I totally hear you. There are things that I disagree with other believers on; but on the central aspects – the coming and teachings of Christ, mainly – we serve the same God. All else, I think, falls behind.

I just wanted to add that I’m a Christian and I still totally believe in evolution. Personally, I don’t think that the creation story in Genesis was written with the intent of being taken literally. Rather, it was meant to teach spiritual truths, like those about the relationship between God and man. When we insist that “the world was created in seven days and animals on one of them,” we miss the point. It seems awfully convenient that 7, in the Hebrew mindset, represented perfection, that it took 6 days to create (6 had the opposite meaning of 7), and that on the 7th day, God rested… (yes, even God rested!). So instead, I say we look at what that means in our own lives. It’s much more productive, I think, as a metaphor and teaching device than it is as a topic to argue with scientists about.

I agree with you very strongly about doubting. Nothing should be accepted as truth unless it can be proven (or inferred on something that is proven). And we shouldn’t be supporting radicals, which is inevitable if we don’t question our faith.

However, I disagree that any faith, even moderate, is preventing us from valuing human life on earth. In fact, I believe that it’s quite the opposite. Read Isaiah 58. Actually, I’ll post it below.

I love this chapter because I feel like God (through Isaiah) is telling religious observers of the faith exactly what many atheists are. (God would make a very good atheist, if I might say so myself.) Namely, he’s telling them that if they want to truly love him, they need to stop making displays of their faith and start looking out for human life on this earth.

Where was I going with this… oh yes. Religion, I believe, tells us what we knew all along: human life is valuable. Without it, we can still logically prove that looking out for others is better for each individual and for society as a whole than is disregarding others. But religion says that this is how the Creator wants it to be, and Christianity further tells us that the Creator wants us to genuinely love valuing human life – to love Him by loving others. Beyond that, Christianity says that rather than deny us free will, He led by example. It’s about valuing human life AND valuing God, or having a relationship with Him.

Hrmph. I feel like I’ve left something out. Anyway. I feel that doubting should bring us to a moderate faith, one that is on fire (FOR others, not against them), but not radical in the sense that you mean it.

Isaiah 58:
1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Personally, I think that this kid was most likely likely mentally ill. Someone like him would have probably found some reason to be angry with the world and seek revenge on it, even without a religious-purity motivation. Like Virginia Tech, for example. I think that horrible crimes like these are more about human nature than anything else, which is ironically what Christianity tries to bring the best out of.

Although, I have to say, with many of the more rational people, that may not be the case. I think that with rational people, religion is more likely to be the cause of judgmentalism.

It’s hard to know. I honestly think that it’s a mixed bag. Having an establishment (like Christianity) there to help us understand God really does work in some ways; in my experience, it sure beats “leaning on my own understanding” (or just going with whatever I come up with) because I have the wisdom and hindsight of hundreds of people over thousands of years to give me a more complete perspective on who God is and how humans should act. At the same time, though, the usage of an establishment can also take us away from serving God and make us focus on serving the establishment itself. But the true purpose of the establishment ought to be serving God, not furthering itself… and furthering itself quickly conflicts with loving others.

“I think we should speak up and stop pretending that because of these sick people we can’t judge the whole religion organization.”

My goal is the solution of coexistence. But to do that, we have to get past the antagony and start respecting each other. I know I’m not perfect at it, but can we please at least make a joint effort?

I feel like Christians are stereotyped. Yes, there are those who call names, want forced prayer, and loudly express their opinions in negative ways; there are those who think that anyone who disagrees with them is stupid.

There are also those who don’t call names, who firmly believe in separation of church and state, and who express their opinions primarily in leading by example (namely, by caring for other people, including those they disagree with). There are those who think that anyone who disagrees with them has an equally valid point of view.

From my understanding, the purpose of Christianity is to produce little Christs (Christian means “little Christ,” in fact). That entails loving God and loving others. Along with that underlying spirit come a number of teachings (ie., don’t commit adultery, and “we are saved by faith through grace, not works.”) The teachings, however, can be abused by people who take them and leave the spirit of loving others behind. That’s how we get protesters who hold signs on street corners that say “God hates fags” when, in fact, the Bible says that God loves everyone (including homosexuals) and that all sins are equal (if God did hate homosexuals, then he would hate the people holding the signs, too). It’s easy to take the letter of the law and, at the same time, to completely miss its spirit.

To protest the fact that Christianity produces people who abuse its teachings – who take the letter of the law and miss its spirit – is like saying that allowing citizens to own guns in the United States results in more criminals with guns, and more murders as a result; it’s also like saying that teaching people to write directly result in graffiti. It’s a completely valid argument that it’s not a good program if people are abusing it; but at the same time, it’s only one side of the situation. You have to look at the other side, too: the positive fruits of the effort. With those examples, allowing guns produces citizens like me who are safer because we legally have a gun (our neighbor, a 2-strike felon who decided not to like us, has guns regardless of their legality); and teaching literacy produces a body of educated and productive citizens that benefits society more than graffiti weighs it down. With Christianity, it’s the people who give money to charities, who pour out their time helping others, who manage their frustrations in ways that respect other people, and who believe in things such as sex within marriage alone (sex=children, and research shows that children fare much better with a stable home and both a mom and a dad in that home than with any other arrangement – if you are going to create the child [or, have sex], then you have a duty to take care of the child [or, hang around after sex, which part of the idea behind marriage]; the baby didn’t ask to be created, after all).

There are two sides to this argument, and they both need to be addressed. Not all Christians go to work with a gun and the intent of killing all the “heathens” they meet. Remember, Christian means “little Christ;” and the Big Christ himself rebuked his disciple Peter when he cut an ear off of one of the men who came to crucify Christ. (John 18:10-11) From that perspective, that Christian wasn’t being a little Christ when he came to work that day hating others. He had missed the point.

Again, there are two sides. To stereotype Christians one way or the other simply isn’t fair. But I really feel that when a program is producing two different groups of people, there’s something to be said for which group it intends to produce. And Christ said, “Go make disciples,” not “Go make gun men.” (Matthew 28:19)