I knew I'd talk about this sooner or later

Published on April 14, 2005 By MrBadAxe In Religion

3:15 am. 8 hours until my multivariable calculus homework is due. Been putting it off for...at least 6 hours. Partially becuase Jon and Dave next door got their old NES working and I spent the afternoon playing Megaman 3. I got as far as the 2nd-last boss before I decided to screw it and use the Game Genie. Because I wanted my storyline info.

So I've been doing what I normally do: taking the internet equivalent of a long, leisurely walk through a bright city. I visited a lot of old sites I haven't been to in a while. Re-read the PvP archives, read Moby's weblog, read my brother's blog at jnvreno.blogspot.com.

In his latest blog entry, he describes the five most annoying religions ever. Apparently they are, from 5 to 1, Scientology, Fundamentalist Islam, Confucianism, Mormonism, and Protestantism. The entry has been up fopr one week and has attracted one comment, quoted verbatim:

"U CNAT SAE TAHT ABOOT GOD HE N JESUS R GRAT! SHUT UP SATANST!!!!!!!"

Which brings me to the subject of this blog entry.

First of all, what my brother does is his fault. I may have started him along the path to his disapproval of protestant christianity, but the rest of it comes from Rolling Stone, The Nation, and the works of Al Franken and other left-wingers. Do I share his views? On some things. I will try to clarify, but first, a little background.

My mother went to a Catholic school, and my grandmother is a devout Catholic. My mother once told me that once when I was very young, she left my grandmother to babysit me, and during this time, she took me down to the church where the priest said a blessing for me. Lucky me. Currently, I classify myself as atheist-agnotic. Not completely atheist, not completely agnostic, somewhere between the two. I have been inside churches three times that I can remember: two were for weddings and the last was for a cheap amateur benefit concert. I have never attended an actual church service.

I refuse to use the capitalized "God," since we may have a goddess, or many gods. I will henceforth refer to the omnipotent, omnipresent, and/or omniscient force/entity, if there is one, as simply, "deity." I don't deny the existence of deity; it may very well exist. But so far, the three major western religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, have done a pretty piss-poor job of convincing me that their story is true. Science, on the other hand, has proven many things.

I'm not sure that my brother's detractor's comment was satirical or not. Either it's intentionally written that way, or its author is a computer n00b as evidenced by the misspellings, shorthand, and ALLCAPS.

What the hell is the deal about people talking about Jesus? My opinion is that Jesus Christ was a great man, worthy of praise, but not reverence. He should be an example, not an idol. Kind of like Gandhi. Yet people refer to Jesus as if he were God. (Again, maybe he is, but until I see proof, to quote Bill O'Reilly, "I ain't buying it.") People who refer to "The Baby Jesus" are even worse. The man is all grown up and dead now...I'd say that removes any possibility of being a 'baby.'

Often times, I believe in something only enough to make fun of it. I'd have to say this is one of my wittiest moments.

I was playing a game of Warcraft III (something to do while the World of Warcraft server is down). I was coming off of a 12-game losing streak in my favorite map, Footman Frenzy. At this point, I could tell this wasn't going to be a quiet game, since the n00bs were chattering away. Eventually, as it is bound to happen, someone called someone else a fag, which always annoys me, and I snapped. I delivered my standard interceding comeback, "You got something against gay people, purple?" (It's often too much effort to refer to someone by name, rather we refer to a player's units' color.) A comment later, I realized that it was Good Friday. so I said: "It's good friday! ya know what that means?" pause for emphasis, then I let loose with "Ding Dong, the Christ is dead, which old Christ? the Jesus Christ! Ding dong, the Jesus Christ is dead!" A bit immature, to be sure, and certainly somewhat offensive. Definately what you'd call a pice of flamebait. But it was supposedly true that Good Friday is the day that Jesus died during Crucifixion, so it was a rare piece of wit. Most of the players agreed, and responded with "lol", "rofl!" or the emoticon "

". Purple, on the other hand, responded with a less-than approving comment, to which I added, sort of to curb the flames, "What are you complaining about? He's coming back ina couple of days!" (referring, of course, to Easter Sunday.) I was in hysterics, as was my friend Burning_Cyclope, who was playing alongside me at the time.

