[thechat] Religious dependance

[Ben Dyer]

It's kind of long, very rambling and probably doesn't make a lick of
sense.  Anyways, this'll probably be my only contribution to this thread,
as I know most people probably already know my opinion and I try not to
beat people over the head with it.  (It's kind of like the 4th and less
than 5 hard count trick in American football.  Everyone knows what's coming
and it's never, ever worked.  :)

--Ben

Do most Christians believe their faith blindly?  You betcha.  The stupid
thing is that, as a Christian, I don't think that's what God wants
anyways.  I have faith, but I don't consider it to be blind.  There's an
old sermon illustration about a person in a flood, uh...here (I'm too lazy
to rewrite the entire thing):
<http://www.primaryfocus.tv/pf_prayingdoing.html>.  Have faith, but don't
be stupid, I guess. :)

Non-Christians or people who don't believe in God, what have you, look at
Christians presenting what they (the non-Christians) believe to be
anecdotal evidence in arguments about miracles and think that Christians
must be dumb or illogical because anecdotal evidence is not logic, which is
true (about anecdotal evidence not being logic, that is).

The Christian, however, doesn't see their evidence of God as anecdotal,
just as a part of many things, but that's all any Christian can report.  I
mean, let's face it: a million things will happen in your life and you'll
recall a few as important or as a miracle or whatever.  And as I tell you
this, I can give specific instances that almost everyone here would write
off as commonplace or circumstance or coincidence.  And, in the English
language, we've kind of abused the term "miracle" to the point where it has
no meaning anymore.  (Wow, look, a potato chip shaped like Jesus!!  It's a
miracle!)

(Side note.  True story: here in Dallas, there is an office building where
there is a reflection that sort of looks like the outline of the Virgin
Mary - the windows are warped or something odd like that - and people have
made a little shrine there.  Unfortunately, I can't find anything online
about this anymore.  The whole thing is very ridiculous.  The office
building wants to replace the window, but there was a big outrage.  Could
you imagine trying to work there?)

Unfortunately, we Christians do this to everything (well, *I* try not to,
but it's hard): we trivialize everything into short, digestable, "bumper
sticker" contents: "God is Good", "God is Love", "Love thy Neighbor", "I'm
not perfect, just forgiven", "Jesus Loves Me, This I know, for the Bible
tells me so" and so forth.  While not necessarily false, it trivializes our
faith to others, to the point where it isn't respected because it just
sounds stupid or saccharine.  It's hard to relate to mere bumper sticker
philosophy.

Is God a crutch?  Yes, but it's not a negative thing.  It's also not an
excuse.  As for "giving God the praise" or what not, I'm too humble to
accept responsibility for the few good things I might cause in life
already.  Unlike most people, I naturally assume responsibility and deal
out credit to others, so taking credit doesn't come naturally to me, but
this isn't a Christian thing, more of a "my personality" thing.  I guess I
don't see the big deal on this point but, again, that's more my personality
talking, rather than a representation of Christianity in general.

And I don't think of God as a crutch, in that connotation of the
word.  People think Christianity is all about rules and do this and don't
do that and what not.  But, it's really more of a relationship with God
than anything.  The idea is that as you grow closer to God (and as you
mature in life and get older), what you want and what he wants basically
become the same thing.  Maybe it's more like a relationship between two
people (like a husband and wife, for example), the two of you are reliant
on each other (hopefully) to fill in the other person's gaps.  Maybe it
*is* a crutch, but it's a positive one.  I dunno, those two things aren't
entirely analogous, but hopefully you get what I'm trying to say.

Bah.  I think a lot of people (not here, mind you, most people here are
pretty tolerant :) think like that line from Goldmember:
"There are two kinds of people I hate: people who are intolerant of others,
and the Dutch." (or the Christians).

--Ben

At 11:00 AM 1/16/2003, you wrote a whole lot.
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