Re: Discrimination against Christians
- From: CE <jlrisdon@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:52:50 -0000
On 6 juil, 12:41, Serendipity <sweetmar...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
My boyfriend once said to me that he has always felt discriminated
against because of his faith. For a while, I wasn't sure what he
meant. After all, a large majority of people on earth believe in a
god of some kind, and in America, it seems that everyone is
Christian. However, as I began to embrace my faith, I realized that
he is right. True, many people in America would identify themselves
as Christian. But what does that mean? They believe in God, and
Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. But far too many continue to live their
lives in whatever way they desire, refusing to help others, fighting
the things they think are wrong with hatred and violence. And those
who try to live their life in a Christian way are often looked down on
as the "freaky religious type". This happened to me just the other
day. I realized recently that I didn't have a copy of the Bible. I
have a copy at my parents' house, but it is rather large and heavy and
so I left it there when I moved for graduate school. So I decided to
go buy a copy. Even standing in the bookstore looking at Bibles, I
could see people walk by and look at me like I was the strangest
person they'd ever seen. The sales clerk was friendly as I walked up
to the counter, but became suddenly quite when I put the Bible in
front of her. Perhaps I'm just being sensitive, or my own
insecurities were affecting how I perceive the behavior of others.
But I just couldn't help but feel that I was being judged.
Unfortunately, this message board hasn't helped ease my discomfort
with how people feel about Christians. For every message on this
board that talks about faith and morality, there is a message calling
us "cultists" or "amoral". For every message from someone professing
their belief in God, there is another from someone saying that God is
a myth and that we need to be deprogrammed. I'm not going to tell
people how to live or what they should believe. I just know that I
personally can't go through life believing in nothing. I can't
believe that there is not some higher purpose. Otherwise, what's the
point? I am a scientist and I believe that science is one of the best
ways of finding out about our world. But until we can find a way to
test scientifically if there is or is not a God, then no one can
criticize me for my beliefs because those who are not Christian are
basing their conclusions on their own beliefs. As far as I'm
concerned, there is no definitive evidence either way. All we have
are beliefs. I believe that there is a higher power. Others believe
that there is not higher power. You can use logic and anecdotal
evidence all you want, but you can't prove or disprove anything. So
being atheist is not much different than being religious, in that it's
about what you believe to be true based on a subjective view of
reality.
Even if you look at religion from a scientific standpoint, there is
evidence that believing in some kind of higher power makes you feel
happier and more fulfilled in life. I was an atheist for a while, but
I kept wrestling with the question of, "If there is not God, then how
did we get here?" I was depressed, for more reasons than just a lack
of faith. Now, I've changed many things in my life, including my
religious beliefs and I don't feel depressed anymore. I'm not saying
that people with mental illness need to just get religion and they'll
"snap out of it". There are people who are genuinely mentally ill and
need help from doctors and therapists, not priests and pastors. I
don't believe that illness is a punishment for something, so you need
more than just faith to take it away. But for me, it was something I
needed to change in my life to get myself out of the hole I'd gotten
myself into.
I know that people say the two things we should never talk about are
religion and politics. But why can't we? If people are just going to
start calling each other names, then, okay, I guess we should talk
about other things. But why can't we actually have a civil discussion
about one of these topics? Why does this message board have to
involve people calling each other "cultists" or "puke" or
"uneducated"?
Why can't we talk about something like religion without
having to make it a personal attack on people who don't believe what
you believe?
We can. I've had many wonderful conversations with educated muslims,
jews, atheists and buddhists in which we examined our different
religious beliefs. Often, these discussions were passionate. Most of
the time, everyone left still believing the same thing as when they
had arrived. But there was usually a new appreciation for the other's
religious beliefs and, quite often, a new appreciation for our own
beliefs. There were never any arguments or insults the like of which
seem to be common here.
You have to keep in mind that a lot of people who post on newsgroups
do so simply to antagonize others. Their sport is to annoy people and
often they'll try to provoke a reaction with insults and lies. It's my
impression that the people who take part in this kind of behaviour
would never dare actually say anything like this in public. For one
thing, I'm sure they'd be afraid of getting punched in the face if
they were ever that vulgar and disrespectful in person.
These people are not indicative of the mainstream society's attitude
towards religion.
In society at large, many people who are not themselves practicing
Christians or believers of some other faith still retain a certain
respect and admiration for those who do pray, take the time to explore
their spirituality and examine these first-order questions like: Why
am I here?
Rest assured that you and your boyfriend are not freaks - and you're
probably not considered to be freaks by the vast majority of the
population. The reaction of the bookseller to your purchase of a bible
may have been the result of any number of things. That person could,
for example, have suddenly thought to themselves that they hadn't read
the bible themselves in far too long. Maybe they wondered what it was
about the bible that attracted you to it - and, if you were attracted
to its message, perhaps they should be too. Perhaps the bookseller,
seeing a fellow Christian or believer, wanted to discuss a particular
point that was nagging at them but did not feel permitted to do so
because of a workplace policy. Or, if the bookseller was an atheist or
agnostic, perhaps she felt a certain respect for you since you were
now about to examine your own beliefs by reading the bible for
yourself. Hey, for all you know, the sales clerk was a student of
comparative literature at the local university and was just dying to
tell you about how the theme of the Song of Songs was made into this
great, modern lyrical poetry. Or the sales clerk might have been a
philosophy student and wanting to discuss Neitzche's philosophy and
how it relates to the historical Jesus.
Is there discrimination against Christians? In some countries,
undoubtedly. In some places, sneaking in a bible or trying to discuss
the Christian faith can get you killed. In our society, there are
undoubtedly some people who would love to snub Christians or make fun
of them. But this is a very small minority in our society. Even among
atheists, you have to make a distinction between the intelligent
atheist and the yahoo pretenders who hurl out insults based on
nonsense they picked up on other web sites. Most atheists will not
discriminate against you because of your religious beliefs; they'll
only get annoyed if you disrespectfully try to ram your religious
beliefs down their throat.
.
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