Got Jeebus
10/12/06 13:15
A very
spiritual friend of mine dropped me an e-mail about
the site. She writes:
Sometimes I think you want God in your life...You want someone to give you concrete evidence that God is truly there...I really do wish... that I could describe to you...what it feels like in my heart to believe in the Lord, to know a greater power and know that there is something wonderful in store for me when I leave this earth.
She’s projecting more than a little there, but it’s a classic example of what I like about religious individuals. In singles and small groups they are kind and caring and they have the best of intentions. But as any group of religious individuals grows, at some point a sort of critical mass is reached and the benevolence seems to fall away as the focus changes from sharing their beliefs with others to imposing them on every one. Apparently the crazy is cumulative
As for that feeling of awe and wonder that comes with belief with a capital b, I have actually felt that before (I was once a Baptist), but it wore off rather quickly when, at the age of 12 or 13, I set out to read the bible and found it didn’t actually live up to the hype. It was obvious right away that it wasn’t actually the word of some all-powerful being. It’s too full of contradictions and mistakes and hatred and bloodthirsty violence to be anything other than what it is, ancient writings by men seeking to justify their positions of authority. I put it down somewhere in the latter half of the Old Testament and never felt the need to pick it up again.
I do still get that feeling of awe though, when I ponder the immensity of the universe. I think about the fact that there are something like 70 trillion stars out there and all of life as we know it is concentrated in a thin film on the surface of one small planet circling one small star in one small galaxy on the outskirts of the whole thing. I am awed by my own insignificance. My idea of heaven would be to get to see some of that vastness up close. My friend means well, but her god is too small for me.
Sometimes I think you want God in your life...You want someone to give you concrete evidence that God is truly there...I really do wish... that I could describe to you...what it feels like in my heart to believe in the Lord, to know a greater power and know that there is something wonderful in store for me when I leave this earth.
She’s projecting more than a little there, but it’s a classic example of what I like about religious individuals. In singles and small groups they are kind and caring and they have the best of intentions. But as any group of religious individuals grows, at some point a sort of critical mass is reached and the benevolence seems to fall away as the focus changes from sharing their beliefs with others to imposing them on every one. Apparently the crazy is cumulative
As for that feeling of awe and wonder that comes with belief with a capital b, I have actually felt that before (I was once a Baptist), but it wore off rather quickly when, at the age of 12 or 13, I set out to read the bible and found it didn’t actually live up to the hype. It was obvious right away that it wasn’t actually the word of some all-powerful being. It’s too full of contradictions and mistakes and hatred and bloodthirsty violence to be anything other than what it is, ancient writings by men seeking to justify their positions of authority. I put it down somewhere in the latter half of the Old Testament and never felt the need to pick it up again.
I do still get that feeling of awe though, when I ponder the immensity of the universe. I think about the fact that there are something like 70 trillion stars out there and all of life as we know it is concentrated in a thin film on the surface of one small planet circling one small star in one small galaxy on the outskirts of the whole thing. I am awed by my own insignificance. My idea of heaven would be to get to see some of that vastness up close. My friend means well, but her god is too small for me.
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