Freedom to Believe in Nothing: A Response to the Non-Believer’s view of Christian Politicians

by


words to this poem by Jeff Bethke can be found here

Couple thoughts:

  • Nobody follows a Nihilist to the death
  • Christianity, like Islam has become distorted in the secular eye. We don’t even see the pillars or truths anymore, just the exceptions. I have yet to see the true principles of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs find their way into government policy.
  • American Politicians aren’t religious. They are Capitalists, conmen, swindlers, impostor, deceiver, & double-dealers. In their arsenal, they carry a
    Fading into Nihilism

    Fading into Nihilism (Photo credit: bryankennedy)

    terrible group of lies to pitch their own egos/agendas. Unfortunately, at this point in time, we cannot count on our political system to pump out Capitalists who are righteous, religious men or women. Make no mistake about it – our judicial system is corrupt, our political system is corrupt.

  • Religious pluralism is the way to go. What’s also interesting is that: even believing in nothing is a religion/school of thought. We need to respect other schools of thought. There is a way to come to the table, respecting each others beliefs / belief systems.

“Now the other myth that gets around is the idea that legislation cannot really solve the problem and that it has no great role to play in this period of social change because you’ve got to change the heart and you can’t change the heart through legislation. You can’t legislate morals. The job must be done through education and religion. Well, there’s half-truth involved here. Certainly, if the problem is to be solved then in the final sense, hearts must be changed. Religion and education must play a great role in changing the heart. But we must go on to say that while it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me but it can keep him from lynching me and I think that is pretty important, also. So there is a need for executive orders. There is a need for judicial decrees. There is a need for civil rights legislation on the local scale within states and on the national scale from the federal government.” – Martin Luther King Jr. | goo.gl/dLYMo

The Jesus of the Bible calls us to carry His message, His Truth.  This is a world of the now, and of the temporary. Jesus was focused with the Kingdom of Heaven; which is infinite. Some of the things that we attribute to Christianity, aren’t actually concepts Jesus preached to his Disciples. There is needs to be a clean and definitive separation between what the Bible teaches us, and what people claiming to be Christians have done in the name of God. If I were to hold an atheist accountable for all the evils of those who didn’t believe in God – they wouldn’t like it very much.

What happens with the Atheist and the Agnostic is a sort of unaccountability through Nihilism. We see people who claim that they want the freedom to do whatever they want. They feel like they are being oppressed by a religious society who promotes ideas that their way of life is wrong, or unrighteous.  Since Nihilists aren’t really concerned with being righteous for a higher power or a creator god, this conflicts.  Friedrich Nietzsche calls for the Atheist to rise out of Nihilism, like a phoenix and start making his/her own belief system. The media has become the Church of the Atheist and Agnostic. It is the colosseum of old. A warehouse of secular thought at your fingertips. Tread carefully when you are mixing politics and religion – because it’s a thick briar patch, with sharp thorns.

So many people who call themselves Christians haven’t even read the Bible. They are spoon fed this political ideology which they think comes from the Good Book, but is twisted, and sterilized. The religious have principles they are fighting for, and the chaos of a world that doesn’t believe in honorable or righteous principles for their citizens. Some Christians have also wrapped up religion into their political campaigns and strategy. Many are pushing agendas that fly in the face of what freedom is, or what protection means. And many still are focused on profit, and political gain, rather than the glory of God, or good will towards others.

Jesus argued in the Sermon on the Mount that His followers were to be “salt” and “light” (Matthew 5:13, 14). “Salt” in Jesus’ day was used as a preservative for food stuffs. “Light” dispels the darkness. John R.W. Stott, rector emeritus of All Souls Church in London says of this text: “The function of salt is largely negative: it prevents decay. The function of light is positive: it illumines the darkness. So Jesus calls his disciples to exert a double influence on the secular community, a negative influence by arresting its decay and a positive influence by bringing light into darkness. For it is one thing to stop the spread of evil; it is another to promote the spread of truth, beauty and goodness. Putting the two metaphors together, it seems legitimate to discern in them the proper relationship between evangelism and social action in the total mission of Christ in the world.” goo.gl/Zr3xf

What I would like see happening is an Atheist and Agnostic society who moves beyond the Nihilism of the Madman by Frederich Nietschze.

We need to truly look into ourselves and find out what we truly believe in. It’s not my commission to make you believe in my God, but to hold my ground and testify His truth when the moment calls for it. And i’m not going to tell you that what you believe is not sin, if my God says it is – but what I will do, is fight for your right to be equal on this earth. I will fight for religious pluralism. Because that is love. That is the message of the Good Samaritan. Love thy neighbor, Jesus says. I believe the more you research Jesus Christ, the more you will find a love that goes beyond anything you have ever experienced.

The above post was written mostly as a response to anti-Christian, and anti-religion sentiments found in the media (surrounding politics). It was directly after reading this post by Wil Wheaton that I felt propelled to pen something down. It is this author’s opinion that religious pluralism is beneficial, because it allows a space for all belief systems to equally share their opinions. Life sometimes gets in the way of this – and I realize that people have very emotional connections for and against religious and political affiliations.