What disturbed me was purple's response to my original parody of a Wizard of Oz song: "stfu u fucking jew." That and the response to my brother's entry always make me mad. People always assume that if you're not Christian, you're Jewish, or in some cases Satanist. The fact that some people consider being Jewish something to be reviled is repulsive. My friends Adam Cohen and Leonard Smith, both of whom are Jewish, would not approve.

The comment by the anonymous detractor is no better. Satanism is not an abhorrent, demonic cult. You are referring to devil-worship, which is basically believing in Christian lore and taking the opposite side. I could explain what Satanism really is, but why bother, when there are sites such as www.satanism101.com that could do it much more eloquently than I?

I've only touched on subjects that flooded into my mind upon reading the response. I haven't been able to focus, I've rambled a lot, and there's a lot more to be said, but I do need to finish my multivariable calculus homework so I can get some goddamn sleep.

Comments

preacherman

on Apr 14, 2005

Quote BadAxe "But so far, the three major western religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, have done a pretty piss-poor job of convincing me that their story is true. Science, on the other hand, has proven many things."

That is your main problem, religion can not convince any one of the reality of Christ. That only comes my friend when you come face to face with the fact that you are a sinner. It's the Brazen Serpent my friend.

Quote BadAxe "My opinion is that Jesus Christ was a great man, worthy of praise, but not reverence. He should be an example, not an idol. Kind of like Gandhi. Yet people refer to Jesus as if he were God."

Opinions are wothless unless they have foundation in something... The Word of God says He is God in the flesh. Quote BadAxe "Again, maybe he is"
It doesn't sound like you are very confident in your opinoins? The Word of God is very confident, and so are all the men and women that have proved Him time and time again.

Quote BadAxe "The man is all grown up and dead now"

Quite the contrary my friend, He was dead, buried, but now very much alive.... proof that He is God!

Quote BadAxe "Satanism is not an abhorrent, demonic cult. You are referring to devil-worship, which is basically believing in Christian lore and taking the opposite side."

You stated it is 3:15 AM, try getting some rest... your brain is not working well.

preacherman

2

MrBadAxe

on Apr 17, 2005

"That only comes my friend when you come face to face with the fact that you are a sinner."

Your definition of sin, of course, may vary. Also, what you do when you realize you're a sinner. Satanism preaches indulgence in the 7 deadly sins (Anger, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth, Avarice, and Vanity. but you should already know that, with a name like PREACHERman). Christianity demands that you feel regret for your misdeeds.

"He was dead, buried, but now very much alive.... proof that He is God!"

Alive, in the "he lives on in our hearts" sense, you mean. If he really were physically living, I'd imagine PAX-TV would run some Access Hollywood-style show that tracks the movements of Jesus around the globe. Religious paparazzi of sorts. How is this relevant? I don't know, I just felt like saying it. (I got a Jerry Seinfeld "what's the deal with this" streak in me.)

"It doesn't sound like you are very confident in your opinoins?"

Like you yourself said, "Opinions are wo[r]thless unless they have foundation in something." One opinion can't change the belief of millions. Yes, I do consider it opinion. If it can't be proven with logic, it's opinion.

ME: "Satanism is not an abhorrent, demonic cult. You are referring to devil-worship, which is basically believing in Christian lore and taking the opposite side."
YOU: "You stated it is 3:15 AM, try getting some rest... your brain is not working well."

First of all, I realize that I was paraphrasing from memory from having read this site or maybe one of the links from it, so yes, maybe my information was a little inaccurate. Point to you.

Second of all, please don't patronize me. I believe I provided a link, www.satanism101.com. Go there and read some things. Pleeeease. To give a brief synopsis, Satanism is of the empowerment of self, not of subservience to a demon lord. As taken from their site, they preach "indulgence, instead of abstinence," "vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams," "undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit," etc.

When you read it, then we can talk about the last subject. I'm only willing to see your side if you're willing to see mine.

Thank you for your comment, Mr. Preacherman. Debating is fun, and although I'm not an expert at it, I appreciate the opportunity for practice.

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