fear of death and misbehaving
Lurking around Christian posts can give a real insight into their preoccupations. Two things that stand out as particularly problematic for them are the looming thunderhead of death, and an intense fear that they can’t control their own behaviour.
I thought it might be interesting to compare my approach as a non-Christian on these two issues to those of god God-guided, eternal-life-believing Christians.
death
1. Me. I’m not afraid of dying. Seriously, I’m not. I didn’t exist when cavemen were around, when Romans were conquering or when the Inquisition was torturing. It didn’t bother me then, and it’s not going to bother me in 2130. I’m not afraid of suffering. I don’t enjoy it, or look forward to it. But I’ve been in so much pain I’ve wanted to die, and I’ve been threatened by an insane man with a club on a murderous rampage, so it’s not like death is likely to have anything new or worse to throw at me. And if it does, I’m sure I’ll get through it eventually to the blissful ignorance on the other side.
2. Christians. Christians believe that life here on Earth is not the main course. It’s scarcely even the pre-starter nibbles, as they are expecting an eternity of bliss when the lights go out. But do we get any sense of joy from Christians at the thought of meeting benevolence incarnate and spending the rest of forever and beyond in paradise? Actually, no. Not in the slightest. Never. Not even a little, excited yet smug smirk when they mention their deathbed. They seem to be constantly trying to reassure themselves that everything will be okay, everything will be okay, everything will be okay, in the manner of a person who is quite sure that everything won’t be okay.
sin
1. Me. I’m not afraid of my own behaviour. I do things that make sense to me in the moment, and if on reflection my actions had unpleasant consequences, I try to develop and reassess similar situations differently. I don’t have any thoughts that disturb me or that I can’t control. I suspect this is because I don’t think an invisible spirit is trying to trick me into being evil, but I could be wrong.
2. Christians. Christians believe they have the most powerful being in the universe on hand to help them be nice people. In spite of this, they’re terrified they can’t control themselves. Have a quick look round the ‘sin’ tag in WordPress. Obsessed and potentially dangerous bundles of insecurity and confusion is what I see. These people think they have little influence over their own actions, and that they’re not to blame (except in a self-indulgent martyr manner) because people are evil and Satan is afoot a-tempting. What a dangerous doctrine.
conclusion
In spite of claiming to believe in a lovely afterlife and a helpful supernatural friend helping them in this life, Christians don’t look forward to death and they don’t think they can control their own behaviour. Not only are they deluded, they don’t actually believe their own delusion.
“They seem to be constantly trying to reassure themselves that everything will be okay, everything will be okay, everything will be okay, in the manner of a person who is quite sure that everything won’t be okay.”
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Love that Dan Barker quote – hilarious!
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Just glad I could finally do something right.
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Well, some of your own words would have been nice. But I didn’t want to bring that up …
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Christian Aid slogan: “We believe in life before death”. There are strong arguments that by the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus and the Gospel writers meant Earth, now, not some afterlife. That is the Quaker way. “Pie in the Sky when you Die” is a poor consolation for suffering now.
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No heaven, really? I didn’t know that. Have to brush up on the Quakers again. It really is the most acceptable form of religion (probably depending on who’s having the silent moments with you.)
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I did not say no afterlife, but that Heaven has to be here. We are light on theology, and heavy on experience, and the Edinburgh meeting house on Victoria Terrace is beautiful.
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Is that a sales pitch? I like the idea of the Quakers for people who want some form of religion in their lives, but I personally wouldn’t be interested in sitting in silence with a group of people pondering life (is that what you do?) I went to a humanist meeting when I first got back, and that was bad enough – felt like a church but without the singing and damnation.
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No, no, not a sales-pitch at all.
At least two lovely bloggers go…
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Oh well, I’m sure they wouldn’t want me there disturbing the loveliness. I think you’ll have a dog before I’m a Quaker. 😉
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I agree: none, except the painfully uneducated, actually believe. Their motivations are found elsewhere.
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When I find a Christian who’s excited about dying I’ll take my words back. Or one that isn’t afraid of misbehaving.
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Just messing around, I made an excellent meme for that yesterday.
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Where? Do you stockpile memes and release them on a scheduled basis to keep your loyal followers sated yet not overwhelmed by the redeconversions?
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Multitasking (aka fucking-around) while waiting for worky articles to bundle. Wish I could post it here. it made me giggle.
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I don’t understand, why can’t you post it? I want a giggle!
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Is daring someone to commit accidental suicide bad?
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Oh, yeah, I can see how that might not go down well!
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Trust me, it was funny, though. Actually, it was right in-line with your last post.
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The death cult who are afraid of dying …
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Yeah, except flipped on its head a little.
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BTW, what’s this about a madman and a club?
