(COMIC) Bipolar Deities
I grew up Catholic, and even as a kid, there was some shit about Christianity that didn’t add up in my young mind. The god of the Old Testament seemed drastically different from the god of the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God would damn you to an eternity of torture if you ate meat on the wrong day. This is also the same god who commanded a father to kill his son in a test of loyalty, destroyed two cities in a poorly explained fit of rage, and then let two daughters drug and rape their father. …So, yeah.
Then the New Testament rolls around and this time god is much more laid back and easy going compared to his earlier version. I got older and distanced myself from organized religion and began to listen to other theories on the Bible’s radically different tones and incongruities. All we really know for sure is that the Bible was written a long, long time ago by some dudes who claim to know Jesus. Now this is important; Jesus didn’t write a damn thing and god only wrote the Ten Commandments (supposedly), so…where did all this extra shit come from? Why are we trusting the word of some dudes? Also, if god was so caring and powerful, why would he create people to be gay and then damn them for acting accordingly? That’s like pouring itching powder down your kid’s pants and then punishing them because they scratched the itch. That is sadistic behavior.
According to a CNN article by Laura Sessions Stepp, young people are leaving churches.I think that the church has a place in today’s society, but it needs to adapt and grow so as to not seem so ancient, bizarre, and out of touch. The big thing that is killing the church’s attendance with younger people (besides the Catholic church’s pedophilia scandals) is all that weird attention given to people’s private sex lives; basically, all those priests need to get out of people’s bedrooms. Do you think that some of these ancient religious structures are out of date and need updating? Christianity/Islam/Judiasm 2.0? Is the Church too out of touch? Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry? What advice would you give to the religious elite to stay relevant to newer generations? Leave a comment below.
Do you mean updating, like changing the colour of the easter bunny?
hehe, that’s definitely a start. You could change the color of the Easter Bunny or allow in gay and female ordained priests,. Perhaps address the fact that the bible provided instructions on beating your wife and owning slaves.
Now why would you try to change an old book? It’s like saying: “I don’t like how Hamlet was written, let’s change it”. If you don’t like the Hamlet, you stop reading it, right?
You certainly have a point. The Big 3′s Holy Texts are incredibly influential, and perhaps there is no need to change the books, but change the approach from which religious leaders like interpret and expound.
Okay, this book has been freely interpreted throughout 2000 years, there’s never been any rules on how religious leaders could interpret and expound. How are you gonna change religious leaders approach?
There is a larger dialogue that goes on between a religious institution and either the government and/or the general populace – - this conversation usually centers around the larger topics of sexuality, marriage, birth/abortion rights, etc, all of which are, more or less, the same across the different faiths and denominations. Any change that would happen, I would guess, begins with what is happening right now: people letting their concerns be voiced. The thing to realize is that today, citizens and worshipers can voice their opinions about the church, which is a fairly new development in the history of civilization and organized religion. Also, with younger people leaving churches, that message is given more emphasis. I’m curious, do you think that organized religion is fine the way it is or does it need to evolve? I’m not so concerned with the “how”, but with the “why”.
No Byron, I do not think any organized religion is fine. Why? Just to mention a few issues: homophobia, racism, chauvinism, prejudgement, control, power, greed, extortion, abuse.
I hear ya. Religion is definitely guilty of all those things, but I know more than a few synagogues and churches that quietly donate thousands to after school activities for kids is bad neighborhoods, soup kitchens, and use clothes drives – - you won’t see them in the news. Indulge me, if you will: if you were to worship in a form of organized religion, what would it look like? I don’t mean that in a snarky way, I’m just curious.
“…won’t see them in the news”…. It seems like, the good and positive stories have a hard time getting the medias attention.
For your indulgence: I adore life, the beauty of nature, human beings, animals, stillness, love, passion, the moment, my coffee in the morning… My adorations is not a religion, it’s purely part of being a living creature. Does it have to be organized? Let’s say, that I love to knit… Do I have to submit myself to a knitting organization to fully enjoy my passion for knitting?
So long as the Church pays tax and stays the fuck out of politics and human rights issues, I really couldn’t give a flying fuck what they do. Unfortunately, they don’t pay tax, they involve themselves in politics and frequently intrude into people’s basic human rights of choice and self determination. For that reason I do give a fuck and will fight them until my last breath so I leave this world to my children in a better, saner state than it currently is.
it is really hard for me to argue with that.
Interesting post. A few thoughts as a former non-theist and now Catholic. It is clear that what the church teaches about sex and what society is moving towards are two VERY different things. In my humble opinion though, I think the church has it right in encouraging marriage and being faithful to that marriage over a non-judgmental just go have a good time approach. Sex is a really dangerous thing that can create new life and destroy it by unwanted pregnancy and disease if people go at it just for fun.
Priests should be able to get married in my opinion and I wouldn’t be surprised if soon they switched that practice back to how it was before the 11th century Gregorian reforms. They changed the practice because they were worried that priests were marrying for power in some towns (like the mayor of prince’s daughter) and that they passed church leadership and property to their kids. Neither of those is really a threat in the modern day, I wouldn’t think, so they might change it back. It isn’t a “doctrine” that is written in stone, only a practice, so it can be easily changed back.
On the God of the Old Testament seeming harsh. I agree. However, unlike Fundamentalist Protestants, Catholics and many mainline Protestants don’t take everything as literal history or as a verbatim word of God. When he “allows” Noah’s daughters to rape their dad, I don’t think you can take that as an action of God. The story didn’t say it was God’s will or anything. There are a lot of characters in there that do crazy things, but when David or Moses kills someone I don’t think that it was a divine order. Who knows why people thousands of years ago put some things in there! I think one reason Jesus came was to straighten out all the things that were said and done in His name over the centuries and say, “No, that wasn’t me. Don’t stone that woman to death. Go ahead and eat pork. Talking to a woman is not a sin. etc”
Great response! It was civil, well thought out, and well explained. I see exactly where you are coming from when it comes to sexuality – – sex can be very serious (even dangerous), and a solution to that is to keep a traditional form of marriage. The only problem with a traditional marriage is the 60% divorce rate in America (which currently has the highest divorce rate, with Puerto Rico, Russia, and the UK following); something is not working here. It seems the very idea of marriage is once again morphing into something else, just as it did when marriage was, back in the day, little more than land agreements and political arrangements.
