it is
wrong and/or prohibited to have sexual relations with one's own
children!)
And most Americans could no longer resolve this dilemma. Either
the Bible was inerrant (in which case these things could not be at
all), or it wasn't (the only option whereby the above mentioned
things could be true). And the things I mentioned in the above
paragraph were before the eyes of the American public; the truth
of these things could not be denied, except by those amongst us
who were so insistent on the inerrancy of the Bible that they were
perfectly willing to deny what they were seeing with their own
eyes, in order to vindicate the Bible in which they believed. And
these were a TINY MINORITY of all Americans; the vast majority of
us placed trust in what we could observe -- where that trust by
rights BELONGS.
Ever more children born to Americans began to place trust in what
they could observe, rather than what some ancient book tried to
tell them. Jesus was no more real to most of these modern-age
children than King Arthur or Paul Bunyan; an ancient legend's
hero, nothing more. The homosexuals, weary of silently taking huge
amounts of abuse from a society upon which they inflicted NO harm,
began speaking up and taking action to regain the rights and
respect that was rightfully theirs as the peaceful, productive
members of society that they were. Women, locked in abusive
marriages, refused to buy the Biblical lies that they were
permanently destined to be nothing more than their husbands'
punching bags. The rights of children to grow up free of
violence, abuse, and neglect -- DENIED by Biblical religion --
were being demanded to be honored.
And all of this is STILL going on, and will be, forever hereafter.
WE AREN'T GOING BACK, EVER AGAIN.
This FACT is causing the masters of the Bible-believing dangerous
cults -- for now postmodern humankind KNOWS that this is what they
are, and ALL they are -- to take unprecedented actions in various
arenas of public life in order to try and turn back the clock.
School censorship, to damage the freedom of children to learn that
the Biblical world view isn't all that there is. Stealth
Candidates in political elections -- an effort to render
freethinking secular government and law impotent. Megadollar media
acquisition -- to try and slip into the minds of the public via
the "back door" of radio and TV.
But it ISN'T working -- and WILL NOT work. Even if the Bible
cultists get the political power that they are now seeking, all
that will happen is that Amerikkka's Revolt Index, already
dangerously high, will rise to the point of violence in the
streets (as it already has -- consider the aftermath of the Rodney
King verdicts!).
The clock CANNOT be turned back, ever again. The next two
generations will see the end of "Bible believing" religion as a
viable force ANYWHERE. Nature and Earth Religions, which celebrate
humankind as a beautiful and good creature exactly as it is; which
celebrate, rather than teach denial of, the various human
passions; which teach that each human is inherently GOOD, and in
need of no external "redemption"; it is THESE which will speak for
Theistic humankind in the twenty-first century, and beyond, of the
common era. Skeptical cynicism, the idea that nothing is true
except that which can be duplicably demonstrated everywhere, will
be the rule in religion as well as science. Homosexual
relationships will be recognized worldwide as having the same
right to exist as heterosexual ones; and the FACT that non-
reproducing relationships are SUPERIOR to reproducing ones WILL be
recognized EVERYWHERE. Reproduction will no longer be looked on as
a right, but as the RESTRICTED PRIVILEGE which it SHOULD be.
If we would just admit it and "keep the ball rolling", so to
speak, we Cynical Unbelievers will win this and all future
days........
.....and it's ABOUT TIME we got rid of the yoke of that ancient
book of folk tales! Long live Science! Long live Cynicism! Down
with Faith!
--Sean
--- FMail 0.94
Origin: Coalition for a Bible Free America--Vox Anarchistica!
(1:128/68.2)
