It's always a learning experience to hear what people outside the church think about those of us "inside" the church. This is a sobering example.
This myspace blog titled "The End of Christianity" from a person that calls themself "Human Evolution" has been getting some serious internet buzz (shout out to Chris for sending it to me). The top of the page offers a 37 second YouTube video of Richard Dawkins that begins with him reading the words, "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction." He goes on to describe God as "vindictive, unforgiving, unjust, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, homophobic, and racist."
As you scroll down the page you'll begin to read the rantings of someone who is obviously very upset with God... someone really hurting.
Some might be inclined to get angry with what you read. I beg you to read with an eye of compassion. My guess is that most of us have someone living a few doors down from us who thinks just like. Have you ever stopped to listen to their thoughts? Have you ever read between the lines to see what's behind these words?
For example. Read this small excerpt:
Regardless of the fact that God does not exist in scientific terms, many have spent their lives as devout Christians; they ask God to spare one second to talk to them or to give them a small sign, but many (including myself) are ignored, even when we pray the "right" way and for the "right" reasons God epitomizes the deadbeat father. When we have dozens of people praying for us, nothing happens, as the study mentioned above shows. While God is silent to our prayers, there are children slowly dying of starvation every 5 seconds, there are natural disasters claiming the lives of millions, and there are viruses using innocent hosts in the most detestable ways.
Do you hear the undertones in this writing? Do see you see the life experience? "They ask God to spare one second to talk to them or to give them a small sign, but many, including myself, are ignored..."
The entire blog brings up issues like this, tough questions, and real feelings from a real person.
This is a good example of the philosophies our kids are going to encounter in the real world. Are they prepared for these conversations? (We talked a lot about this in our podcast episode #12 with Dan Kimball)
According to one of the comments on this blog page... we aren't. This guy threw these darts at Christianity, basically concluding that Christians are completely ignorant:
The reason Christianity remains is because of several reasons:
1. Christians don't read their Bibles, nor do they know the history of their religion.
2. Christians do not know that the arguments they think prove their case are not valid logical arguments.
3. Christians don't know how their Bible was compiled, nor do they know the politics involved with the process.
4. Christians don't know (or won't accept) that their Bible is flawed scientifically and it proves many contradictory answers to important questions (such as suffering).
Despite the meaning behind his claim, are these accusations wrong?
Hmmmmmm.