That being said, it is far too easy to have a kid. Parents should have to put in a lot more effort to conceive. Maybe fill some paperwork out at a DMV…I dunno.
I know! Our divorce rate is getting crazy, but I wonder what the solution to that is. If it could be as some say to just say to hell with marriage in general for our culture, since we can’t seem to make it work, or if we could pull some of these older social taboos against taking sex so casually back into the mainstream. That would take some work and I’m not too hopeful on that happening in the short term, but popular culture can take some blame here. When pop music is just women in underwear gyrating around to songs about sex, it’s hard to avoid that very appealing message. Sex is a powerful force that cultures should try to draw some lines around rather than using it as a marketing campaign for teens to buy CD’s. But that’s just me sounding like an old grouchy man I suppose.
I also think we’re just really self-centered and immature well into our thirties so it’s hard to avoid petty “no-fault” divorces on a massive scale when your sex-drive starts at 15 but your extended adolescence lasts until you’re 35.
I don’t think you sound like a grouchy old man at all. Media has had an indelible affect on sexual dynamics between men and women, marriage, raising kids, the working mechanics of organized religion and how they are all tied together. Everything, really. I’ve studied media in college and I have continued to watch it, very carefully, ever since – - there is a real affect that television and film (and now video games) have on us, despite what we all like to think, and this blog mostly draws attention to that. What freaks me out are those women in underwear gyrating on television are actually getting younger and younger.
As for turning to older social taboos that don’t take sex so casually; from a practical point of view, that genie is already out of the bottle. It would be too difficult to go back to that now, but we need figure out a way to get sex taken more seriously in a more modern way. It seems to me that, either rightly or wrongly (I can’t say to which), the Christian Church has lost some validity amongst younger generations when it comes to certain sexual mores. From a societal point of view, organized religion might not be the best vehicle for sexual responsibility, and neither is the government. The responsibility lies with the parents, who are currently having trouble competing with the strong messages from media.
I can’t really speak on Christian churches, but if I was raising my children I would try to foster the masjid as a familiar, multifunctional space. What I liked about some familes and masjids, was that children were growing up going to prayers with their parents, or playing with kids you meet there, attending age-appropriate functions and classes. It wasn’t simply a place for boring Sunday school. Going to a religious place a few times a year for serious functions renders it to be a very sterile impersonal, authoritative space.
For churches/masjids/temples, I think they need to recognize a more palatble tone. Children should not be threatened with warnings of hell fire and burning in eternity. That only fosters a guilt-ridden conflicted individual. More talk of God’s love, community, and openly asking questions should be the target.
You’re 100% correct on that, Zahra – - a more palatable tone would do wonders. Growing up Catholic as a kid, most of the sentiments communicated were guilt, shame, and punishment. Kids shouldn’t be subjected to that, and when negative elements like these are institutionalized, it leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
Today’s Church has the same problems that North Korea has, because they are both the same kind of organization: Earthly theocracies. All of their authority is derived from an unseen force and the leader of the organization plays the role of ambassador between said force and the rest of humanity. This is why the Church can’t afford to grow and change with the times. Doing so would require admitting to centuries of wrongdoing and would call the Pope’s status as God’s ambassador into question, and without that, what is left of the Church would crumble like the ashes of a dying fire.
In short, the Church is dead. Even if it were to make the changes needed to survive, those changes would leave it so different from what it is now that you could still say it was dead.
I see where you’re coming from, but I don’t see the church as dead. Weakened and tarnished in the public eye a little, but not dead. Admittedly, organized religion also has suffered from some serious bad rap in the media; there are some amazing people who are doing amazing things out there who worship, but you’ll never hear about their story until they bang a kid or something.
Where “updating” in concerned, there’s a Christian church I know of that has a pop/rock band jam with religious lyrics (to draw in younger members); however, I’ve heard other religious folks react negatively at this, viewing it as a desecration of faith or, in a patronizing tone, as a ‘Christianity Lite’.
So, it would seem that folks are weary of ‘modernizing’ or ‘updating’ their religious organizations, ’cause it might compromise their values or prestige in some way.
For example: Would a ‘Confessional’ App for your iPhone be ill-fitting of the Catholic Church?
Having said that, I’ve noticed that the Church of the Latter Day Saints has several Apps for planning teachings/lessons and looking up local chapters, so there are probably dozens of Apps for other churches and religions as well.
Confessional App? I love it! I don’t know if you were being serious, but that tickled me.
I think the nature of organized religion causes a lot of problems. Islam, Judaism and Christianity have a lot of trouble regulating themselves or being flexible in the modern world. Even the most mainstream and open-minded forms still practice exclusionary teachings, gender roles and often dictate what is and is not socially acceptable.
It’s sad but I have found myself stupidly at odds with friends due to their religious beliefs or practices. Often times this hasn’t even been something they felt strongly about but something they felt pressured about by their family or the community to follow suit with.
I fully support each persons right to believe whatever they want and make their own choices, provided that it is actually their choice. I decided a long time ago that I didn’t want to ally myself with any religious groups so that I didn’t have go by any code but my own or upset a lot of people when I disagreed. That said, I’ve taken a lot from multiple religions and still deem a lot of the core teachings as completely useful and valid.