Dear Wil Wheaton, I appreciate your quick wit & humor, I respect your thoughts. #TheWesleyCrushers
(this is a response to a number of things, but written directly after reading this post goo.gl/KebJb by Wil Wheaton – i’ve added a quote of his Google+ post the below the horizontal line.)

Wil Wheaton's profile photo
Wil Wheaton  -  9:09 AM  -  Public

Caution: contains political thoughts.

I’ve been thinking:

  • - If government was acting in the public — and not the corporate — interest, #Occupy wouldn’t be necessary.
  • - If journalists were adversaries to the rich and powerful — instead of their stenographers – #Wikileaks wouldn’t be necessary.
  • - It’s pretty unbelievable to me that a group of people who covered up pedophile priests for decades has any moral authority at all.
  • - I keep hearing conservatives complaining about government intruding on their religious freedoms. It’s hard to take them seriously when they’re doing everything they can to impose their narrow beliefs on the rest of us.
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4 thoughts on “Freedom to Believe in Nothing: A Response to the Non-Believer’s view of Christian Politicians”

  1. Pingback: Twins « Trutherator's Weblog

  2. i wanted to add this on Google+, but thought better of to place it here:

    +big bang theory +Sheldon Cooper: (realizing he’s been had yet again) Wheeeeatoooon!

    So +Wil Wheaton posts a political rant about #Occupy #occupywallstreet, #wikileaks, #Pedophile #Priest #Coverups, #religious #freedoms imposed by governments and he gets over a 1k +1 on Google Plus. Awesome.

    I thought about what you said, Mr. Wheaton. I really like what +Leonidas Prime was putting down in your comments.

    My response targets this idea i inferred from your post that your religious principles are being jeopardized by an onslaught of narrow minded conservatives (ie people of faith based belief systems).

    Calm it down Wheaton. You OBVIOUSLY have a voice. I’d like to see the #atheists and #agnostics who are all #No8 & #prolife to start showing some of the same #tolerance they require others to lend them; especially to those who have faith based belief systems. Even if they have pervy priests.

    To the pervy priests [idk why police haven't locked these guys up yet] & the homophobic faith based believers: YER NOT HELPING!!
    #COEXIST #religiouspluralism #OCCUPY

    more here : http://wp.me/poxst-2qW

  3. Well, there are a number of things wrong with this post and i would like to address a few of them. First, while Nihilism is atheism, atheism is not Nihilism. Nietzsche did call for the Atheists to rise OUT of Nihilism, like a phoenix and start making our own belief system. Humanism is that system, but not all atheists are Humanists. Most vocal atheists in America today are however. We are far from being Nihilistic.

    As an atheist, I respect people, but not the ridiculous beliefs some people hold. This really isn’t that controversial when you think about it. If someone told you Elvis was alive and well and working at the local convenience store, would you respect that belief? Do you respect Tom Cruise’s belief that there is an evil galactic overlord named Xenu, out to get him? I simply view Christianity in this same light. You have to at least admit that the Christian story is a bit far fetched. Some dude was born of a virgin, walks on water, raises people from the dead and raised himself from the dead… etc. God is so all-powerful, but he lets millions of people suffer and die horribly? Then there is the whole heaven/hell stuff. Kinda silly when you think about it objectively. Plus, there is no evidence fr any of it. That’s really got to bother you.

    Anyway, moving on to your claim that politicians aren’t “true Christians.” This is just the “No True Scotsman” defense. The fact is that no Christian truly follows the Bible. Wen you start stoning people to death for working on the Sabbath, then you can complain about others not following the Bible. You all just pick and choose and then find ways to justify your choices.

    Think about it.

    • What do you believe in? There seems to be a lack of reciprocity on this front. The Bible is a number 1 bestseller, and has been for decades. There is more written & documented evidence that Jesus Christ existed than there is that you exist. The Bible is published in multiple languages, and spans the globe.

      Something interesting that happens when you speak to an Atheist, you rarely truly understand where their belief system stems from. Though, they feel very comfortable quoting (or misquoting) the scriptures out of context and assigning traits which modern society scoffs at. The more intellectual the Atheist, the quicker we can look at documented philosophies from philosophers we can easily find taught in schools a crossed the nation – which narrow down their belief system.

      Once this occurs, we can evenly express concerns over causes the other has that are in conflict with our ethics. It seems as if Atheists like to remain in the shadows, unaccountable for any position – other than the one that states that they have the “freedom” to do as they please.

      Many Atheists fall into the pitfall of trying to escape philosophy as much as those Christians who don’t read the Bible or study up on other religions try and escape theology. People who call themselves Christians, who don’t follow the teachings of Jesus Christ should be called something else. Is it wrong for me to assume Atheists without a belief system are Nihilists? I am merely using these OED words to identify a separation in beliefs.

      Another thing that Atheist’s lean on is this secular (anti-religious) version of modern science. This assumption that science trumps God, that modern science has everything figured out, and that science isn’t many theories and positions that agree, disagree, and overlap at different degrees – but one consistent law which has calculated all the variables.

      In many atheists, modern science is god. It’s interesting, how magic, science and god are intertwined in this school of thought.

      What are your thoughts?

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