Recently, I wrote a post regarding the mix of pride and willful ignorance that leads to atheism. Afterward, I received a rebuttal from an atheist–an angry atheist at that–whom I had never heard from before, and am curious how she found my blog (though I’m glad she did).
After reading her rants, it occurred to me that I should add in at least a sentence or two about angry atheists, which I did, stating: “But being angry at God can certainly be a whole other stumbling block, and a point for another blog post, perhaps some other time.”
Well, now is that time.
When I clicked on this atheist’s name, it took me to her blog, which I skimmed, and found in her recommended reading list a book titled, Why Are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things that Piss Off the Godless by Greta Christina. Of course, it piqued my interest, so when I Google searched for the author, I came across a lecture that she gave in 2011. To watch the full 45+ minute video (which yes, I would recommend), click here.
When watching the video, titled, “Why are Atheists so Angry?” I thought she would go into the same reasons that the atheists I mentioned in my last blog post–Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins–would say, that God himself is the reason why atheists are so angry. Actor Stephen Fry comes to mind, too. But instead, what she says is remarkable. She’s not angry at God, she’s angry at religion–the same religion that Jesus and his followers are angry at–the same religion that sent Jesus to the cross (in a historical sense, that is).
Well, we have a lot in common, then. Let me list a few things Christina said in her lecture:
- I’m angry that people are dying of AIDS in Africa and South America because the Catholic Church convinced them that using condoms makes baby Jesus cry.
- I’m angry at preachers who tell women and their flock to submit to their husbands because it’s the will of God, even when those husbands are beating them within an inch of their lives.
- [I am] angry that the belief in karma and reincarnation gets used as a justification for the caste system in India… People who are born into poverty and despair are taught that it’s their fault, that they must have done something really bad in a previous life, and that the misery that they were born into is their fault.
- I’m angry that people in Africa are being terrorized, driven from their homes, maimed, tortured, and killed over accusations of witchcraft–not of the Middle Ages; not in the 1600s–today. Actual, literal witch hunts are happening today.
- I’m angry that so many parents and religious leaders terrorized children with vivid traumatizing stories of eternal burning and torture to ensure that they will be too terrified to even question religion. [Note: not so sure this actually happens, but considering the law of averages, I’ll take her word for it]
- I’m angry that in Salt Lake City Utah, 40 percent of all homeless teenagers are gay–most of them kids who have been kicked out of their house by their Mormon parents.
- I am enraged at priests who rape children and tell them that it’s God’s will [note; not so sure that the priests who have abused children have used that excuse, but I’ll take her word for it]. I’m angry at…the Catholic Church that consciously, deliberately, repeatedly for years acted to protect these priests who raped children; and deliberately acted to keep as a secret. I’m angry that they placed the church’s reputation [as] a higher priority than [the] sake of children not being raped.
- I’m angry that when I wrote the piece on my blog about atheists and anger, I got comments telling me, “It’s a pity your mother didn’t have an abortion. I hope some guys bomb your house. Just kill yourself, okay?”
Christina goes on with more, including things in which conservative Christians might disagree, but progressive Christians would agree.
Before I continue her quote, let me say that I can’t completely disagree with that statement, either. And it’s hard for me to know where to go from here. The reason why, is that in order to truly give an answer to her questions, she would have to believe in the supernatural (1 Peter 5:8; Eph. 6:12; John 8:43-45). In fact, continuing her speech, she goes on to define religion as, “a belief in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces and events and judgments that happen after we die. It therefore has no reality check and it is therefore uniquely armored against criticism, against questioning, and against self-correction. It’s uniquely armored against anything that might stop it from spinning off into extreme absurdity, extreme denial of reality, and extreme grotesque immorality.“
Of course, she forgets that we have something called a Bible and theology, and structures that maintain a good, coherent (though not always perfect) set of checks and balances. Which is also the premise of The First Amendment.
She goes on to say: “You know disbelief [in] unverifiable supernatural entities–the thing that uniquely defines religion, that makes religion what religion is–that is exactly what cranks up its capacity to do harm to an alarmingly high level because there’s no reality check.”
But yes, Greta, we do have a reality check. Actually, a couple. Both of them, I have already mentioned. The first is the story of Christ, himself. What was his personal experience with the religion of his day, and how did he handle it?
The best way to illustrate this is to read Matthew 23 in its entirety. For the sake of brevity, I’ll link it here. And then, a few chapters later, in Matthew 26, we read this: “When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 5 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
And of course, a good, thorough rereading of the entire gospels will give you a much greater understanding of Jesus’ fight against religion.
To give you a little further insight, here’s what gotquestions.org had to say about the religion of Jesus’ day:
In the Gospels, the Pharisees are often presented as hypocritical and proud opponents of Jesus. The Lord stated it bluntly: “They do not practice what they preach” (Matthew 23:3). As a general rule, the Pharisees were self-righteousness and smug in their delusion that they were pleasing to God because they kept the Law—or parts of it, at least. As Jesus pointed out to them, however scrupulous they were in following the finer points of ritualism, they failed to measure up to God’s standard of holiness: “You have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness” (verse 23).
In another post, gotquestions had this to say about the Sanhedrin:
The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel, made up of 70 men and the high priest…In the New Testament, the Sanhedrin is best known for their part in the series of mock trials that resulted in the crucifixion of Jesus. The Sanhedrin began with an informal examination of Jesus before Annas, the acting high priest (John 18:12-14, 19-23), followed by a formal session before the entire Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:57-68). There the decision was made to turn Jesus over to the Roman authorities to be tried and crucified.
Now, of course, I’m just giving examples of Christianity, and that’s simply because I’m writing a blog post, not a book.
The second reality check regarding what Christina misses is that there are many of us who are (though not perfect), good, decent, honorable people who, through the help of that entity or force that is, “invisible, inaudible, intangible and otherwise undetectable by any natural means,” aka The Holy Spirit who dwells within us, changes us from the inside out. As mentioned, we also have other means of checks and balances, that is, a good and right interpretation of The Bible that comes from a lineage of trusted, time-tested theology from trusted, time-tested sources. We have a heritage of great theologians, pastors, Bible study and Sunday School teachers, parents, friends, and a host of other forms of ministry in which we can rely. And if some church is dangerous, hovering on (or crossing into) cultism, we have a right and a duty to call it out and to leave that church for another.
Now, to give her some benefit of the doubt, she may have some respect for true Christians who walk the walk, and because of the subject and time restraints of her lecture, she may have skipped over that. At any rate, Christina, and other angry atheists alike, should see, hear and know that we are not all bad. None of us are perfect, and there have been a lot of true Christians who have inadvertently been “Jerks for Jesus,” but it should be noted that we often live and learn from our mistakes. And that’s where grace comes in.
And that is what it all boils down to, Charlie Brown–the grace of God. We Christians do not rely on a list of do’s and don’t’s so much as God, himself–The Holy Spirit–to transform us into the image of Christ. And those churches without the Spirit are in danger of becoming the religion that hated him. This is why we Christians disdain being called, ‘religious.’ We know the difference between religion and Christ.
Though we have churches, traditions, liturgies, hymns, sacraments, and the like, a true follower of Christ, born anew and filled with The Holy Spirit, actually abhors religion possibly as much as an atheist.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on A Closer Look
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