The extraordinary peculiarity of listening to adults talk seriously about God and Jesus in public never fails to strike me as being childlike; forgive me for the overt condescension. How does the 30-60-something-year-old find the enthusiasm to speak so fervently about a deity none of us have ever seen? How can two adults, before eating a meal stop to pray? I know the answer is faith, but I can’t relate to religious people who are otherwise apparently well-educated.
When I encounter middle-aged recovering drug addicts or alcoholics who are finding themselves in the hands of God, I understand that they have returned to the emotional age of when their addiction first took root. Listening to well-off adults discuss their spirit and baptism sends me reeling that they are seeing themselves as rational people steeped in reality. These very same people are quite content being dismissive of other religions as fantasy but find it sacrilegious when others challenge their own flavor of holy deity.
Worse is when listening to a group of older adults carry on about a pastor who they didn’t gel with at church earlier in the day. Their disdain and sanctimonious tone seem to me to be the most unchristian of ways to practice their religion. When I hear god-fearing people dismiss the homeless or less fortunate, I wonder what part of their dogma their dog ate for breakfast. And when I think I’ve heard it all, I find myself listening to the guy at the next table tell a young person how he’s operating with greater spiritual maturity than the kid due to his greater experience through his relationship with God. The hypocrisy of these numbskulls is simply not constrained.
So much judgment, wrath, and pride among people who claim to walk with Jesus. Tragic that they cannot fathom their own ugly bias but are prone to cast aspersions towards someone like me who is comfortable in his atheism. Then again, I suppose all they have to do is confess their sins to Jesus, and they can continue their own wicked ways while I, not having accepted Jesus as my personal savior, will be forever condemned.
The idea of punishment on the astral plane seems to be a relic of primitive people who never really matured much beyond their childhood. This reigning spirit in the sky playing the angry father figure who will deliver retribution for our transgressions is probably borne out of a need to give weight to authority, as contrary or disobedient persons can be threatened with the holy father who has jurisdiction over their soul.
We are, to an extent an archaic people wielding the advanced tools of exploration which allow us to peer into our own genetic building blocks and have looked back in time to interpret radiation spreading through the universe that helps explain the origins of matter. Yet we persist in carrying forward dated mythologies with no basis in anything that resembles facts.
How primitive we are that we have lofted so much irrelevant meaning not only on the symbols of religion but on the very tools we use on a daily basis. Many a person find a kind of holy affirmation when acquiring wealth and use their purchases as validation that they have achieved something that sets them apart. The car, house, designer clothes, and jewelry are nothing more than accessories that humanity has given false value to. The intangibles of intelligence, passion, empathy, and sharing play second fiddle to the outward glorifications of the self. I find this to be one of the greatest contradictions of the semblance of piousness from those who believe. When do we as a species transfer value from the unseen symbolic spirit world and objects of wealth to the demonstrable actions that arise from our work and efforts? In the modern world, beauty is not only skin deep it is the totality of our reality.