Number 1372 Would You Please Step Forward!
I just received the email today that verified my membership of Danish Atheist Society.
Does this grant me any particular superpowers or privileges? Not really.
Why then? First of all, I want to support a good cause, and secondly I always wanted to be a member of an organization that I can say, “I support!”.
Hopefully it may provide me with some tools and community for some awesome things to come in the future.
My first plan is to mingle with the 1371 other members, as much as possible, I know very little of the Danish atheist communities. That I know, are from friends and from Youtube.
It also seems rather dormant in Facebook, but religion is such a non-issue in Denmark, so I hope it is not the cruel face of apathy that has struck.
If so, I would like to blow the glow, so it will create a new fire.
Take care.
Catch them with Love…
… spread the message of love and understanding. Share it with the people, in addition you get a life philosophy, community, and structure. How can you not like this package deal?
Many do not have a choice if they want to be a part of this community.
They are simply born into it, it is a part of their upbringing, their culture.
Those who made the choice was their parents, grandparents, or even further back.
It might also have been themselves, but they found out that they were misguided, and wanted leave.
Can they leave? Yes, most of the cases they may leave on the free will, in more extreme situations it is more fleeing than leaving.
But at what cost?
People who leave their faiths, do lose a lot and the reasons why it such a hard thing to do for many.
It is their whole life that is being torn up by its roots, all of its structures, the identity of themselves.
To add injury to insult, the religions tends to have a stick to go with the carrot.
The stick of eternal damnation, and sometimes eternal suffering.
You may say, “What is the big deal? If they do not believe this, why should this bother them?”
As we know, we humans can develop irrational fears, fears that we are fully aware of being irrational and sometimes “silly”. We call these irrational fears, phobias.
Someone who is brought up in a religion can develop a phobia of the stick, a irrational fear, that still is there, even though they stopped believing in its validity and reality.
Psychology today are working on models of that have many similarities will Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They will have nightmares about a hell, or eternal damnation.
They may also get stressed by the fact they feel that they do not know how to identity themselves anymore, as their religion used to be the ready package of identity.
Believers are aware of this, so they will rather cling to was they have left of their faith, instead of risking that they will end in a state of despair.
So they catch them with love, but keep them with fear.
Being Gay in a Christian Nation
I just stumbled onto this recent minor documentary, by a gay British reporter, traveling to Uganda. To see how big a part of their society was anti-gay.
It was shocking, I knew of this, seen other similar documentaries about this issue, but it still shocks me each time.
It gets me to thinking, what can and will moderate Christians do about this?
The typical “defense” I hear is that they are touching the gospels in a wrong way, that Jesus spread the message of love, and not hatred.
On the other hand, if their anti-gay laws are passed, then the Bible also says to respect the laws of the nation.
And the last stand for most moderates I confront with this, is the “No True Scotsman Fallacy”, basically saying that these people are not “real” Christians. Trying to exclude these people from the umbrella which is labeled Christianity.
There is a lot of focus on the trampling of human rights in certain Muslim nations, and rightfully so, and in China with their power of suppressing anyone who does not agree with the government.
But I do not think there is enough focus on what Christianity can do of harm to a nation, there must be a balance, one religion should not get a carté blanche on certain issues, while others are free to prey upon.
It is hypocrisy at its worse.
The mini-Documentary I saw can be seen underneath.
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