Tuesday, April 18, 2006

The Theological Flamethrowers

Recently, one of my friends has been cajoled, emotional blackmailed and harassed into breaking up with her boyfriend on the basis that he is not Christian.

I just cannot understand the logic behind it. Apparently, the Church wants my friend to dump the poor guy because they are afraid that the guy will pull my friend away from God and straight down to Hell.

And you know what I think? I think it’s pure stupidity.

Firstly, to ditch someone is not a very nice thing to do, much less to say, a Christian thing. Secondly, if these so-called Christian think and call themselves saviors, messiahs and children of God, put on earth to spread His love and teachings, how can they judge one person from another? Just because you are not Christian, then suddenly you are this lesser being in God’s eyes? How do they know? Are all humans not born equal and hence are all children of God? Do they not wish for the ultimate salvation for everyone. Of course, in the eyes of Christians, the only means of salvation is through Christ, any other route will mean that you go straight to hell.

Which brings me to the question…Is Christianity just faith without good works? Apparently, true Christians have both faith and do good works. Bad, backslided Christians are those who only believe in blind faith. But since all is forgiven once you convert to Christianity and all Christians naturally go to heaven, does it really matter then if you do good works anyway? Afterall, as a Christian, you are already 1 step above the Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, etc. who may also be kind, meritorious and who do a lot of good. Does it mean that a bad Christian will be granted salvation over an atheist who does a lot of charity?

Does this make sense to you?

A staunch Christian once tried to explain to me why it was so crucial to believe in Christ. She gave me the analogy of a dripping a drop of ink into a glass of water. No matter how much water I add into the glass, the ink would still remain. Only by adding an external substance or chemical, can the ink be dissolved or removed. In this case, the ink was sin, and Christ was the external substance.

Yet, if you come to think of it, many different kinds of chemicals can get rid of ink in water. Similarly, there are numerous ways to attain Nirvana.

It could be the egoistic human in me that is talking…But I sincerely believe that since the Almighty created me with a brain, he had the intent for me to question. And if I question, and no satisfactory answer can be wrought, then is it truly a fault of mine that I cannot believe?


- audrey

XxX,

audrey at 17:41

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