"Good Without God" Doesn't Make Anyone A Threat To Christians
All we want is to live and believe as we see fit
All great truths begin as blasphemies
George Bernard Shaw
I believe in God, only I spell it “Nature.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
I remember when I first met my wife’s family, and they learned that I don’t believe in God. Her parents were quite surprised. They weren’t at all certain how to process the news that the man their daughter was dating was- GASP!- an atheist. A couple of her then-pre-teen nieces probably thought there might be something wrong with me when they said they’d pray for me. I told them I thought I was pretty OK…but that I appreciated help from whatever quarter it came.
Once everyone got to know me, they learned that my being good without God wasn’t a congenital disability. There wasn’t something “wrong” with me; I just didn’t share their belief in a supreme being. I made it clear that I respected their faith and hoped they would show me the same courtesy, which has proven to be the case over the years. They’ve never tried to convert me, and I don’t ridicule their faith.
I’m not going to change their minds. They’re not going to change my mind. But, we respect each other’s beliefs because, from my perspective, I see people who endeavor to live their faith. Lord knows the world is hardly suffering from an oversupply of people like that these days, right?
To me, that’s the perfect arrangement. I don’t care what others believe, as long as they don’t attempt to force their beliefs on me or judge me by those beliefs. Erin’s family is an example of people who hold strong religious beliefs and endeavor to live them. I can get behind that even if I don’t share those beliefs. I think this world would be a far better place if more of the faithful made a legitimate effort to live their convictions.
What is religious faith at its most basic but doctrine that revolves around peace, love, and understanding? Most religious doctrine is about making our world a better, kinder, more accepting, and tolerant place. Those are qualities this world can use more of, so if people of faith choose to model those things, why wouldn’t I support that?
Instead, I see a world where too many of the faithful exhibit mouths filled with Scripture and hearts suffused with hate. I see “Christians” in this country who profess to revere and worship Jesus Christ…and yet refuse to acknowledge, much less follow most of His teachings. They claim the imprimatur of the Prince of Peace, but their attitude and behavior are decidedly un-Christ-like.
Religion and religious faith are private and should be left to the individual. Instead, they’ve been co-opted by institutions primarily concerned with profit and social control. Doctrine has been weaponized to oppress the faithless and maintain dominion over the faithful. That weaponization removes any hint of free will or free thought.
Modern Christianity, especially the Evangelical variety, has been so thoroughly weaponized that its raison d’ etre has become the aggregation and consolidation of political power. They reject the separation of Church and State because to their way of thinking, Church and State should be indistinguishable.
That might be true if your goal is to recreate Gilead, the fictional hyper-Christian slice of America from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. But if you believe that God and government should be separate, you’re losing influence to those convinced their god should be our government.
Those of us who consider ourselves to be good without God just want to be left to live our lives as we see fit. Our lack of belief in a Christian god- or in any Supreme Being- only means that we live in what we consider an evidence-based world and that faith is not in our arsenal. We believe what we can see and what can be proven.
We grant you your right to believe as you see fit. All we ask is the same in return.
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