NOM’s executive director Brian Brown wrote this about Good Friday:
This is the day I am asked contemplate the way in which my sins–my own sins–crucified my Lord and my God. What a horrifying thought. What a black day. God who came down to dwell among us, tortured, humiliated, executed among criminals as a criminal.
Brian Brown wasn’t even born when Jesus was crucified. Yet he’s somehow responsible for the event. I suppose some might say that God, with His infinite knowledge, knew of Brian’s sins long before he committed them, and that Christ’s sacrifice was necessary to atone for sins that God knew he would someday commit.
This is where literal Christianity breaks down for me. I was raised Catholic by devout parents who made us students of the faith, but I could never reconcile human free will with an all-powerful, all-knowing God who is the source of all that exists. On the simplest level, the contradiction seems obvious: if an all-powerful God has all the power, then humans can have none.
But suppose, in a mystery of faith, God can endow humans with free will anyway, I still don’t see how that leaves room for personal responsibility. We’re saying that God created the world – and free will – knowing how it would turn out (He is all-knowing, right?). He could have created a different world — any world he wanted — but this is the one he chose. If He is the creator of all things, with infinite knowledge of what will happen, then surely He holds all responsibility.
And then there’s the concept of God knowingly – and therefore deliberately – creating a world populated with imperfect beings who will eventually have to be saved through an incarnation of Himself as a man coming to Earth to suffer enormous torment. It doesn’t make sense to me.
On the other hand…
Religions exist not because they make sense, but because they touch genuine psychological needs. They offer metaphorical wisdom, not literal fact. A Jungian atheist can see great value in the Christ story because it speaks to our need to be forgiven, to feel less alienated from ourselves, and to live out our great potential if we can look beyond our conscious thoughts, our limited ideas of who we think should be or are doomed to be. Jungians see the unconscious as a source of power, wisdom, and terror. They want us to look beyond our immediate thoughts and pay attention to messages from that unconscious, integrating them with the conscious mind. They call this union the transcendent function, and they want to learn to give themselves over to it – just as Christians are to welcome Jesus into their hearts and surrender themselves to Him. Jungians actually study the Bible (and other sacred books) for secular psychological insight.
That’s just one example – one school of thought talking about one religion. But it points out the danger of dismissing the Bible or the Koran or the Vedas as worthless superstition. Books like these survive only if they help us understand the light and the dark within humanity. They give us powerful metaphors to describe our inner world.
Unfortunately, some people think they also literally describe the entire universe. And should be made into law.
There are many reasons why a person would believe in Christianity. Brian Brown seems to revel in an image of himself so wretched that God himself must be tortured, humiliated, and executed as a criminal before Brian can be redeemed. I can understand that. I have guilt. I’ve felt shame that I thoroughly deserved. I’ve wanted forgiveness. Sadly, it looks like Brian is so consumed with literal interpretation that there’s no room for anything else. His feeling of wretchedness isn’t assuaged by the wisdom of the Bible. He has to turn outward and find relief by advancing the Holy Book to the point where it becomes law enforced on everyone. He’s so ashamed of himself, he can’t let gays marry.
That’s why he can devote himself to spreading untruths that strip people of marriage, while having the audacity to fret that:
[H]uman beings wake up each day unable or unwilling to reach even minimal standards–thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not covet–much less the Great Commandments. Who can love one’s neighbor–the guy in the deli, much less the homeless person on the street–with the infinite love we bestow on ourselves? Who can match for others the human heart’s patient, constant, persistent desire that good be showered upon us, whether we deserve it or not?
It sounds like Brian would better find peace if he focused more on exploring his soul and less on advancing cruel legislation.
In any case, this is all just me musing on a random comment made by a troubled man. I wish we really did understand Brian Brown as confidently as I pretend above. Perhaps then we could help him instead of just opposing him.
The Bryans of the world are no different than people who fly planes into buildings in God’s name. “Blind faith” is so toxic. As humans we were all given a brain..to me it is a sin not to use it.
“And then there’s the concept of God knowingly – and therefore deliberately – creating a world populated with imperfect beings who will eventually have to be saved through an incarnation of Himself as a man coming to Earth to suffer enormous torment. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
What would you value more – someone who chose to love you, or someone who was genetically predisposed to blind obedience (like the Vorta and Jem’Hadar in Star Trek)?
Of course, that means that God is selfish, since to satisfy Her own personal desires She is causing suffering on a scale even the most depraved human could never hope to achieve. Somewhat of a bitter pill for Christians to swallow, huh? That probably explains why you NEVER see them discuss this inconvenient little truth – it would mean having to admit it exists. And as is common amongst religious people of all stripes, a great many Christians are passed masters at ignoring things like the truth when it gets in the way of their prejudices.
@ James Stone, Galileo said something similar:
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use”
Good people try to prevent evil. Bad people condone it. Evil people lie and try to convince us that the evil they do to others is in fact good.
As epicurus put it so well:”Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” Cicero famously declared, “The gods are forces and ideas made poetry for our instruction.” But despite their skepticism about established religion, no one presumed to accuse them of “incivility”.