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Are you not more interested in when I was in so much pain I wanted to die? I can give you a really vile drug-free Argentinian birthing story 🙂 The other one was an insane Thai tour guide, yes tour guide, in Thailand who got drunk/high/crazy and tried to kill one of the guys in our group when we trekking in some remote village. I smiled at him when he shone a candle in my face and asked if I was his friend (in between rampaging round the village with his club screaming he was going to kill this guy who had been hidden by villagers). It was an inappropriate smile that elicited a frightening reaction. No bodily damage, but I was sure my time was up. hehe
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I figured it was the birthing event, and i don’t need to know those things. An audio would be funny though. You Scots can make anything sound hilarious. Add in few panicky Argentinians, and a tealady banging pots in the corner to chase the Pict demons away and you have comedy gold!
Now, crazy Thai tour guides, however! That’s more my thing. I had to threaten a Nepalese man once with certain death if he continued on his erroneous ways. Not sure how that would have turned out considering we were in the middle of nowhere, but he got the message.
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As predicted: Your friend over at He Rose for Grace has decided he/she wants no contradictory comments on their blog. They deleted one of mine yesterday. actually, it never even made it up, but has now not only deleted my other comments (which set him/her straight on the archaeological consensus) but his/hers as well! That’s impressive.
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Yeah, looked like that sort of person. Such a good friend too …
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I’ve often remarked that cognitive dissonance can make one’s head explode. Confirmation bias is much more comforting. I don’t suppose Ark was over there with you – he can get a person kicked off of a website faster than anyone I know.
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No, it was just me and him/her in the pool. They really didn’t like the news i brought, nor how polite I was in pointing it out 🙂
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I’ve never known you to be anything, if not polite.
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Unlike many other blog formats, Violet, we visitors can’t post images to a WordPress site, only administrators can do that, which is why I went with another format, much to Ark’s condemnation.
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FYI, John, you can upload it to an FTP site and post a link —
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Your comment reminded me of the Catholic school teacher that won the USA Big Brother 10 reality contest show. That guy was ruthless! He was using all the tricks of the Bible to his advantage!
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Ironic – reality and religion seem like such antitheses.
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Wow! Great insight! Definitely provided me with a new perspective! Thank you 🙂
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Glad you got something from it, thanks for commenting!
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I don’t fear death. I just hope when it comes I feel more or less as I do now.
Just make the most of what you have.
And the photo is superb, btw. I will probably nick this one for a header for a bit, if this is okay?
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*beaming* Thanks for the photo praise! I take back everything I said about you being blinkered and hateful. You’re actually my favourite blogger. 🙂
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Sprays tea all over keyboard
I don’t mind a largish nose on a woman, but with porky pies like that your Pinocchio-konk will poke an eye out before too long.
😉
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Reblogged this on Christianity Simplified and commented:
My apologies for the number of posts today, but I can’t pass this one up. Be warned, it’s no doubt on the Atheist side of things, but there seem to be some great points that are made.
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Thanks for the reblog, I love that it comes with a warning!
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I wouldn’t want to cause any believers who are ill-equipped to handle such understandings to end up climbing their local clock tower!
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Very insightful. I don’t fear death. I just hope the dying is peaceful and painless
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I just hope it doesn’t interfere with the things I have planned to do tomorrow.
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And that one
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That’s true. It could ruin one’s plans.
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I love the humming bird. I’ve been entirely unable to photograph one, although I’ve tried many times. They’re too darned fast.
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Yeah, it’s difficult! I had a lot of time, great light and loads of flowers they adored. If you’ve got a garden try growing non-edible sage plants – mexican woolly and meadow sage were clearly delicious for them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia
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They seem encoded more for purple flowers, than those of any other color.
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Most self-proclaimed Christians assume they are good enough to go to heaven. Usually because a lot of us compare ourselves to other people in exchange for actual introspection. As such, they are not preoccupied with their actions as much as they (are expected to/should) be. If Christians, especially in the west, were so concerned about their behavior and life they wouldn’t be influenced so easily by secular ideologies.
I will say this though, churches do use fear and shame as “learning tools”, but the effectiveness is questionable.
Personally, I’m not really afraid of death nor am I “afraid” of my behavior (disgusted is a better word).
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Thanks for your comment. I’m sorry you’re disgusted by your own behaviour, I imagine it makes life rather awkward. My worry here is that Christians absorbing all the ‘fear and shame’ message get messed up in their heads – attempted thought repression being a particularly damaging response. I can’t help thinking that the Christian expectation of ‘sin’ can lead to a lot of unnecessary harmful behaviour.
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Note that I’m speaking as a believer. Because of that, my proposed solution may look like nonsense to you.
Only if the Christian believes they are alone in that aspect. Christianity becomes much more tolerable when believers mutually share in their guilt/shame. Causing them not to see themselves as being better (or worse) than the other.
Christian Ideal= Accepting and overcoming your wrongdoing and setting an example for others who continue the cycle. Reapplying the impulse toward something positive/mature.
“Every body poops”
Twisted version= Ignoring your faults by comparing yourself to another or finding arbitrary reasons to validate yourself.
“Nobody poops but you” (pointing at someone else)
Response to Twisted version= Seeing your sin as being “worse” than someone else’s. Engage in self loathing.
“You’re a very naught child, and that’s concentrated evil coming out of you” (pointing at self)
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