People give thanks to God when they experience good fortune. But then do we need to resent God for accidents, diseases, and injustice? I could resent God for the death of my sister at the age of four, my wife at the age of fifty-seven, wars between groups of people with differing customs and faiths, and the multitudes of children born with life-limiting disabilities. But doesn’t it make more sense to admit to myself that there is no God who intervenes in the lives of humans? Using God as a metaphor for joy, love, and wonderment is a beautiful, poetic practice, but it should not be confused with the fantasy of an anthropomorphic deity overseeing the workings of everything from the universe to our personal lives. And we can’t let those who believe in that fantasy to impose their beliefs on the rest of us. It’s time to be outspoken in our resistance to Christian Nationalism.
I’m not sure if I have every been deeply religious. I remember going through Catechism class in the Lutheran Church before I was “confirmed” as a young teenager. My friends and I would giggle and goof off while the minister recited standard questions about Christianity and the stock answers. As I approached adulthood I started considering myself an agnostic, because I didn’t want to flatly deny the existence of some form of supreme being. Later I admitted to myself that I was an atheist, in the sense that I did not believe in any form of theism that I had ever heard of. But for most of my adult life I have been happy to let others believe what they did without feeling the need to challenge them, unless they challenged my atheism first. But in the past few years my views have changed as I see the United States drifting toward a theocracy where I will be forced to live my life in accordance with the believes of fundamentalist Christians. As I hear songs this season about the miracle of the virgin birth and the resurrection, the walking on water, healings through the touching of hands, and the need to believe in Jesus as the son of God in order to live for eternity, I can’t help but be overwhelmed by the absurdity of these beliefs, especially the more I learn about the history of the Old Testament and the Gospels.
My Christian friends tell me that faith begins where science stops. They argue that science can only tell us so much about the nature of the universe, the origins of the Earth and the life it supports, and the interplay of the physical and the spiritual. But I am not sure what faith has to do with it. The universe is what it is, regardless of what we believe. The fact that we can’t know everything does not mean that we have to make up and cling to explanations for what is beyond our knowledge. Speculating about the unknown is human nature, and testing those speculations gives rise to the scientific method. But to dogmatically claim to know the unknown and to insist that others accept this dogma is dangerous, dishonest, and cruel.
Those who tell me that they have faith in God seem to come in two varieties: those who see God as loving and protective, and those who see God as vindictive and punitive. God is described in both these contradictory ways in the Bible. Both say that faith in their God is essential for life everlasting. When I argue that if God exists she (he, it) does not make herself (himself, itself) known to us. other than what has been “revealed” to us in the Bible. Of course, they would argue that they see God in the beauty of nature, the patterns of the seasons and the comings and goings of sunlight, and the many wonderful moments of joy they have known. But then they must admit (an admission that they hesitate to make) that God is also visible in earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, drought, famine, disease, war, and other tragedies. It seems to me that when they proclaim their faith in God they are really saying they have faith in the humans that made up the stories in the Old Testament and the Gospels, and that these people were not writing from their imaginations. I don’t have that faith, and neither does anyone who has studies the origins of these writings. I guess I have put my faith in modern scholars and scientists, rather than the authors of ancient texts.
As we face a country ruled by Christian Fundamentalists, it leads one to believe that many of the fables in the Bible were written for political reasons. Kings, pharaohs, priests, gurus and other religious leaders could more easily control their subjects if they convinced them that they were the ones through whom their followers could know God and avoid condemnation to Hell. So, they wrote parables and commandments that served their own interests. I’m afraid that we’re witnessing a return of that kind of con game today. I hope that sensible and ethical people will come together to resist this new reality.